Napa Valley Vineyards
— — the hour the fog lifts off the rows.
Not only on a wall.
“The valley runs north from San Pablo Bay, thirty miles long and rarely more than five miles wide, with two coast ranges holding it on either side. The vineyards begin at the city of Napa and follow Highway 29 up through Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Calistoga. Morning fog crosses the valley floor and lifts by midmorning. The rows turn gold and bronze in October, hold for three or four weeks, then drop. The light is best late in the day from the Silverado Trail, when it comes in low across the slopes and the rows seem to go on without ending.
Napa Valley Vineyards, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Napa Valley runs roughly thirty miles north from the head of San Pablo Bay, hemmed by the Mayacamas Mountains on the west and the Vaca Range on the east. The valley floor is narrow, five miles at its widest and less than a mile across at Calistoga, tilting gently from sea level at the city of Napa to about 360 feet at the northern end. Highway 29 follows the western edge through Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, and Calistoga; the Silverado Trail mirrors it on the east. Napa Valley was the first viticultural area established in California, designated by federal regulators in January 1981, and now contains sixteen nested sub-AVAs and roughly 45,000 acres of vines.
What makes Napa work as a wine region is the air that comes in from the bay. Cool marine fog moves up from San Pablo Bay each summer night, settles on the valley floor, and burns off by late morning. The diurnal swing, sometimes 50°F between predawn and afternoon, slows the ripening of fruit and concentrates flavour. The southern end of the valley around Carneros stays coolest; Calistoga at the northern end runs ten to fifteen degrees warmer on a typical August afternoon. This temperature gradient, combined with a roughly thirty-three-soil-series patchwork on the valley floor and benches, is why a single thirty-mile valley can grow Pinot Noir at one end and late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon at the other.
Vineyard work in Napa runs on a year-long calendar. Bud break comes in March, flowering in late May, and véraison, the moment the berries change colour and begin to soften, in mid to late July. Harvest begins in mid-August with the white varieties at Carneros and continues into late October for the Cabernet Sauvignon of Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill. The vines drop their leaves in November, the rains return, and the cover-crop mustard blooms yellow across the valley floor through February. The visible vintage, when the rows themselves change colour week by week, runs roughly mid-September through early November, with the strongest gold and bronze in the second and third weeks of October.