2021 Haynes Vineyard Pinot Noir Forgeron Coombsville

Some of these vines were in the ground before man walked on the moon. That's not marketing — it's the oldest Pinot planting in Napa.

Haynes Vineyard sits in the coolest corner of Coombsville, inside the collapsed caldera of an ancient volcano. In 1967 the family gave André Tchelistcheff permission to plant Pinot Noir and Chardonnay here — those are now the oldest Pinot and Chardonnay vines in all of Napa Valley. The Lawrence family, only the third owners in the site's history, turned it into a single-vineyard, single-estate winery starting with the 2020 vintage.

Forgeron is the "what we build" bottling — a barrel selection off the oldest, low-density Martini-clone vines. Winemaker Nico Cueva, who ran the cellar at Kosta Browne, works with a light hand: whole clusters, restraint, oak used only to frame the fruit. The result drinks like cool-climate Burgundy wearing a Napa address — bright, floral, red-fruited, and built on acidity rather than weight. Medium-bodied and energetic, it's a table wine in the best sense: pour it with duck, salmon, or a mushroom risotto and it earns its keep.