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palmaz winery tour

Napa Valley Wineries

Palmaz Vineyards

Virtual tastings offered!

www.palmazvineyards.com

Palmaz Vineyards

Information

Appellations.

  • Coombsville
  • Napa Valley
  • Cabernet Sauvignon

Export Countries

  • Canada - Ontario
  • Netherlands

Wine Club Membership

Wine clubs are a great way to stay connected to your favorite wineries.

Our wines are available in a limited basis. And our Brasas Wine Society members are given first purchases priority on all new wines prior to release. To become a member of our wine family please email: [email protected]

To join our wine club, visit ', 'Winery Profile']);" target="_blank" rel="external noopener">www.palmazvineyards.com or call 707-226-5587.

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4029 Hagen Road Napa, CA 94558

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Winery Features

Tasting Experience

Palmaz Vineyards conducts private tour and tastings by appointment only Monday through Saturday. The tour consists of a walk through of several levels of the cave where we show how our wines are made using gravity-flow winemaking methods. Then guests will join us for a tasting where three winery-only white wines and three vintages of the Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon are featured and paired with hors d’ oeuvres. All tours are lead by a member of the Palmaz family and are subject to availability. There is a charge of $80 per person for small groups; and for groups of 12 or more the charge is $95 per person. Please allow for at least two hours for your visit. For reservations, please call 707-226-5587 or email [email protected] for more information.

Unique Features

In-house chef,.

Florencia Palmaz

Each wine is paired with hors d' oeuvres and cheeses featuring the local vendors of the Oxbow Farmers market.

Wine Education

Each tour is pivatly conducted showing how the grapes are grown in the vineyards to a detailed tour of the gravity flow and gravity finish winery. Every tour can be tailored to focus on your interests.

  • Family friendly

Families are welcome to bring their children on tours and tastings.

Virtual Tastings

Let us bring our acclaimed tour and tasting experience to your home. Select from one of the various Tasting Packages available. You can invite your friends (no matter where in the country they are). We will ship the wine flights to your doorsteps. Then we will arrange a time to meet up on a private video conference with one of our Ambassadors. Connect with the estate privately on video conference where we will virtually walk through the cave, and our winemaking process. Then taste together the wines while connecting with your friends and family. Each tour is private and live so you control the show. Connect, Taste, and Enjoy what Palmaz Vineyards is all about. Once we receive your order, one of our Estate Ambassadors will reach out to organize your virtual tasting appointment. Please allow 2 weeks for us to bottle your tasting kit and ship it before your requested tasting date. Please note that each of the 250ml bottles included in the tasting kit is 8.45 ounces each. We recommend that 2 -3 persons share one tasting kit.

  • Virtual tastings available
  • Tasting fee
  • Seated tasting available
  • Private tasting available
  • Indoor tasting area
  • Outdoor tasting area
  • Historical landmark
  • Unique architecture
  • Sustainable practices
  • Winemaker or owner usually available

Napa Neighbor Offer

Not participating in the Napa Neighbor program.

Offers listed are valid for all Napa Valley residents age 21 and over.

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Palmaz Vineyards

Review by Dave 2 Comments

palmaz winery tour

Before moving to the U.S., the Palmaz family had a long history of ranching in Argentina. When the family lived in Texas in the late 1980s through the 1990s, they founded High Gate Ranch near the tiny town of Bandera (about an hour drive from San Antonio). They raised grass fed Fallow Deer for the premium restaurant venison market. They developed that operation to over 14,000 head; at one time it was the largest Fallow Deer operation in the world.

Julio invented the Palmaz Coronary Stent and patented it in 1985, (used to treat narrowed or blocked coronary arteries) and has become a life changing procedure for millions over the years. Items relating to his research are housed in the Smithsonian (but are not currently available for viewing). The Julio Palmaz Papers (a collection of his research and published works) are available for viewing at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

He has founded several companies over the years including Advanced Bio Prosthetic Surfaces and Palmaz Scientific. He became familiar with Napa Valley while completing his medical residency at the nearby University of California Davis.

And early in her professional career, Amalia was president of her family-owned Buenos Aires based mining company, CRISTAMINE. Founded in 1961, this company began by supplying raw materials for the glass industry. Still in business, they mine a variety of raw materials from their own mines including calcium carbonate, several types of sand and feldspar among other products. Over the years they have evolved from producing products for only the glass industry to numerous other industries.

The Property The total estate encompasses 600 acres of which 64 acres are planted to vine. Long time viticulturist Dick Steltzner oversaw the planting of their vineyard in 1996. Today Christian is in charge of their vineyard operating an in-house team of vineyard workers. Most of the estate is hillside with vineyards flowing down the sides of the Vaca mountains. The vineyards one sees when looking down from the winery are just a small portion of their total overall vineyard acreage. Much of their vineyards are planted higher and range from 300 feet at the lowest part of the property to the top of the hillsides to the east of the winery with elevations up to 1,400 feet. And this elevation makes a significant difference in growing conditions with temperatures varying considerably at times between their lowest and highest vineyards.

The winery itself sits right near Mt. George (in fact all three peaks of Mt. George are on their property) in the eastern part of the Coombsville region, a part of Napa Valley that generally sees a cooler growing climate due to its proximity to the San Pablo Bay in the south and the influences of the daily fog.

When the Palmaz’s purchased this land – not only did they purchase a prime location for growing grapes, but they also purchased a unique piece of Napa’s winery history as well as the accompanying stories associated with this property. This site used to be the home of Cedar Knoll Vineyard and Winery – originally founded by Henry Hagen and his brother Peter. The brothers were already in business together prior; they owned a cigar shop in San Francisco.

Henry and Peter purchased an initial 70 acres from William Woodward in 1877 and changed the name from the Bill Woodward Whiskey Ranch to Cedar Knolls. Peter died at 42 years old of Tuberculosis in 1880 and Henry then took over sole ownership of the property. Hagen Road is named in their honor. At one point Hagen owned more than 450 acres here and besides grapes had small ponds filled with carp, catfish and a special trout pond and maintained an orchard. An article dated January 12, 1894, from the Napa Register references bananas, citrus and other tropical fruits growing on the property. And a special part of the property was set aside as a ‘deer park’.

Like numerous other winemakers in Napa Valley from this era, Henry was German; he was originally from Mannheim, Germany. Prior to starting Cedar Knoll, he already had winemaking experience working for his brother-in-law Charles Kohler at one of California’s earliest wineries Kohler & Frohling (founded in 1854 by California wine pioneers, Charles Kohler and John Fröhling who incidentally were also professional musicians). And Fröhling was also one of the founders of the city of Anaheim in Orange County.

Another individual, Joseph A. Mathos (Mathews) worked in the Bill Woodward’s cellar (until he sold to the Hagen’s) before leaving and starting his own winery in the city of Napa – called Lisbon Winery – named after his home city in Portugal. Remarkably this old stone building dating from 1882 still stands and is home to the Jarvis Conservatory (corner of Yount and Main streets, just north of downtown).

Cedar Knolls was a prominent producer in the 1880s (with a good portion of their wines sold through Kohler & Frohling). After Henry Hagen passed on in 1895, the winery continued to operate – run by some of his relatives. It was later sold to Ferdinand E. Hestal, an attorney and real estate broker from San Francisco. The property had mostly been abandoned by the time the Palmaz family acquired it. Prior the Palmaz’s purchasing the property, it had been on the market of a number of years because the real estate agent at the time was marketing it as having only 8 acres suitable for planting. Later original vineyard maps were discovered showing a much larger part of the property had originally been planted to vines.

The original Hagen home has since been restored. A neat discovery at the time of their purchase was Henry Hagen’s wine cellar below the home, where they found a number of old wine making tools, wine bottles and other wine related items. Like so many other wineries in the valley and beyond, this original winery was shut down due to Prohibition and this land was not used commercially for wine grapes until decades later. The original winery is one of the very few ‘ghost wineries’ in Coombsville – stone wineries quarried from nearby sites that predate Prohibition. Favia, also in Coombsville is one other example.

Palmaz-Vineyards (8)

Both Robert and Margrit were intrigued and curious about their plans for the Hagen property. Once they heard about the ambitious plans Robert told Julio and Amalia that he must see the cave before he died. Sometime later the Palmaz’s received a call from Margrit indicating that Robert’s health was failing and that he would like to come by for a visit. The scheduled pouring of concrete in one of the levels was accelerated to accommodate his visit. They did not realize he wasn’t able to walk on his own at this time – so when he arrived, they wheeled him in onto the still recently curing concrete. As a result, his wheelchair left tracks which if you know where to look are still faintly visible today.

Thinking he just wanted a glimpse of part of their construction they invited him down to the house for lunch. He would have none of this insisting that he wanted to see every last inch of their construction. Christian remembers the family and employees lifting Robert and his wheelchair over piles of construction materials and moving from one level to another with the tour lasting considerable time!

Hospitality Although not as long as Mr. Mondavi’s tour, tours today typically last between 90 minutes and 2 hours. The tour starts on the fourth floor and proceeds through several levels of the cave; everything during the wine making process is conducted by gravity flow. One side door leads to the stairwell – looking down at the levels here gives one a perspective of the impressive vertical reach of the cave. The world’s largest underground reinforced structure is the fermentation dome which is 54 feet tall.

When drilling a cave this size you are bound to hit something of interest underground and in this case, they actually hit gold in the rock at one point. While not concentrated enough to mine commercially this is the first time, we have heard of any cave in Napa Valley actually hitting natural gold underground. The winery excavation and construction took about 7 years to complete from approximately 2000 through 2007.

Arguably the highlight of a visit to the winery is their extensive nearly 110,000 square-foot cave system. To our knowledge this is at least 2x the size of the next largest winery cave in Napa Valley. This cave was carefully designed for their specific property – think of the winery as 24 wineries representing 24 parts of their vineyard. The fruit from each vineyard is vinified separately from their other vineyard blocks and only after its aging is complete are the wines blended together. What is fairly unique is each barrel sees the same wine throughout the entire aging process. Rather than racking wine from multiple barrels into large stainless-steel tanks and then refilling up the barrels or racking to different barrels – each barrel is racked to a stainless-steel carboy, the barrel is cleaned, and this same wine goes back into the same barrel.

Processing fruit here is all about handling the grapes as gently as possible; gravity flow wine making is a big part of the operations here. Even filtering is gravity flow with the wine flowing through hoses between levels through the actual filters (prior to bottling).

The Palmaz’s have borrowed several pieces of equipment from other industries to use in their own wine making. They even designed their own 6 axis shaker table to catch grapes with jacks still attached (the little stem that connects to the grape to the vine). During harvest it is quite impressive to see the attention to detail that the same workers who harvested the grapes show at this table – only allowing the best of the fruit to pass through to fermentation.

palmaz winery tour

There are five main levels of the cave including the center point which is the massive fermentation dome. Picture a wagon wheel; the spokes of the wheel are the caves that extend out in all directions from this main room. The five levels are equivalent to the height of an 18-story building.

A viewpoint overlooks the circular fermentation dome which contains a number of stainless-steel tanks. From a touch screen console located here one can easily control many aspects of each tank including their rotation (they sit on a custom-made belt system). Each of these tanks is “online” and one can also control the tank temperatures merely by touch.

After this control system was installed, Christian helped create the first ever proprietary algorithmic fermentation control system, called F.I.L.C.S, or simply called Felix. This system is truly remarkable and has helped revolutionize how they collect and manage data from each harvest. Sensors are built into each tank which provides huge amounts of information ranging from temperature at various points throughout each tank, how fast fermentation occurs in each tank, amount of coolant being used in each tank and numerous other data points. It is very impressive to see the various data displayed on the walls of their fermentation dome. And the images are projected by state-of-the-art Christie projectors.

Other cave features include a huge wine elevator for transporting the large tanks between cavern levels, as well as the winery’s own water treatment plant; no water goes to waste here (one tunnel on level one stores up to 1.2 million gallons of water far underground); the ornamentals and other shrubbery on the grounds are watered entirely with this recycled water.

Palmaz-Vineyards (21)

We have toured the winery a number of times and during one of our recent visits, Florencia Palmaz hosted the tour. She has a great sense of humor and her insights into the wine industry really help complement the tour.

Wines/Winemaking Their first winemaker was Randy Dunn (who also offered insights into the winery design). Later Mia Klein was their winemaker. The first vintage of Palmaz was in 2001. Today several labels are produced including Palmaz, Brasas and Cedar Knoll.

Their fun room or as as the family commonly refers to, “the girl’s room” contains all their white wines. This is a separate room in the cave devoted entirely to white varieties. While Palmaz has focused their attention on making Cabernet Sauvignon they also make several white wines including a dry Riesling (which tends to sell out rather quickly), Chardonnay and a delicious Muscat Canelli “Florencia”.

The family are not fans of big oaky and buttery Chardonnays and as a result, visitors will not find that type of wine here. The wine making and oak program is of course an important element in the style of wine. Rather their Chardonnay is made in a Burgundian style with cold fermentation as well as aging taking place in oak sur lie. As a result, this wine always has good weight regardless of vintage but is never overly viscous in its textural feel. The several vintages we have tried showed pleasing aromatics including citrus blossom and notes of lime on the bouquet with clean balanced flavors on the palate including some notes of minerality.

The Palmaz wines focus on balance and a textural softness (like velvet) on the palate; delicate and well-integrated tannins are one of the Palmaz hallmarks. As is their judicious use of oak.

Their core wine is Cabernet Sauvignon, and each vintage tends to be blended slightly with another Bordeaux varietal or two. During your tasting you will typically taste one of their slightly older vintages of this wine along with their current release. The 2002 Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon is aging quite well showing notes of tobacco and leather along with rich blackberry aromas. Rich ripe fruit shows on the palate including a plethora of baking spice; the fruit is holding up very well and this wine should continue to age and evolve quite well.

Palmaz-Vineyards (32)

We have enjoyed several vintages of their Muscat Cannelli dessert wine over the years. Not to be outdone by her brother, this wine is named after Florencia. The 2007 Palmaz Florencia Muscat Cannelli is a lighter style wine that is not high in alcohol or in residual sugar. Rather it is very clean and crisp and best served chilled. It is a very refreshing wine. There are layers of floral aromas on the bouquet with notes of honeysuckle and mineralities on the palate.

The 2018 cedar Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon is dark ruby in color. The bouquet is about the fruit rather than any prominent oak influence; it shows bright aromatics of plum, red cherry and some subtle darker baking spices as the wine evolves in the glass. This wine offers darker fruit (plum) across the palate with a simultaneous bright acidity. It lingers gently with finally tuned tannins and a hint of dried tobacco leaf. This is a very food friendly bottling but is also highly enjoyable just by itself.

Tastings are held in one of several small rooms within the cave winery (on the fourth floor); these are well decorated elegant rooms. Guests will sit at a long table surrounded by stone arches. All wines are paired with cheese and other tasty specially prepared hor d’oeuvres including delectable items such as truffles or as we had during our latest visit, smoked salmon with wasabi infused caviar.

Genesee Valley Ranch + Genesee Store After establishing Palmaz Vineyards Christian wanted to return to his family ranching roots and began to search for land in California. In 2016, the Palmaz family purchased the historic Genesee Valley Ranch (GVR) in Plumas County. It is a very special part of the state based on its remoteness, history, water rights, sizable contiguous acreage, rivers and native/natural grasslands. The approximately 1,600 ranch and small town was founded in 1862 by Edwin D. Hosselkus and was owned and operated by four generations of this family before later being owned by a number of others. Hosselkus built the store and developed the ranch to serve area gold miners.

Christian sent us the following in regard to their decision to raise 100% purebred Black Wagyu beef.

We decided to tackle the American Beef concept feeling that America was ready for a better option than what was currently available in craft luxury. In the U.S. you belly up the butcher counter to find a relatively small selection of steaks which most people are accustomed to purchase several of the same cut such as a New York or Rib Eye without realizing where that beef is coming from or how many come from one animal. Contrasting with Argentina where my family is from, beef is consumed very differently. The typical weekend “Asado” celebrates the entire animal, and you typically bring home multiple unique cuts and build a multicourse BBQ that can feed an entire party. In the U.S. a single cow directly feeds far fewer people than it does in Argentina, for example, and requires a lot more processing to do so. We wanted people to be able to be able to know the beef they are consuming in the same way they buy wines. By raising a heard from a single ranch/estate allowed our customers to discover the terroir and incredible team behind the operation. In order to achieve the prime plus marbling customers come to expect from pure bred Wagyu with all the health benefits of 100% grass fed, we needed a very unique and plentiful diversified grass program. GVR was the only property we felt that could deliver the consistency and quality year over year. It’s a very unique ranching property and program.

The name Genesse pays homage to Genesee, Hosselkus’s hometown in New York; this is not the only town in Plumas County to be named after a town in another state (reference LaPorte). In addition to the ranch, the Palmaz’s own the Genesee Store which dates to 1880. Before opening this as a restaurant the building was remodeled and raised, overseen by the Palmaz family. Its previous use was as a sandwich shop; one employee who grew up in the area remembers working in this old building serving sandwiches. She recalls the two original glass windows in the front of the store never used to open but after the building was raised the windows worked perfectly. The gorgeous original Hosselkus family home is located directly across the street from the Genesee Store (it was also restored by the Palmaz family).

Today along with being a restaurant (seasonal operating days and hours), visitors can buy select products including beef, locally grown vegetables, beer and local herbs. And it is also a space that sells a variety of used books (through a partnership with a Sonoma County, California based used books company) with a wide diversity of topics. The store and nearby buildings are surrounded by Genesee Valley Ranch on both sides of the highway. Worth a short walk to see on the east of the store are several old ranch buildings.

It is rare to discover a fine dining establishment in the ‘middle of nowhere’; the Genesee Store is a pleasant surprise. The dining space inside is small and features only several tables; an outdoor patio offers additional seating, weather permitting. As a result of their limited seating, reservations are required. The wine list is small but features premium wines from both Napa Valley and beyond including as expected several bottlings of Palmaz and Cedar Knoll. Genesee Store does not have a liquor license, so all their cocktails are made with wine. Guests who prefer cocktails will be pleasantly surprised to find a number of enticing options including the highly recommended Genesee Old Fashioned with a base of Port wine.

Known for their beef one can order several dishes including the Zabuton steak (Wagu beef) or those looking to go all out and splurge for 3-4 people can order the GVR Tomahawk. Hamburgers are also available. And a tasty dish we highly recommend is Gee’s Ramen, named in honor of Gee Pond Joe, the first cook for the store in 1880.

Despite its isolated location, Genesee Store has built its business on word-of-mouth referrals and as Christian told us, “An enthusiastic social media following.” Its customers come from all over California and Nevada. Locals have also discovered its cuisine (this was clearly evident during our dinner) and has become especially popular for date nights and or marriage proposals.

We have spent plenty of time in this part of the state looking for gold (one of our hobbies) and it is always a treat to visit Plumas County, a place that is far removed from city life, crowds and traffic. The air is clean and smells fresh although it wasn’t so for several months in 2021 when a large part of Plumas County was burned in what was the largest ever recorded single source fire in California’s history, the Dixie Fire. This nearly 1-million-acre fire also affected Genesee Valley Ranch, causing significant damage to the property including fences, irrigation systems, and other critical infrastructure. Fortunately, the cattle were safe through vigilant efforts of the ranch staff moving them at critical times during the fire to safe parts of the ranch.

A very rare offering for a Napa Valley based winery is a ranch club membership, similar to wine clubs their offerings provide access a variety of different size and shipments of Wagyu Beef each year. Genesee Valley Ranch offers three membership options ranging from 2 to 6 box shipments each year. The only other similar such membership program we know offered by a Napa Valley winery is Bluford Cellars from their family ranch in Honey Lake Valley, about a 2-hour drive from Genesee.

For more information visit: www.geneseevalleyranch.com and www.geneseestore.com

palmaz winery tour

GoodHeart Brand Specialty Foods Co In 1996 Amalia and Florencia founded this San Antonio based, prepared meat based products company. Today the company distributes its products to retail stores and supermarkets around the country. Unlike many prepared foods, their meats are minimally processed – prepared by hand and all are fully cooked ready for consumption upon purchase.

All their meats are high-pressure pasteurized, and vacuum sealed at their production facility on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. For more details, visit: www.goodheart.com

For a winery of this physical size and the number of planted vineyards they could be producing significantly more wine; however, the production is currently only around nine thousand cases each year. For more information, to join one of the membership tiers in their Brasas wine club, to schedule a tour or to purchase wine, visit: www.palmazvineyards.com .

palmaz winery tour

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October 21, 2017 at 1:53 pm

Do you have distributor in Colorado?

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May 12, 2020 at 10:33 am

Lido – I’m sure they do, you will want to contact Palmaz directly.

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California Winery Advisor

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palmaz winery tour

Palmaz Vineyards

4029 Hagen Road , Napa, CA 94558

  • Napa Valley

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About This Winery

Why should you visit Palmaz Vineyards?

Mount George in the Napa Valley has a history of excellent wines. Henry Hagen purchased a plot of land on the Southern end of the valley and called it Cedar Knoll Vineyard and Winery in 1881. The plot was good to him and his brandy won a silver medal at the L’Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1889. This very land eventually was bought by Julio and Amalia Palmaz to create Palmaz Vineyards, and they set out to make it a productive vineyard. They built a Bauhaus-style winery, cutting directly into Mt George and putting up a pale stone face. They put in a Geographical Information System and a fermentation dome that uses the latest technology.

If you want to experience this blending of the traditional and the technological, you are in luck. If you call Palmaz Vineyards and set up an appointment, an ambassador will take you through the beautiful Mount George vineyards and a food and wine pairing in the white two-towered mansion. You’ll taste fine hors d’oeuvres on a dining table in the domed dining room. And then you will walk through the steel-and-wood doors and find the future: a gravity-flow, gravity-finish winery that can coax the best out of any grape. You’ll be amazed by the underground winemaking proceedings and the massive fermentation dome. Any true wine lover will love the Palmaz’s work and will want to check their operation out.

The wine tasting includes the Palmaz Chardonnay, Reisling and, of course, the Cabernet Sauvignon that Napa Valley is so famous for. You should plan at least two hours for your tour and tasting at the winery.

Address: 4029 Hagen Road, Napa, CA Phone: (707) 226-5587 and (800) 592-2306 Tasting Room Hours: Tasting and Tours by appointment only Tasting Fees: Small Groups $100 per person, Groups of 12 or more $120 per person

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Palmaz Vineyards

Favourite winery in napa., amazing high tech vineyard which provides a..., amazing wines, fantastic tour and good service..., we arrived an hour early for our..., about winery and wines.

At Palmaz, we believe in farming the individual vine, not the vineyard. Tradition and technology seamlessly come together to give us insights into the needs of each vine. While nothing replaces the knowledge gained from walking through the vineyard, personally touching each vine, technologies such as advanced Geographic Informational Systems (GIS) give the winemaking team an understanding of what vines need both above- and below-ground. By combining farming techniques from the organic, biodynamic and erosion-control philosophies, the Palmaz family has created a truly sustainable farm that will produce great wine for generations to come. From diverse cover crops in the winter to a deficit-irrigation program in the summer, tending to the land is a year-round program. Our vineyards are nestled at three different elevations, from the hills around the estate to the crest of Mount George, and feature 46 distinct vineyard blocks. The complexity of the terrain results in a variety of micro-climates, all of which influence grapes in unique ways. Each parcel features a distinct rootstock and clonal combination that contributes a special characteristic to the resulting wines. Peruse through the interactive map and explore the vineyard.

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Palmaz Vineyards

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Palmaz Vineyards - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Palmaz vineyards information.

Brasas Club

Four Vineyard Memberships and three Ranch Memberships to consider.

Brasas Club Memberships

We are passionate about gathering friends and family around the table. To facilitate these memorable moments we offer exceptional products to enhance every meal from formal celebrations to casual family BBQ. To help facilitate these magical meals, we've created a food and wine club so our customers can gather together and celebrate at their tables and ours.

Vineyard Memberships

Each Vineyard Membership subscriber has priority access to all wines before they're released. Each member receives a customized assortment of Palmaz Vineyards wines as well as our member-exclusive wine, Brasas, a Cabernet-Malbec blend that, as Argentines, the Palmaz family couldn't resist making.

Additionally, Vineyard members are invited to join the family at Brasas-only events where we celebrate the season in grand style. Check out our event schedule on the events page for more information.

Once you select your membership level, we'll automatically send you wines two weeks before their public release. Each level can be customized, so please call us if you'd like to create a custom wine selection for your membership.

Brasas Wine Society members have priority access to all wines prior to release dates, as well as exclusive estate events.

Membership Options

Each vineyard member is able to customize the wines they wish to receive each year. Membership levels are based on the total number of bottles selected each year. Members will receive their wines automatically just prior to their public release date. Member discounts can also be applied to additional wines purchased. For more information feel free to contact a club manager.

Wine Releases by Season

Winter: Brasas Cabernet Sauvignon Spring: Amalia Chardonnay | Louise Riesling | Florencia Muscat Summer: Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon | Rose (by request) Fall: Brasas Cabernet Sauvignon

Facon Membership

‘A belt knife carried by gauchos’ A great way to introduce yourself to our Brasas Club Community.

Chacra Membership

‘A small ranch in the Andes’. This membership is perfect for a moderate collector to enjoy the portfolio of wines.

Finca Membership

‘A Country Estate’. A membership to elevate your wine collection and allow you live well like the great Country Gentlemen.

The great expansive Cattle Ranch of Argentina. This top tier membership is reserved for the “Cattle Baron” of the wine world. Ideal for those who entertain lavishly, and are diving deep into vertical collecting.

This Club is by invitation only. Please click the button below or call 800-592-2306 to inquire.

There are only few Estancia Membership openings available each year. Please enter the following information and a club manager will personally contact you to confirm availability.

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palmaz winery tour

20th Anniversary Harvest

The Family & Team

The Palmaz family, along with their winery and vineyard teams, spends every day thinking about how to blend technology and tradition to create superior wine.

Two generations of the Palmaz family have sought to bring innovation and invention to the ancient art of making wine. Their background in the sciences, passion for living life to the fullest and years of backbreaking work have resulted in a unique winery situated inside an 18-story cave that combines cutting-edge technology with a respect for winemaking tradition.

Julio Palmaz

Julio Palmaz

Co-founder and Co-Chairman Dr. Julio Palmaz is the winery’s visionary and guiding light.

Ameila Palmaz

Amalia Palmaz

Co-founder and Co-Chairman Amalia Palmaz is always on hand to offer her astute business acumen as the winery's chief strategist.

Christian Gaston Palmaz

Christian Palmaz

Chief Operating Officer of Palmaz Vineyards, Christian is in charge for all winery and vineyard operations.

Florencia Palmaz

Florencia Palmaz

As CEO at Palmaz Vineyards and President of the family’s other primary business, GoodHeart Brand Specialty Foods Co., Florencia is an executive on the go.

Jessica Louise Palmaz

Jessica Palmaz

As Chief Marketing Officer, Jessica is responsible for day-to-day management of Palmaz Vineyards and customer experience.

Gina

More than a mere mascot, Gina the Italian Greyhound is perhaps the most important team member at Palmaz Vineyards.

The Vineyard Team

Producing great wine begins with the vineyard, and tending to the vines at Palmaz is done with a full-time vineyard team. Few winery estates still host their own full-time crew, but at Palmaz the intricate work of tending to the various vineyard parcels and their diverse terrain is done with a team of 13 professionals. Lead by vineyard manager José Palafox and renowned consultant and viticulturist Mike Wolf, the vineyard team is a tight-knit group of passionate farmers dedicated to the craft of growing exceptional wines.

The Vineyard Team

The Winemaking Team

We have always believed in natural winemaking methods. That’s why our winery was designed as a gravity-flow facility. The gentle handling throughout the vinification process lets our winemaking team – Tina Mitchell and consultant, Mia Klein create wines that are supple, balanced and true to our unique terroir.

Tina Mitchell

Tina Mitchell

As Winemaker at Palmaz Vineyards, Tina helps shape and craft the family’s vision for creating a dynamic signature house style, from estate grape to bottle.

Mia Klein

Consulting Winemaker Mia Klein contributes both practical and academic winemaking wisdom to further refine Palmaz Vineyards' wines.

Doug Mitchell

Doug Mitchell

Assistant Winemaker Doug Mitchell is integral part of the winemaking team helping to expand Palmaz Vineyards' cellar offerings.

Estate Ambassadors

When you visit the Palmaz winery, your guide will likely be one of our knowledgeable and hospitable Estate Ambassadors — although time and season permitting, family members still conduct tours. You’ll certainly see the family on the property regularly.

Our Ambassadors are well versed in viticulture and winemaking (both the Palmaz gravity-flow method and more traditional techniques), ensuring that your private tour and tasting are an intimate, in-depth experience. Our comprehensive tours follow the lifecycle of our estate-grown grapes from our vineyards, through all the descending levels of our winery and cellars, to the bottled vintage wines you will enjoy with perfectly paired hors d’oeuvres from the winery’s kitchen and gardens.

Our Estate Ambassadors offer tours in English.

palmaz winery tour

IMAGES

  1. Palmaz Vineyards

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  2. Palmaz Vineyards (Napa)

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  3. Palmaz Vineyards Private Tour and Tastings

    palmaz winery tour

  4. Palmaz Vineyards Winery Cave

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  5. The WineTastic Weekend: Palmaz Vineyards: My Welcome to Coombsville

    palmaz winery tour

  6. Palmaz Vineyards Private Tour and Tastings

    palmaz winery tour

COMMENTS

  1. Palmaz Vineyards Private Tour and Tastings

    Private visit is $200 per person, reservations required. Please allow 90 minutes for your visit. For groups larger than 12, please call for pricing and availability. To schedule your visit, call or email. 707-226-5587. or. [email protected]. Palmaz Vineyards' tours and tastings are by appointment only - the tour consists of a walk ...

  2. Palmaz Vineyards

    Vineyard. Our vineyards span gentle hills and mountaintop mesas at three distinct elevations on the property, each taking advantage of Napa Valley's magnificent terroirs to produce distinct wines. Take a look > Winery Cave.

  3. Palmaz Vineyards

    Top ways to experience nearby attractions. 6 Hour Napa or Sonoma Valley Wine Tour by Private SUV. 37. Recommended. Spring Break. from. $390.00. per group (up to 6) The Original Napa Valley Wine Trolley "Up Valley" Castle Tour.

  4. PALMAZ VINEYARDS

    Palmaz Vineyards stood out to me as I was looking for a full winery tour that had a mix of reds and whites with food pairings in their wine tasting menu. For $150 per guest, the tour started with a welcome drink, followed by a tour of the winery and a tasting session consisting 6 glasses of wine. My favorites were their 2017 Riesling for the ...

  5. Palmaz Vineyards Private Tour and Tastings

    More than a personal tour, a visit to Palmaz Vineyards and Winery is a singular epicurean experience of wine and perfectly paired hors d'oeuvres that will forge an unforgettable memory of Napa Valley. To schedule a visit, call. 707-226-5587. Palmaz Vineyards conducts tour and tastings by appointment only.

  6. Palmaz Vineyards

    Palmaz Vineyards conducts private tour and tastings by appointment only Monday through Saturday. The tour consists of a walk through of several levels of the cave where we show how our wines are made using gravity-flow winemaking methods. Then guests will join us for a tasting where three winery-only white wines and three vintages of the Palmaz ...

  7. Palmaz Vineyards

    Palmaz Vineyards is located at the end of Hagen Road just north and east of the town of Napa. This winery is not open to the public and appointments are required well in advance. All tours and tastings are private for your party and are hosted by a Palmaz Ambassador or a Palmaz family member (upon request). Founders, Julio and Amalia Palmaz are ...

  8. Palmaz Vineyards

    Napa and Sonoma Wine Country Full-Day Tour from San Francisco. 818. Spring Break. from . $160.00. per adult. The Original Napa Valley Wine Trolley Classic Tour. 154. Food & Drink. from . $125.00. ... Recently booked a private tour and tasting of Palmaz - WOW !! We were fortunate to have Christian, one of the owners as our guide. The winemaking ...

  9. PALMAZ VINEYARDS

    Palmaz is a marvel of science and engineering...the wine tour was eye- opening into technology available for laser sorting, monitoring and more. Beautiful 'wagon wheel' design of the french oak casks. In addition to this, the pairing was extraordinary, as was the wine. I've posted the pairing and have several friends lining up to visit.

  10. Palmaz Vineyards

    Its construction is impressive. The surroundings are well kept, and the rolling hills of the vineyard are captivating. Our guide, Eddie, expressed the passion for the family values of the Palmaz, and their commitment to make exceptional wines. The engineering and technology behind this winery is impressive.

  11. PALMAZ VINEYARDS

    Christian Palmaz was our tour guide. Christian is the son of Julio and Amalia Palmaz and the Director of Operations. I was surprised that a member of the family would give us a tour, but he told us that each family member gives one tour a day. The winery is built underground and has 18 stories.

  12. Palmaz Vineyards

    The wine tasting includes the Palmaz Chardonnay, Reisling and, of course, the Cabernet Sauvignon that Napa Valley is so famous for. You should plan at least two hours for your tour and tasting at the winery. Address: 4029 Hagen Road, Napa, CA Phone: (707) 226-5587 and (800) 592-2306 Tasting Room Hours: Tasting and Tours by appointment only

  13. Wines : The Tasting

    Each tour is private and live so you control the show. Connect, Taste, and Enjoy what Palmaz Vineyards is all about. Once we receive your order, one of our Estate Ambassadors will reach out to organize your virtual tasting appointment. Please allow 2 weeks for us to bottle your tasting kit and ship it before your requested tasting date ...

  14. Palmaz Vineyards

    The grounds are beautiful, the tours are private, and the wine is fantastic. Diana was our guide and she was knowledgeable, passionate, and a perfect reflection of how amazing this place is. I could write a full page review about Palmaz, but I'd rather you experience what my husband and I experienced taking a tour of this incredible winery.

  15. Palmaz Vineyards

    We arrived an hour early for our reservation and were happily greeted nevertheless, enjoying a beautiful tour and tasting with Jordan. The history of Palmaz and mixture of high-tech and traditional techniques used to create their wine are not to be missed. Source: google

  16. PALMAZ VINEYARDS

    A simply stellar tour & tasting experience, my brother and I thoroughly enjoyed our morning here. The winery is located fairly deep into the residential area east of Napa proper, making for a fun-filled drive that got progressively more impressive after we passed the gate and made our climb up to the facility itself.

  17. Palmaz Vineyards

    Very engaging wine technology visit with great wines. The place is spectacular. Perched on the side of the hill in Coombesville AVA, the winery is mostly underground. The visit includes an educational tour of the wine making facility, including the amazing fermentation room with the rotating fermentation tanks.

  18. Palmaz Vineyards

    Olive Oil. The Palmaz Estate hillsides, nestled in the Sierra de Napa foothills against the backdrop of Mount George, feature some 350 French Provençal, Spanish Catalan and Italian Tuscan varietal olive trees (Arbequine, Manzanilla, Mission and Picholine). The olives are handpicked, stone-wheel cold-pressed and blended into an artisanal olive ...

  19. PALMAZ VINEYARDS

    141 reviews of Palmaz Vineyards "I cannot recommend this place enough and I'm surprised it's not reviewed on here! ... Note: Wine tour takes 2 hours and is definitely worth the time invested to learn and appreciate the wine and incredible work that went into creating this fine and highly modern winery.

  20. Vineyard Memberships

    48 bottles annually. 15% discount on all wine. tour and tasting tariff waived for 8 annually. 2 complimentary Brasas event tickets annually. This Club is by invitation only. Please click the button below or call 800-592-2306 to inquire. Inquire about Estancia Club >. Love the land, know the grape and make a wine that honors both.

  21. Virtual Tastings

    The most exclusive of all our tasting collections, the Vertical features a straight three year tasting of the signature Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon. This is an excellent way to understand the relationship between weather and wine for the dedicated enophile. 2019 Palmaz Estate Cabernet 2018 Palmaz Estate Cabernet 2017 Palmaz Estate Cabernet $190

  22. Family and Team

    Few winery estates still host their own full-time crew, but at Palmaz the intricate work of tending to the various vineyard parcels and their diverse terrain is done with a team of 13 professionals. Lead by vineyard manager José Palafox and renowned consultant and viticulturist Mike Wolf, the vineyard team is a tight-knit group of passionate ...