Hundred Acre Wine Group buys 286-acre Calistoga property

A month after Jayson and Helen Woodbridge expanded their growing portfolio of Napa Valley wineries and vineyards, they have done it again.

Hundred Acre Wine Group on Friday said it acquired the 286-acre Kelly Fleming Wines property on the eastern slopes of the valley northeast of Calistoga. The deal includes 12 acres of planted vineyards, a 5,000-square-foot stone winery with 7,000 square feet of caves, a commercial kitchen and a stone residence on an adjacent knoll. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed.

For winemaker Jayson Woodbridge, the caves and the vineyard were key to the deal for the property at 2339 Pickett Road in Simmons Canyon off Silverado Trail. For seller Kelly Fleming, it was a desire to continue the legacy she’s built over three decades.

“After 26 years, I frankly was worn down by struggling with Napa County and its regulations, seeing the very long-term impact of the Glass Fire on the property and also, in general terms, the climate in the Valley, with no support for small family wineries,” Fleming said in an email. “With Jayson, the estate stays in one piece. That’s very important to me — rather than have the property be divided, adding more houses, more development. It’ll stay together.”

Fleming acquired the property in 1998. Consulting viticulturist Jim Barbour planted the Cabernet Sauvignon vines the following year, and the first wines were released in 2002. The winery building, permitted to produce 12,000 gallons annually, was finished in 2010.

The brand’s current releases, available now through the website, are 2019 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2021 Big Pour and 2023 Sauvignon Blanc. The next release is a collection of 2014-19 of Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2019 The Bear & The Bee Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2023 Queen Bee, a proprietary reserve Sauvignon Blanc.

Fleming plans to continue making Cabernet wines, but said she hasn’t finalized the details.

Hundred Acres has immediate plans for the property. It will harvest the grapes this year for what will become a vineyard designate. Barbour is set to return to oversee the vineyard. And wine will soon be moving into the caves.

“This acquisition will allow for more barrel fermentations in the caves, which is a very space intensive process but central to Hundred Acre’s and Fortunate Son’s micro fermentations, style and strict pick regimen,” the company said in the announcement.

The Fleming property is next to a 115-acre Hundred Acre ranch with its 5-acre Few and Far Between Vineyard, and both properties have the same soils.

“Between the two vineyards there are only 17 acres of vineyards, but they are the best in the world,” Woodbridge said in the news release.

In July, Hundred Acre purchased Madrigal Vineyards, a 10-acre property between Calistoga and St. Helena. It has 8 acres of planted vineyards, a winery, appointment-only tasting room, garden and small private estate.

In 2022, the company bought a historic 1870s-era 18-acre vineyard at Calistoga’s Larkmead Lane and the corner of Highway 29, now called True Romance Vineyard.

Four years ago, Hundred Acre acquired the historic David Fulton Ranch, one of the first vineyards and wineries established in Napa Valley in 1860 and the seventh house built in St. Helena.

Source: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/industrynews/hundred-acre-kelly-fleming-081624/