Sequoia Grove          

In 1978 Jim Allen bought a 24-acre vineyard located in the Rutherford district, a microclimate similar to that of Pauillac in Bordeaux.  Jim’s brother Steve took charge of the vineyard.  The ninety year-old barn was converted into the winery which took its name from the surrounding ancient Sequoia trees.  A new winery was built in 1987 and was home to Napa Valley’s first completely subterranean cellar, which maintains a year-round temperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit.
Further accolades in those early years were “American Winery of the Year” (Wine & Spirits), “Cream of the California Cabernet Crop” (The Wine Spectator), “America’s Most Consistent Cabernet Producers” (Wine & Spirits), “Best 1991 California Chardonnay” (Quarterly Review of Wine), “The Top 10 Best Bets” (Bon Appetit), America’s Best Cabernet, “Top 100 Wines in the World” (The Wine Spectator).  In the 1990’s Sequoia Grove continued its tradition of producing award winning wines—especially its Cabernets.  Among many accolades were gold at the Concurs Mondial Bruxelles, and 94 points for the 1997 Reserve, Wine Enthusiast, November, 2000.  In 2003 Sequoia Grove’s 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon was accorded “Best of the Best” by the Quarterly Review of Wines.  In 2004 a very special wine was released called Semper V, an extraordinary blend of the talents of owner Jim Allen and his brother Steve Allen in partnership with some of the best parts of their estate vineyard in Rutherford, home to the greatest Cabernet growing soils in the world.  This is an “Ultra-Premium” wine and will only be produced in stellar growing seasons.   Semper V, the latin abbreviation for Sempervirens (the winery’s namesake trees), continues to be hand selected from barrel lots to give the best that Sequoia Grove has to offer.

            James Allen sold Sequoia Grove winery to his marketing company, the Kobrand Corporation, in 2004.