Lail Vineyards was founded by long time Napa Valley vintner Robin (Daniel) Lail and her family. Robin’s history in the Napa Valley is significant and deeply rooted. Her great-grand uncle was Gustave Niebaum the founder of Napa’s iconic Inglenook Winery. Her father was John Daniel Jr. who inherited the great Inglenook winery from his father (and was instrumental in helping put Napa Valley on the wine map in many ways). Robin co-founded Dominus in 1982 with her sister Marky and famed winemaker Christian Moueix (General Manager of Château Pétrus in Pomerol) built around Napanook Vineyard near Yountville, co-founded Merryvale Vineyards with Bill Harlan – where she was President of the winery for 12 years, was general manager at the prestigious Meadowood Resort and was Robert Mondavi’s personal assistant for a number of years, in 1981 helped form the inaugural Napa Valley Wine Auction (now one of the country’s largest)… the list goes on.

In the early 1990s Robin began thinking of creating an outstanding wine to honor her ancestors’ history in the Napa Valley; the first vintage of Lail wines was in 1995. Well regarded Philippe Melka has been their winemaker since the beginning; in fact, Lail Vineyards was his first wine consulting job in the Napa Valley. Robin first met Philippe at Dominus at the beginning of his career. Today Philippe is the winemaker for a number of small premium producers mostly based in Napa. In the past he has been voted American Winemaker of the year by Robert Parker in Food & Wine Magazine. Philippe has a geology degree as well as a degree in enology and agronomy (he knows his Napa terroir very well) and especially enjoys working with Napa hillside vineyards. For someone with such recognition, he is one of the most down to earth winemakers we have met on this project.