The Pellet Estate is a spectacular vineyard site in the small town of St. Helena, with a rich history dating back to 1859. Henry Pellet, one of the founding pioneers of Napa Valley winemaking, first planted this site with a vision of producing wines that would be among the best in the world.

The Pellet Vineyard’s origin begins in 1863 with the purchase of 45 acres of land in the Southwest corner of St. Helena that was filled with Manzanita brush Pellet cleared and planted to 38 acres of vines. During the 1870’s, Pellet expanded to a wine cellar under the name of Pellet & Carver, with an on-site capacity of 80,000 gallons that was partially underground. Throughout the following decades, the vineyard continued to produce quality crops over various ownership changes. Today the vineyard produces about equal amounts of Clone 4 and Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon, and small amounts of Merlot and Petit Verdot.

Winemaking at Pellet Estate is led by the notable Tom Rinaldi. Raised in San Francisco, Tom made frequent trips to Napa on his motorcycle, buying wines directly from the wineries of the day. After four years in the Navy, Tom enrolled at UC Davis along with notable classmates Mike Martini, Tim Mondavi, Randy Dunn, and Bob Levy.
Eric Risch oversees the winemaking direction and portfolio, day to day winery operations, and sales and marketing. Eric is an entrepreneur with careers at Wells Fargo Bank, the R&D division of Apple Computer, and Medior, Inc. and founder of Grapevine, a corporation that grew to be one of the top eight web marketing firms in the Bay Area in just six years serving start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies.