BigHammerWines.com

Krutz Family Cellars began with a chance stop at a small wine-and-cheese shop in Carmel nearly thirty years ago—a place where Fred and Cherry Krutz first fell for wine, and where their son Patrick would later work, learning winemaking hands-on from some of Monterey’s best.

What started as Patrick’s 60-case hobby project in 2003 quickly outgrew its “family and friends” origins. By 2011, his brothers Bryan and Cole joined him, and the winery settled into its home in Sonoma County—still family-owned, still rooted in Southern values symbolized by the Magnolia on every bottle.

From the start, the Krutz philosophy has been simple: build the best wine possible by taking full control of farming and never cutting corners in the cellar. Their portfolio is shaped by long-standing relationships with iconic California vineyards—Beckstoffer Georges III in Rutherford, the Pisoni and Franscioni families’ Soberanes Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands, the legendary Stagecoach Vineyard on Pritchard Hill, and Martinelli Road in the cool, fog-soaked Green Valley of Russian River. Each site was chosen for two reasons: exceptional terroir and the people who farm it.

The result is a winery defined by precision, place, and a relentless pursuit of quality—an approach that converges beautifully in wines like the 2023 Krutz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, crafted from some of the most storied Cabernet vineyards in the valley.

The 2023 Napa Valley vintage isn’t just another great year – it’s the year that will be etched in history. Wine experts are calling it "the vintage of a lifetime," and for good reason. The perfect blend of cool temperatures, morning fog, and balanced sunlight created conditions so exceptional, they’re being compared to Bordeaux's iconic 1961 vintage. As The Wine Independent put it, 2023 is "a winemaker's dream in terms of wine style." Wine Bible author Karen MacNeil calls it "one of the most phenomenal vintages ever in Napa Valley." This is Napa at its finest, with wines of depth, power, and elegance that will be the talk of the wine world for decades to come.