Napa Valley Reserve

A six liter bottle of “Tradition” from the Napa Valley Reserve vineyard in St. Helena, California. 

Under the Napa Valley Reserve rules, this wine cannot be sold.  In other words, as detailed further below, this wine is one of the most exclusive wines in America—and you will not be able to find it anywhere else.  

 Since 2004, Napa Valley Reserve has used the grapes from its own vines—90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 10 percent Merlot —and brings in blending wine as needed from other Harlan sources. The wine is made in a new state-of-the-art winery and aged in French oak barrels that are stored in caves dug into a hillside behind the winery. In wine, as in real estate, it’s location, location, location. The reserve’s vineyards on nearly flat land adjacent to the Silverado Trail and near the narrow Napa River has little track record for fine grapes and offers different growing conditions than those at the hillside vineyards of Harlan Estate several miles south on the opposite side of the valley.

The Napa Valley Reserve is fondly known as the nation’s first wine “country club.”  The club lets people indulge all their wine fantasies by harvesting their own grapes and learning about wine from the dirt up.  A $150,000 initiation fee gets you several rows of picturesque grapes to harvest, as well as the chance to create—with the help of wine experts—your ideal wine. Napa Valley Reserve members are tempted to compare the price of their wine to Harlan Estate, one of Napa Valley’s “cult Cabernets.”  

There is reason enough for the comparison: William Harlan, developer of the $275-a-bottle wine that bears his name, is also the founder of Napa Valley Reserve.

The same team of grape-growing and winemaking experts who are behind the allure of Harlan Estate wines are in charge of the reserve’s wines.

Club members must commit to a minimum of 6 cases per year and a maximum of 75 cases per year.  They cannot resell the wine, but they may use it for corporate gifts or donate it to a nonprofit, say through an auction.   For those truly into wine, it's a unique wine experience.