History
Grapes were first planted here in the early 1860s, and the two-storey stone and wood winery went up in 1885, built for Emil Zange and now one of the ghost wineries left over from Napa's first boom. Joseph Varozza, a St. Helena blacksmith, bought the property in 1913, and five generations of the family have farmed it since. Jack Varozza runs it now, with Kristy Melton consulting on the winemaking since 2010. Robert Biale has bottled a Varozza Zinfandel since 2007.
The Site
About thirty-seven acres lying flat at 250 feet along Prat Avenue just north of St. Helena, at the confluence of the Napa River and York Creek. The soil is deeply layered gravelly alluvial loam and stony river wash. Drainage is fast enough to restrict vigour hard, and berries frequently come in the size of blueberries.
Vines and Blocks
Seventeen blocks and eight varieties. The old Zinfandel core sits on the western section nearest the ghost winery, head-trained and free-standing. Blocks 3 and 9 hold Cabernet Sauvignon with wood more than sixty years old, among the oldest producing Cabernet in the St. Helena AVA. Block 4 is old-vine Petite Sirah on the gravelliest, hottest southern pocket. The whole estate is dry-farmed, with the historic blocks on St. George rootstock.
The Wines
Biale's Varozza Zinfandel is dark and peppery with rustic tannin. Bell Wine Cellars takes Cabernet Sauvignon from the property. The estate's own Cabernet, aged three years in French oak before release, is the traditional St. Helena style: cassis, graphite and cocoa over a mineral persistence from the creek gravel.