History
The ground belonged first to George C. Yount, founder of Yountville. Charles Hopper bought it and gave it to his daughter Missouri in 1877, and under the Hoppers it grew wine grapes, prunes and walnuts. Bruce Kelham folded it into the historic Vine Hill Ranch in 1960, and Beckstoffer bought it from the Kelham family in 1996, placing it under a conservation easement in 2002, the model later extended across the Heritage collection.
The Site
Forty-six gross acres, 36 plantable, just north of Yountville in the Oakville appellation, nearly flat on deep Bale clay loam that gives the vineyard its plush, velvet-textured signature.
Vines and Blocks
Cabernet Sauvignon in multiple clones, including the 4 and 337 of the small Williams Selyem block whose first vintage came in 2019.
The Wines
Missouri Hopper designates from Alpha Omega, Venge, Carter, Taub, Sojourn and Fait-Main show Oakville's softer voice: dark cherried, round-tannined Cabernet that drinks earlier than its benchland neighbors.