Conn Creek Winery

About Winery and Wines

When Bill and Kathy Collins purchased 54 acres of Zinfandel vines in northern Napa Valley in 1968, there was not much of a market for fine wine in the U.S. But at the time they were content hauling the grapes down to their Los Altos Hills home and making wine in a friend’s basement. Little did they know that in less than a decade they’d make a wine that Robert Parker would call “one of the great classics of the seventies, as well as a testament to what heights California Cabernet Sauvignon can achieve." By 1979, they outgrew the facility they’d been leasing for several years. So Bill Collins, working primarily with his vineyard crew, built what is now the Conn Creek Winery in the Rutherford appellation. In what was perhaps the first “green” winery building in Napa Valley, they installed 12”-thick walls made of styrofoam, steel mesh, gunite and a total of 20,000 corks. This energy-efficient design--ground-breaking for its time--drew the attention of architects from all over the world. Variations on this type of construction have been used in buildings and wineries worldwide ever since.

“Napa” is a Native American word for plenty, and there could not be a more appropriate word when it comes to the complexity and flavor of Conn Creek wines. We achieve this by sourcing from prized vineyards in nearly all of Napa Valley’s renowned sub-appellations.