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Feature Article

Chiles Valley profile

The secluded Chiles Valley lies in the eastern hills of Napa Valley and offers a terroir best known for Cab, Zin, and Sauvignon Blanc.

Chiles Valley ~ Napa Valley (AVA)

Chiles Valley Isn’t Hot, But It’s So “Cool”

by Alan Goldfarb
November 30, 2007

To pinpoint the defining characteristics of Chiles Valley, Alan Goldfarb talked with Green & Red Vineyard’s Jay Heminway, a pioneer of the AVA that is the focus of this 11th part of APPELLATION AMERICA’s The Napa Valley Series, profiling every current sub-AVA in Napa Valley. What Goldfarb found was an off-the-beaten-path growing region that gives us a glimpse of what Napa Valley was like 35 years ago.


DropCap T36 he tourists don’t often get to Chiles Valley, one of the more remote grape growing regions of the Napa Valley. But if one were to travel east for about five miles on the two-lane Highway 128 that starts its climb at Conn Creek on the Silverado Trail, there are untold rewards. As you drive past the allures of Lake Hennessy or some of the famous wineries on Pritchard Hill, such as Chappellet Winery. and Bryant Family Vineyard, Chiles Valley (pronounced CHYels) doesn’t so much open up, but reveals its hidden self through the trees and the fog.

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