Welcome to Crane Family Vineyards!

For the past twenty years, I have grown grapes and crafted wine on this hillside, the Don Raffaele Estate, a vineyard nestled on the instep of Napa's Mount Veeder. The vineyard was named for my late father, who introduced me to the art of winemaking many years ago; and the brand was named after my wife's family.   The microclimate of our small valley is one of the best kept secrets in the Napa Valley. Its terroir is similar to the well-respected vineyards of the Pomerol region of Bordeaux, imparting intense and unique flavors to the grapes grown here. It has been our great pleasure over the years to share with our family, friends and club members, the best that we can take from the land that is in our stewardship.
Peter Chiarella, winegrower

THE HARVEST
The wines that are being offered by us this year were made from grapes harvested in 2007. The weather that year began with a heavy dose of rain that lasted through early spring. We had few heat spikes and virtually no rain in summer and fall. Temperatures were very steady, climbing into the low 90's during the day and dropping to the middle 50's at night for much of the summer. It was a late and abundant harvest. While large harvests are not known to produce the most intense wines, we do not believe that will be the case for this vintage. Thankfully, the long "hang time" due to the late harvest and the near-perfect weather heightened the vines' ability to ripen and mature the grapes, resulting in what we believe will become a notable vintage.

THE WINEMAKING
The careful pruning and nurturing of the vines on the Don Raffaele Estate virtually assures that we will consistently produce grapes that we can count on for flavor and aroma. Because of the large amount of fruit on the vine, we cut away a portion of the clusters early in the growing season to allow the remaining fruit to benefit from moderate crop size. This means that winemaker Alison Doran was able to extract a more intense juice from the grapes and convert it into a delectable wine. As always, we hand picked and sorted each cluster on the day of harvest to ensure that only the dark, ripe fruit is included in the fermentation. Afterwards, the wine was placed in an assortment of the highest quality French and American oak barrels to add the flavors of wood and vanilla. Very gentle handling of the wine from vineyard to bottle was employed, a process that is vital to producing our standard of quality.