Green & Red Vineyard

Green and Red Vineyard is Napa Valley's most delightfully off-the-grid winery, a rustic, one-man operation in the Chiles Valley District that has been producing old-vine Zinfandel with zero pretension since 1977. Founded by Jay Heminway, a former Brooklyn journalist who traded his typewriter for a vineyard, Green and Red occupies 30 acres on a remote hillside where the green serpentine and red iron-rich volcanic soils that give the winery its name are visible in the dirt beneath the vines. Heminway has been farming and making wine here for nearly five decades, and the estate remains resolutely uncommercial.

The vineyard sits in the Chiles Valley District, one of Napa's most isolated appellations, accessible via a winding road that discourages casual visitors. The old Zinfandel vines, some planted in the 1970s, have reached the age where they produce small clusters of intensely flavored fruit. The combination of volcanic soils, warm Chiles Valley temperatures, and the low yields of mature vines creates Zinfandel of unusual depth and complexity. A small block of Sauvignon Blanc provides the fruit for a refreshing, mineral-driven white that is among the most underrated wines in the valley.

Jay Heminway makes the wines himself, without a team of assistants or a consulting winemaker. The winemaking is straightforward and traditional: hand-harvested fruit, gentle fermentation, aging in a mix of French and American oak, and minimal fining or filtration. The Zinfandel is the star, a wine that captures the wild, brambly character of old vines without the overripe, high-alcohol excess that plagues many California Zinfandels. The Chardonnay is crisp and unfussy, and a Sauvignon Blanc of genuine personality completes the small portfolio.

Visiting Green and Red is an adventure. The drive into the Chiles Valley is scenic and lonely, passing through oak-studded hills and cattle ranches before arriving at a modest farmstead that bears no resemblance to the polished tasting rooms on Highway 29. Tastings are conducted by Jay himself, often standing in the cellar surrounded by barrels, and the conversation ranges from viticulture to philosophy to the writing life he left behind. At $35, the tasting is one of the cheapest in the valley, and the wines can only be purchased at the winery or through the mailing list.

Green and Red represents the independent, back-to-the-land spirit that brought many of Napa Valley's original modern winemakers to the region in the 1970s. Jay Heminway has outlasted every trend, every boom and bust cycle, and every corporate acquisition, producing wine on his own terms from his own land. For visitors willing to make the drive, the estate offers a glimpse of what Napa Valley was like before the luxury era, when winemakers were farmers first and brands never.