Fabled Napa wineries rewriting their scripts

Rebranding means posh tastings, higher prices

When Heitz Cellar unveiled its renovated stone tasting room earlier this year, it had the feel of a Michelin-starred restaurant, complete with jazz music and pristine white linens. It serves wine from fancy decanters on a bar cart and slices Iberian pork tableside. Most of the staff hail from top-tier fine-dining restaurants like the French Laundry and Per Se.

The cost of its luxurious tasting room experiences ranges from $125 to $1,000 per person

But it wasn’t that long ago that Heitz, founded in 1961, was one of the last Napa Valley wineries offering free wine tastings in an understated setting. The winery’s dramatic transformation embodies a greater Napa Valley trend among the region’s most historic estates, which are fighting to stay relevant.

In the decades since pioneering wineries like Heitz, Robert Mondavi Winery, Charles Krug Winery and Clos du Val got their starts, Napa has evolved from a sleepy agricultural town to a glamorous, world-renowned travel destination with more than 500 wineries. Somewhere along the way, these brands got lost in the shuffle, slipping from the pedestals they had occupied throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Their tasting rooms became outdated — at least compared with the multimilliondollar visitor centers cropping up around them — and their wines less fashionable.

“Would you buy a Louis Vuitton purse if you walked into a store that looked like a J.C. Penney that hadn’t been remodeled in 10 years? When you talk about wine as a luxury item, you have to provide a luxury experience,” said wine business analyst Rob McMillan, who founded Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division. “You

“When you talk about wine as a luxury item, you have to provide a luxury experience.”

Rob McMillan, wine business analyst

Robert Mondavi Winery Napa pioneer Robert Mondavi, founder of Robert Mondavi Winery, speaks in the barrel room in the late 1970s.