R.W. Moore Vineyard, Coombsville, Napa Valley

Historic Hagen Road runs east-west across Napa Valley’s Coombsville Appellation. Close to San Francisco Bay, this newly recognized rural district near the city of Napa is quickly gaining recognition for producing many elegant, polished, and finely balanced wines from many varieties–red and whites–that speak to the region’s cool and hilly conditions in southern Napa Valley.

The Moore Vineyard lies smack dab in the middle of the Coombsville district on Hagen Road–adjacent to Sarcos Creek with a looming Mt. George to the east. Over 150 years, the property passed through a colorful succession of old Napa names. Italian immigrant grocer Felix Borreo grew fruits and vegetables there in the 1870s. The property, which was a larger tract in those days, then changed ownership twice for as much as $10,000. In 1895 Julia Gift “gifted” the property, according to the deed, to a San Francisco woman named Orpha Fulton “for love and affection.”

As the world entered the twentieth century, this is where a seafarer by the name of Pleasant Ashley Stevens planted vines in 1905 and remains the oldest vineyard in the sub-AVA. Most of those vines still exist today due to the dedicated farming and wisdom of Bill Moore, a retired orthodontist, who purchased the property as his first home in the 1980s. Bill Moore over the ensuing years, has lovingly preserved and restored the vineyard. His interest in hands-on farming and keeping history alive is in perfect alignment with our mission and we look forward to producing many memorable wines from this historic site together.

This vineyard is especially important to the wine industry now as its genetic heritage is being carefully preserved and propagated through the U.C. Davis Heritage Vineyard project. In other words, the genetic material from these historic vines is being saved for future generations of winemakers. In the meantime, we get to enjoy the immense pleasures that this Zinfandel brings.