Terroir

Charles Pritchard first cultivated the difficult terrain in Napa’s eastern mountains in the 1870s. He is reported to have planted 15,000 vines on 15 acres by 1881.  Pritchard's farmstead was known in those times as "Pritchard Hill."

The modern day history of Pritchard Hill began in 1968 when Chappellet was founded.  The 1970’s brought two Long families to the slopes:  Long Vineyards in 1977 and David Arthur who started clearing land and planting vineyard in 1978. Bryant Family came in 1985. We purchased vineyard land to farm in 1988 as did the Harrisons.  The hill was relatively quiet for 10 years until Colgin arrived in 1998, followed by Ovid in 1999 and Continuum in 2008. Today, a dozen concerns farm the slopes of Pritchard Hill.

Pritchard Hill is not in a registered appellation or American Viticultural Area (AVA).  We think of it in the old world tradition as a “lieu-dit”, a distinctive growing area that everyone knows by name.