Concept redesign · not the live site · Aug 2026
Trefethen Family Vineyards Oak Knoll District · Napa Valley Winery built 1886

Everything here still falls downhill, indoors.

Grapes are crushed on the third floor, fermented on the second and aged on the first. It is the only surviving nineteenth-century wooden three-level gravity-flow winery in the valley — and it was never built into a hillside, so the fruit had to be lifted first.

1886

Built as Eshcol for the Goodman Brothers

McIntyre

Captain Hamden McIntyre, architect

1987

National Register of Historic Places

1979

Best Chardonnay in the World

The three-storey wooden winery building under a large oak, its redwood siding painted a pale pumpkin colour.
The winery, framed in Douglas fir and clad in redwood siding.
01The liftBecause there is no hillside
IIICrushThird floor

A horse-drawn winch put the harvest on the top floor.

Gravity-flow wineries were normally cut into a slope so carts could tip straight in at the top. This one stands on the flat of the Oak Knoll District, so McIntyre gave it an elevator and a horse-powered winch. Everything after that is gravity, and gravity has not needed maintenance since 1886.

The estate seen across the vineyard rows, the winery buildings in the middle distance under hills.
The estate, from the vineyard.
A single vine trained on a wooden stake, backlit at the end of the day.
One vine, on its stake.
02The middleWhere the work happens
IIFermentSecond floor

Three generations, one estate, and no bought fruit.

In the family’s words: “For three generations, our family has devoted itself to wine made solely from the fruit of our estate vineyards in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. A characteristic brightness animates every bottle, reflecting both our cool climate and the joy with which we approach our work.”

Janet and John Trefethen photographed in the 1970s with a bottle and glasses in front of the winery.
Janet and John Trefethen, 1970s. From the family archive.
A large solitary oak standing at the end of a dirt track between vineyard rows.
The oak on the main ranch.
03The bottomDouglas fir posts
IAgeFirst floor

The barrels sit inside the frame that has held since 1886.

Douglas fir posts, redwood siding, three levels. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 — for its singular construction, and for what it meant to the development of the valley.

The barrel cellar inside the historic winery: rows of barrels between heavy timber posts and beams.
The barrel cellar, on the ground floor of the 1886 building.
04Paris, then BurgundyGault&Millau

1979

Olympiad du Vin · Paris

The 1976 Chardonnay was called the best in the world.

  1. Paris, 1979. Gault&Millau assembled representative wines from thirty-three countries. The Trefethen 1976 Chardonnay was declared the best Chardonnay in the world.
  2. Burgundy, 1980. A rematch at the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy. It won again — Robert Drouhin’s 1976 Puligny-Montrachet finished second.
  3. 2018. Steven Spurrier, a judge at the tasting, revealed he had personally secured the wine’s entry through Trefethen’s UK importer.
A bottle of Trefethen with two filled glasses on a table in daylight.
On the table.
A tasting bar with bottles lined up, historic photographs on the wall and a chalked block number.
The tasting bar, with the block numbers chalked up.
0524 August 2014Magnitude 6.0

The South Napa earthquake nearly took it down.

The winery’s own account is plain: the quake came close to toppling “our beloved pumpkin-colored building.” What followed was a significant, multi-year effort to shore it, straighten it and put it back into use — a hundred and twenty-eight years after it was raised.

The winery one day after the 2014 earthquake, visibly out of true behind the iron gates.
One day after the earthquake.
The winery during restoration, braced with heavy timber shoring against its walls.
Shored, during the restoration.
Vineyard rows in autumn colour running up to the hills at first light.
Hillspring, at first light.
06VisitOak Knoll Avenue

1160 Oak Knoll Avenue.

Where

Trefethen Family Vineyards
1160 Oak Knoll Ave
Napa, California 94558

Telephone

707.255.7700

The building

Built 1886 as Eshcol
National Register, 1987

The district

Oak Knoll District
of Napa Valley