Storybook Mountain Vineyards (Seps Estate) is one of Napa Valley’s northernmost wineries (almost to the Sonoma County line north of the town of Calistoga). The winery and vineyards are located far from all the traffic and tasting rooms commonly found further south; this is a quiet and peaceful part of Napa Valley. One comes to Storybook for several reasons; its history, the relaxed and informative tastings – but mainly one comes for the premium Zinfandel. Most Napa wineries who produce Zinfandel perhaps only offer one or two wines from this variety; Storybook is one of Napa Valley’s few wineries where Zinfandel is the core of their production.

Storybook is an extremely historical winery; one of the three famous Napa Valley “Jacobs” originally founded it in the 1880s, Jacob Grimm, who was later joined by his brother Adam. The other two famous Jacobs were Jacob Schramsberg and Jacob Beringer, both of whom founded well-known Napa wineries in their own right. The Grimm’s were from family that has been and still is involved in the wine industry dating back to 1540 (in Germany). During the 1880s Zinfandel was one of the varieties planted on site.

The property is 120 acres of which some 43 are planted to vine of which these vineyard acres are organized into 105 unique blocks. Initially the Seps planted the property entirely to Zinfandel (with the advice of one of Napa’s most well regarded viticulturists, André Tchelistcheff) and only produced wines from this variety for 2+ decades, but over time they learned that certain parts of the land was more suited to other varieties and today about 20% of their vines are non Zinfandel including their only white variety, Viognier. The oldest vines on the property date from 1976. One of their blocks is highly unique for Napa Valley – planted in double rows, essentially a row of grapes with two vines in tight spacing planted directly across from each other.