TURLEY WINE CELLARS, St. Helena, Napa
Turley Wine Cellars was founded in 1993 when Larry Turley sold his share of Frog’s Leap Winery, a winery he had started with partner John Williams in 1981.
From the beginning, Turley focused on Zinfandel & Petite Sirah, and for the first vintage Larry relied on his sister Helen as winemaker. Today, Turley now makes over 50 different wines from over 50 different vineyard sites spread across California. Many of these ‘old vines’ date back to the late 1800s and by farming organically and focusing on old vine vineyards Turley aims to both create and preserve California’s unique winemaking culture. Three boutique wineries in three different regions fits perfectly with this philosophy. Old vines are a precious part of California’s heritage, and while others choose to rip out these vines for Cabernet Sauvignon, bringing the winemaking close to the vineyards is their way of controlling and protecting the small yields of these incredible sites.
In 2013, long-time assistant winemaker Tegan Passalacqua moved into the senior role. Tegan is a Napa native, a ‘winemaker’s winemaker’ and a brilliant vineyard manager. He joined Turley in 2003 as a harvest intern and gained further experience at Craggy Range (NZ), and Alain Graillot (Crozes-Hermitage). As Director of Winemaking, Tegan is responsible for overseeing all the vineyards as well as winemaking at all 3 of Turley’s wineries. He is ably assisted by winemakers Karl Wicka at the Paso Robles facility, and by Nick Finarelli at the Amador winery.
The early style of wine has certainly evolved, especially as Tegan has exerted more influence. His vineyard management has brought alcohol levels down, while maintaining intensity. All the vineyards, whether owned or leased, are either Certified Organic or in process to certification. The wines are big, but focused, with rich flavours that balance acidity & tannins with lovely texture. In the cellar, only 20% new oak is used, 80% of which is Burgundian, 20% American. Only natural yeasts are used in fermentation. The wines are Vegan-friendly.
Larry’s eldest daughter Christina joined the business in 2010 as Director of Sales & Marketing having previously been the wine director for the Momofuku restaurants. She has the unenviable task of managing Turley’s huge mailing list, carefully allocating out the wines to their customers. Afterall, the production is only approximately 30,000 cases, an average of just 600 cases per wine.
