There are few landscapes as authentically rugged as Circle R Ranch & Vineyards still found in Napa Valley. The 1,189 acres of conservation land has hosted a working ranch since the mid-19th century when William and Dorinda Clarke established the ranch with 500 head of cattle.
Over the years, its prime location at the base of Atlas Peak, known as the Foss Valley, revealed a unique opportunity to vinify some of the land. Today, in addition to being a protected habitat for various wildlife, from black bears and deer to turkeys and golden eagles, with 75 planted acres of vineyard, Circle R grows and sells ultra-premium grapes to some of Napa’s finest wineries, including Chappellet, HALL, Seven Apart, and Beaulieu Vineyards.
With a shared family vision of wine-growing profits providing the support to preserve and conserve the ranch lands for the benefit of its habitat and wildlife, Circle R is unique because the focus is not on making wine to make a profit but to farm the highest quality wine grape possible for winemaking customers who share the same vision. The ranch has burned twice, in 2017 and 2020. Circle R hopes that other large property owners in the greater Napa Valley will follow their example and become better land stewards, cleaning up ladder fuel and dead and diseased trees and brush, thereby preventing or lessening the effects of the next fire.
Established in 1992, the Atlas Peak appellation is one of Napa’s five mountain AVAs. Here, the average elevation of vinified land is between 1400 and 1500 feet, resulting in milder growing temperatures, which lends a premier opportunity to showcase a different style of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a wine grape that typically favors a warm climate but can produce a wine with medium body and pronounced blue and black fruits in cooler climates.
Chappellet Winemaker Phillip Corallo-Titus, has previously praised Circle R for their quality of Cabernet Sauvignon, acknowledging the “combination of high altitude vineyards with rock-laden soils and abundant sun” that results in growing grapes for a “world-class” wine.
Circle R is also unique in that ownership donated 89 of its potential vineyard acres, approved for development, into a 246-acre conservation easement to support the protection of regional wildlife that use the ranch as a migration corridor through the Vaca Mountains.
