Our Vineyards

Year round Michael works closely with a number of exceptional growers from Carneros as well as other regions, including southern Napa Valley, whose vineyards range in size from just 1 to 150 acres. Each vintage, our four red wines are intuitively created from the selection and complex blending of many diverse vineyard lots. By maintaining family-business values to produce and market their wines, the Havens and Scotts offer a unique experience both at the winery and through the enjoyment of Havens wines.

What is a vineyard block?

When we select a certain “block” of vines to harvest separately, we are trying to isolate conditions that produce grapes of specific qualities. For instance, a vineyard may have several different soil types, more clay, more gravel, more or less water retention. It may have a variety of exposures if it is hilly, which changes the sun and wind incidence on the vines. Further, the grower may have planted on different rootstocks, then adopted a different trellis or pruning system to compensate for some of these natural factors. All these things affect grape composition, and we try to keep together those grapes having the most in common. This is important so that we can plan how to care for a wine in crushing, fermentation, and early aging. In short, we try to eliminate “wild cards” from our grape sources. We want complexity in our wines, but we don’t want it from random variation, which can lead to nasty surprises. We want to invite the wine from each block into its appropriate blend, once it shows its true personality after fermentation.