History
Pat and Duncan Haynes planted twenty acres in 1967 on a nineteenth-century family cattle ranch, planting it under the guidance of Louis M. Martini Sr. For half a century it was a grower's property, supplying Ancien, Failla, Arnot-Roberts and Tulocay among others. Gaylon Lawrence Jr. of Lawrence Wine Estates, which also owns Heitz Cellar, bought it in 2019 for a reported twelve and a half million dollars and and made it an estate label after five decades of selling fruit to other wineries. Matt Taylor makes the wines.
The Site
The southern floor of a collapsed prehistoric caldera in Coombsville, framed to the north by Mount George, with roughly thirty-two acres planted inside a protected amphitheatre bowl. Nothing blocks the path south to San Pablo Bay, so cold marine air and fog pool here first and clear last, and harvest can run into November. The soil is Coombsville gravelly loam over rhyolitic ash and tufa, with a rare seam of diatomaceous earth through the centre of the old blocks.
Vines and Blocks
The 1967 Chardonnay is planted on its own St. George rootstock from the Old Wente selection and is most likely the oldest planting of the variety still producing in Napa. The Pinot Noir terraces are Martini clone, from cuttings taken at Three Palms in the 1960s. A small block of Syrah occupies the coldest, most wind-funnelled corner of the basin.
The Wines
Haynes Chardonnay is taut and reductive, with lemon curd, beeswax and a saline finish rather than tropical weight. The Pinot Noir runs savoury: tart red cherry, clove, forest floor and black tea.