The Vision
To produce a California "First Growth" from the hills of Oakville.
Fermentation Room
The Missing Shade of Red
In the early 1980s while hiking along Oakville’s southwestern ridge, H. William Harlan discovered an isolated territory. The hidden expanse—ancient and untamed—moved him deeply, but remained elusive until the Harlan family finally captured it in 2008. As the second generation explored and worked with the land, they began to make discoveries of their own. At the core of this wild terrain they found a powerful geologic convergence, which had shaped its steep, rugged topography, and created the conditions for an altogether exotic winegrowing environment. Over time they found that the dramatic landscape—just beyond the edge of the known—would slowly change them, and ultimately inspire a new endeavor: Promontory.
H. WILLIAM HARLAN
As we evolve through the seasons of our lives, there is always the “missing piece” that draws us onwards…maybe it’s the challenge of the next vintage, the next level of enrichment, a new discovery, or a greater meaning. And at a certain point we start to look past our lifetime, with the hope that the next generation might, in their own way, go beyond the dreams we initiated.
When I first came upon the land that would become Promontory, its untamed ruggedness was a surprise — quite different from anything I had encountered in the Napa Valley. This wild place, overlooked for most of the 20th century, emanated a power and a mystery and an undefinable allure.
It wasn’t until the first decade of the 21st century that we had the good fortune of acquiring the unmarked territory. This was the beginning of a new era, a time of exploration and discovery led by the next generation.
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