Hartwell Vineyards-At the Heart of My Inspiration

There would be no Small Lot Wine Tours without Hartwell Vineyards. As a realtor, I realized last year that I would need some extra income. Having worked in the tasting rooms of some large wineries I decided that this would be a fun way to earn the extra income this economy requires. I was very blessed to get a job with Hartwell Vineyards.

Vineyards was founded in 1986 when Bob Hartwell bought a 60 acre property from Harry Sees of Sees candy in the Staggs Leap District in Napa Valley. He planted 1-1/2 acres to vine using the Bouchet clone from Grace Vineyards. His first producing vintage was 1990. Over the years he accumulated 90 acres, planting only 20 of them and in 1999 he completed the Tuscan style winery and caves where today all of Hartwell Wines are produced.

I was very surprised at the low production of Hartwell; only 3500 cases per year. The wineries where I had worked before produced hundreds of thousands of cases per year…if not millions. The production facility was usually a drive away from the tasting room.

They had a team of winemakers, none of whom I knew by name or face. But at Hartwell none of that is true. The tasting room, production facility, and cave are all in one small building. The winemaker, Benoit Touquette, is always running around tasting this, testing that. I found the whole things fascinating.

But I was totally won over by the elegance and complexity of the wine. It soon became very apparent that this winery is driven by Mr. Hartwell’s passion to make the best wine, not the biggest profit.

While Hartwell Vineyards is well established, greatly appreciated, and highly sought after, I quickly realized that there were still many people who needed to know about Hartwell. I also learned that the people who came to Hartwell wondered how they could find other privately owned, small lot, boutique wineries. During my down time I would try to find a directory or website that featured small production wineries, but I could not find any good web presence for truly small wineries. That is when I was inspired to create a web presence for small lot wineries and the people who love them.

I encourage you to include Hartwell Vineyards on your next trip to Napa Valley. The staff is warm and friendly offering a casual tasting for $25 (three wines are included) and a cheese and wine pairing in the VIP room in the cave for $45. Either way, when you taste these amazing wines and enjoy the breath taking views, you will surely share a bit of my inspiration.

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