In 1968 Eugene Trefethen and his wife Catherine, had an idea for a retirement project. After decades as CEO of the Kaiser Companies (which included working on the construction of the Hoover Dam, the Shasta Dam, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Liberty Ships to name just a few), he acquired seven farms around an historic Napa Valley winery and re-created an estate famous in the late nineteenth century. The Winery Estate property totaled nearly 600 acres, with another 250 acres across the highway in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains, Gene and his son John set about planting the best grapes for these diverse soils, which range from loam to gravel.
Gene was a captain of industry, a visionary, who had great insight into what was about to explode in this great valley. Keep in mind that the Napa Valley in the mid-1960's had a very different profile from the world-renowned wine region of today. Just a few decades ago, at the inception of this project, there were less than thirty wineries in operation in the Valley. Compare that with over 200 today. In '68, the primary agricultural crop was walnuts! This was an exciting and unpredictable time, at the beginning of what would be the renaissance of Napa Valley's winemaking.
The Trefethens sold their grapes to Napa Valley's best wineries and in 1973, John and his wife Janet started a winery so that these grapes could be showcased with an identity of their own. In the early years, production was very limited. By the release of their third vintage of Chardonnay, it was acclaimed "Best Chardonnay in the World" at the World Wine Olympics held in Paris. The legacy continues to this day with an unsurpassed passion for winemaking at this family-owned estate vineyard and winery.
Janet and John are very involved in the vintner community and lead active lives with their teenaged children, Hailey and Loren. Janet is a top-ranked equestrian in the sport of "cutting" and John likes things that go fast, from motorcycles to racecars to jet airplanes! They were honored in 1998 as "pioneers" in the Napa Valley at the Wine Spectator's California Experience, quite a feat for a couple of kids just out of college when this adventure began.
