“For more than 100 years, Angelo Sangiacomo and his family have farmed over 1000 acres of vineyard land in Sonoma County. I met Angelo when I moved to the Napa Valley in 1972. We bought grapes from him for Mayacamas Winery. In 1975, I went to work for Joe Phelps. Joe had become a partner with Angelo in a vineyard project in 1974. In 1992 when we began Neyers Vineyards, our first grape supplier was the Sangiacomo Family, and I began to work with Angelo’s oldest son, Mike. The Sangiacomo family has been part of my entire wine career. Angelo is now largely retired, but his standards are a crucial part of the family business. I can’t think of anyone I know who is more honorable.
A few years ago, the Sangiacomo family wisely expanded their business into the Petaluma Gap region of Sonoma County with the purchase of a large parcel on Roberts Road, southeast of Petaluma. The region had not yet been given AVA status, but the recognition was imminent. We feel the grapes grown in this area combine the cold weather of the Sonoma Coast with the rocky soil of the eastern hills. The Sangiacomo Family took a chance — as they have many times over the years— and planted this parcel to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. As usual, they were ahead of the game.
We visited the vineyard with Mike in 2006, and learned that a small block of their Pinot Noir section was planted to budwood from the old Joe Swan Vineyard in Forestville. I knew Joe’s vineyard well—I helped him prune it for years— and we immediately struck a deal to buy 100% of the fruit from this ‘Selection Massale’ parcel. The vines had never been heat-treated to eliminate leaf-roll-virus, and I’d heard from several of the French producers in Burgundy that there was an advantage here as a result. The crop from this ‘vegetatively propagated’ parcel is small—rarely more than 4 or 5 tons—but the fruit is impressive, with an elegance that we find in few California Pinot Noir bottlings.
In 2019, we harvested just under 5 tons from the parcel, picking late in the season, on September 24. The grapes were in excellent condition—plump and ripe—and the exotic aromas were readily apparent. We de-stemmed about 50% of the fruit, then pumped it into a six-ton stainless upright. The native-yeast fermentation began in a week, and lasted about 30 days. We then drained and pressed the tank, then pumped the new wine to 60-gallon François Frères barrels—25% of them new—where it was aged for one year. The finished wine was bottled in September 2020, without fining or filtration. I’m amazed at the similarity between this wine and a classic Côte de Nuits Red like Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. The common thread in both is one I enjoy finding in every bottle I open.” —Bruce Neyers
In 1999, Bruce and Barbara Neyers purchased and renovated a winery on a thirty-acre parcel in the Sage Canyon area of Napa Valley. Over the next 14 months they built a modern, highly functional winery designed for traditional winemaking practices. They produced their first vintage in this state of the art facility in 2000. In 2002, Wine and Spirits Magazine named Neyers Vineyards the Artisan Winery of the Year.
About 25% of our production is Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grown on Bruce and Barbara’s 50-acre, Conn Valley ranch. They purchase additional grapes from a select group of growers, among them the Sangiacomo family of the Carneros District, Will Nord of Napa, the Rossi Ranch of Sonoma County, Markus Bokisch and the Evangelho family.
Even though Neyers Vineyards sits in the heart of the Napa Valley, Bruce's experience with French wine importer Kermit Lynch has had an undeniable influence on their wines. Many of the French producers Bruce has worked with farm organically, make their wines naturally without use of cultured yeast or laboratory designed malo-lactic starter, and bottle their wines without fining or filtration. Neyers barrels are made in France, to our specifications, from wood that we buy in bulk and air dry for three years, two years longer than normal. All of the grapes are picked by hand, into small bins that hold only one-half ton. They are then laboriously hand sorted and inspected at the winery as winemaker Tadeo Borchardt gently guides the winemaking process along. As Bruce says, “No expense has been spared in our grape growing, winemaking practices, or processing equipment, yet customers repeatedly tell us that our wines represent great value in today's highly competitive wine market.” Bruce Neyers produces his own content for the company blog, “Vintner Tales.”
