280 Feet Through a Volcanic Ridge
Should you decide to visit us at Fantesca Estate & Winery, it will quickly become clear that there is a fair amount of stone cleared from the hillside above our winery building. Indeed, the weathered volcanic rock you see on this flank of Spring Mountain suggests that the site once served as a stone quarry. While the quarry remains only a rumor, its excavation implied an ideal site for a wine cave.
At the time a cave was being considered for the property, Napa County was enforcing strict controls about wine cave construction. Because each landowner in the county retained mineral rights, however, the property’s owner at the time claimed the excavation to be an abandoned silver mine.
As the story goes, after digging a straight line for 280 feet and finding no silver, two additional digs branched out from the center of the “mine” in a perpendicular direction. As you might guess, no silver could be found here either!
Today, the cross-shaped wine cave at Fantesca Estate & Winery stretches 280 feet through Spring Mountain’s eastern ridge. The cave provides ample room to age Fantesca’s boutique-style Napa wines and to store the wines of other winemakers who utilize Fantesca’s custom crush facilities.
