'Urban Winery' Opens in Napa

After working together over 10 years at two different wineries, veteran winemaker Elaine St. Clair and winery executive Laina Brown joined forces to open an urban winery. 

St. Clair and Brown opened St. Clair Brown Winery last month in the city of Napa.

Elaine St. Clair and Laina Brown are not new to developing wineries. As founding president of Black Stallion Winery on Silverado Trail, Brown developed the initial business model, managed the completion of construction, and launched the winery for its opening in 2007.

Prior to that, she was director of marketing and hospitality for Domaine Carneros Winery, where she met Elaine St. Clair. At Domaine Carneros, Brown designed and opened two tasting rooms, started the private dining program, and designed and launched the winery’s website and ecommerce business.

 St. Clair joined Domaine Carneros in 1998 to help develop the winery’s pinot noir program and was involved in the planning and construction of the new pinot noir facility built in 2004.

St. Clair went on to join Brown as winemaker at Black Stallion Winery in 2008 where she developed the winemaking program and the new cellar for the fledgling winery. But when it came to starting their own project, St. Clair and Brown wanted to do something truly unique.

"Most of our team lives in the city of Napa, and the majority of us are within 15 minutes of downtown," Brown said. "In creating this project, we wanted to bring everything that we love about the Napa Valley into the city where, as locals, we have access to it on a daily basis,”

 They approached the Redevelopment Agency and Planning Department in the city of Napa about opening a full production winery in the city. The pair worked closely with the city for over a year to work out the logistics of operating a production facility in the city limits and to find a property with the appropriate zoning.

The project required four use permits to cover everything that St. Clair and Brown planned for the site. It went to public hearing in June 2011 and won unanimous approval on all four use permits by the Planning Commission.

St. Clair Brown Winery brings together a harmonious blend of hand-crafted small lot wines, micro-brew beer, world-class culinary gardens, and a garden-to-table experience that rivals anything in the Valley. It will all come together in the winery’s 60 seat eatery, scheduled to open next year, and in the glass-paned greenhouse tasting room opening this weekend

“We wanted to create an inspiring space; one that reflects the way we live in the Valley. There’s nothing better than sitting around a table with friends for hours on end, eating great food and sharing great wine,” says Brown. 

The greenhouse tasting room also offers a small food menu created around the fresh produce of the garden.

“Where else could you be in the middle of the city sitting on the terrace of a greenhouse surrounded by raised beds and espaliered fruit trees, eating fresh-picked food and drinking hand-crafted wine that was made 100 feet away,” adds Brown. 

St. Clair Brown Winery is located on Vallejo Street across Soscol Avenue from Cuveé Restaurant and the Westin Hotel; a few blocks further is the Oxbow Market. The winery building, which will also feature the micro-brewery and eatery, used to be TEM Machine Shop.

St. Clair Brown’s culinary gardens sit across the street from the winery. The 4,500 square foot garden will include 58 fruit trees and 18 raised beds surrounded by 6-foot-tall espalier trellised fruit trees.

Local architect James Jeffery of James Jeffery Architects, AIA, who designed the recent remodel of Hotel Yountville, was the architect for the project. The owners worked with Jeffery to convert a classic, English-style greenhouse into the small tasting room in the garden. The glass-paned structure is easily visible from Soscol Avenue.

For the winery building, St. Clair and Brown wanted to capture the industrial nature of the buildings in San Francisco. 

“The design for the winery building will include 2-story windows along the South and partial East elevations to allow more natural light into the restaurant and brewery areas. Stucco and steel finishes will give the building a contemporary industrial design, appropriate for its urban setting,” says architect, James Jeffery.

St. Clair brings her signature elegant winemaking style to the brand, which she developed from years of working with sparkling wine and pinot noir. Each wine is approached differently based what will best support the unique character of the vineyard lot.

The St. Clair Brown Winery portfolio includes nine wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel, Rosé of Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and a sweet Muscat. The winery makes less than 200 cases of each wine. All of the wines are hand-crafted from small, independently farmed vineyards across the Napa Valley.

“We currently work with about 15 different growers, which is a lot for a program as small as ours.” St. Clair said.

The relationships that St. Clair has developed over her 28 years in the industry allow the winery to obtain grapes from some of the top vineyards in the Valley.

  “Some of the techniques that we use might seem completely impractical for what we charge for our wine, but we decided from the start that we will not make a wine if we cannot make it the best way we know how. That’s what inspires me,” adds St. Clair.

 The wine menu features half glass, full glass, half bottle and table bottle options. The half glass pours allow guests to try a different wine with each course or essentially create their own tasting.

 Executive chef Norma Whitt was most recently at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville where she developed an affinity for cooking from on-site gardens.

 “We were astounded by the delicate and distinct layers of flavor that chef Whitt achieved in her cooking, and how similar that was to the style of our wines. The food and wine paired naturally from day one,”  Brown said.

The eatery menu will feature a California cuisine that will change daily, and seasonally, based on what is fresh in the garden. The greenhouse will also feature a small food menu with a selection of appetizers, small plates and salads such as grain salad with farro and red quinoa, rosé pickled radish, mustard greens, Sylvetta arugula, pinot grigio soaked white raisins, and a carrot ginger vinaigrette.

 Organic Culinary Gardener Peter Jacobsen, of Jacobsen Orchards in Yountville, who grows for several top Michelin starred restaurants in the Valley including the French Laundry, was brought in to insure that the gardens had the healthiest start possible.

Jacobsen worked with co-owner  St. Clair, who designed the garden, and executive chef Norma Whitt on the selection of the fruit trees and vegetable varieties best suited for the growing site and for the menu requirements of chef Whitt.

 “It's been a huge learning process and also satisfying to be able to start the produce from seed. Watching it grow every day and envisioning how we're going to use it has been very exciting,” Whitt said.

 “Working with the talent of the team at St. Clair Brown has been amazing. Everyone has the same vision of wanting the best, not only in the wine, food, and guest experience, but in each other as a team,” said Whitt.

 The greenhouse tasting room offers open seating; no reservations are necessary. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.