History
The rancher James Horn first planted here in the 1870s. The Italian immigrant Domenico Barberis arrived in 1902, bought the property in 1907 and had vines in by 1908. Frank Barberis replanted the core blocks in 1964, replacing his father's pre-Prohibition wood. Felicia Woytak and Steven Rasmussen steward the property now, and between 2015 and 2025 they ran a block-level grafting and planting campaign overseen by Graeme MacDonald of MacDonald Vineyards. The estate label, Palisades Canyon, revives the property's pre-Prohibition ghost winery; Robert Biale continues to take an allocation.
The Site
A 796-acre property in a narrow canyon at the base of Palisades Road, about a mile north of Calistoga, with 17.5 acres under vine and over five hundred contiguous acres under a permanent wildlife and nature conservation easement. The vineyard runs along the canyon floor at 400 to 500 feet, directly beneath the sheer volcanic cliffs of the Palisades formation. Those west-facing walls absorb solar radiation all morning and radiate it down onto the vines by mid-afternoon; cold air draining out of the high canyons at night is what balances it. Soils are the skeletal alluvial wash of Horns Creek: volcanic cobbles, gravelly sand and weathered igneous debris.
Vines and Blocks
The 11.5 acres of Petite Sirah are the historic heart, head-trained and free-standing on St. George rootstock, dating from 1964 and the early 1970s. The newer plantings add 4.5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon field-grafted from budwood taken at old Napa Cabernet properties, small cells of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, and half an acre of Chenin Blanc in the damp riparian shade along the creek. Everything is dry-farmed and certified organic.
The Wines
Biale's Palisades Petite Sirah is opaque and structural: blueberry, black plum, rose petal and wood ash over thick, powdery tannin, with acidity the canyon's night air preserves.