Spring Mountain Vineyards

The winery at Spring Mountain Vineyards.

Spring Mountain Vineyard is a 225 acres (0.91 km²) vineyard consisting of 135 different vineyard blocks scattered over the 845-acre (3.42 km²) estate in California's Napa Valley.

The elegant Victorian mansion, known on the estate as Miravalle, was commissioned by Mexican-American businessman Tiburcio Parrott in 1884, and designed by architect Albert Schroepfer. Schroepfer designed several other homes in similar elegant style, for example The Rhine House at Beringer Winery.

The original winery was also established in 1884 by Parrott. The current vineyards are on the eastern slope of Spring Mountain at elevations varying from 400 feet (120 m) to 1,450 feet (440 m). Spring Mountain Vineyard achieved international recognition when it achieved fourth place among French and American wines at the historic Judgment of Paris wine competitionin 1976. It also won a Gold Medal (the only California wine to win a Gold) for its flagship wine, '05 Elivette, and a Silver Medal for its '06 Cabernet Sauvignon in Decanter magazine's 2010 World Wine Awards.

The estate now includes four adjacent vineyards including the 435-acre (1.76 km²) La Perla, 257-acre (1.04 km²) Miravalle, 120-acre (0.49 km²) Chevalier, and 33-acre (130,000 m²) Streblow (Alba). La Perla Winery and Vineyard were originally established in 1873 by Charles Lemme. The La Perla Winery building is still standing. This property contained the first Cabernet Sauvignon on Spring Mountain. The adjacent Chevalier and Miravelle properties were also established during the 19th century.

Falcon Crest

From 1981 until 1990, Spring Mountain Vineyards became internationally famous to television viewers as the setting for the CBS drama series Falcon Crest. Cast and crew would film exterior scenes here for six weeks each summer before relocating to Los Angeles to shoot interior scenes. The mansion, as well as the many acres of surrounding vineyards, served as the fictional home of ruthless matriarch Angela Channing, played by the late Jane Wyman.

The series centered on two factions of the same family fighting for control of the family wine making business, and was created by The Waltons producer, Earl Hamner. It ranked in the Neilsen Ratings Top 30 for six out of its nine seasons (three of which were in the Top 10).

References

Further reading

• Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.

External links

• Spring Mountain Vineyard