For 22 years, Ray Signorello Jr. has been practically hiding in plain sight and flying under the supersized oscilloscope of Napa Valley’s radar. The reasons are three-fold:

• First, while Signorello makes wine under the considerable umbrella of the Napa Valley at his Signorello Vineyards, his property is in an area that is caught amidst and alongside such notable sub-regions as Stags Leap and Oak Knoll. Without a specific American Viticultural Area (AVA), Signorello Vineyards unjustifiably gets squeezed like so many salmon working their way up an ever narrowing river.

• Second, while many in the valley make ripe, unctuous, forward wines that jump out of those same waters while glistening in the sun, Signorello produces restrained, balanced wines that are more akin to those from Europe.

• Third, Ray Signorello, while born in nearby San Francisco, is an outlier of sorts, having spent his formative years growing up in Vancouver, where he still returns occasionally.

The secondary and tertiary reasons are facts of Signorello’s philosophy and life. With the first though – the one about a man without a sub-appellation – he has occasionally been involved in talks to that effect. But at best, the discussions have been staged in fits and starts with no clear direction.

For some time now, a small but growing litany of wineries and growers, stuck as they are immediately south of the Stags Leap District and east the Oak Knoll District of the Napa Valley, have been holding periodic discussions aimed at possibly forming their own AVA. Considering the bustling vagaries of the wine business, and the plodding of the bureaucracy that decides such matters, another proposed sub-appellation—this one on the Silverado Trail north of the city of Napa -- is most assuredly years off, if it comes to fruition at all.

For the nonce, however, Ray Signorello goes about his business, making wine from estate grapes – which actually straddle the Trail with 45 acres (soon to be 51) on the east side in the de-regionalized side and on the west side, which actually sits in the Oak Knoll AVA.

He also purchases grapes from three storied Carneros vineyards, from which he makes a trio of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs; and from the historic Luvisi Vineyard in Calistoga, from which he makes an old-vine Zinfandel.

In all, Signorello produces a little more than 7,000 cases annually that range in price from $25 for a white Bordeaux-style wine he calls Seta (Italian for silk) and a $100 red Bordeaux blend named Padrone, for his deceased father Ray.

Signorello talked by cell phone to APPELLATION AMERICA recently about the possible new AVA and what it is about his vineyards that he believes adds discernible distinctions to his wines.