Thanks for visiting PRIME Napa Valley wines!

Why PRIME?

prime   [prahym]
adj.
           1. first in excellence, quality, or value: a prime example
           2. of the greatest relevance or significance: a prime artifact
           3. of the greatest commercial value: prime real estate

  After working with grapes from all over California, PRIME's winemaker, Ted Henry, launched PRIME Cellars with the 2005 vintage to focus on a prime piece of Napa Valley called Coombsville.  With its cooler temperatures and unique flavor and acid profile, Coombsville was approved as Napa Valley's newest AVA in 2012.  In 2013 we opened our Downtown Napa tasting room at 974 Franklin Street.

Ted remains the winemaker at Napa Valley's Jarvis Estate and has been making wine in Napa Valley since his graduation from UC Davis' winemaking program in 1999.  PRIME wines are extremely limited with production levels of less than 1000 cases annually.  SIGN UP for our new wine club here.

Visit our tasting room in Downtown Napa

974 Franklin St. Napa CA 94559

Reflections from the front window

OPEN!
Please visit us at our new tasting room at 974 Franklin St. in Downtown napa.  We are right across from Oenotri and Norman Rose restaurants as well as the new Andaz hotel.  We're here daily from noon to 6pm, we would love to see you.

PRIME Napa Valley- the Coombsville connection

 © 2003, AirphotoUSA LLC, The Winemaker's Dance by Jonathan Swinchatt and David G. Howell

I love this satellite picture, it really tells the Coombsville story in one image.

Coombsville is the newest area to be considered for American Viticultural Area (AVA) within Napa Valley.  When I started PRIME the concept was to find "prime" vineyard locations within Napa.  I worked with fruit from all over but because of the high quality I kept returning to this Southeastern part of Napa known as Coombsville.  The black line shows the boundary of this new AVA.  It is a dramatic and unique piece of geology.  You can see in the center a hill and then a circular valley around it.  This is what is called the "cup and saucer" and is an indication of the special volcanic soils that lie beneath.

The grapes from Coombsville give PRIME its unique profile of crisp, fresh fruit with higher than usual acid levels and long finishes.  I hope you enjoy drinking the wines as much as I have making them!

Dining in ATL just got better

I've spent a fair amount of time in Atlanta's ATL airport.  Partly because I'm partial to Delta and end up there on connecting flights and partly because I really like Atlanta and its food/wine scene.  I often wander around the airport looking at the food options, riding the train to other terminals hoping for better fare than a TGI Fridays.  Other than the fairly cool piano lounge in terminal E the One Flew South  Sushi meets Southern cooking restaurant is the best I have seen in an airport.  Perhaps it is also the most expensive but sometimes it is worth the cost if you are captive for hours with a delayed flight.

Brian Hannigan was kind enough to send a photo to PRIME of his family enjoying a bottle of PRIME at One Flew South the other day and I wanted to post it here.  That's Susan on the left and Melissa on the right.  I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this picture of a group in an airport across the country enjoying my wine.  Its amazing to see where the few hundred cases of PRIME I make end up!