Carter Cellars

The story begins in Eureka, where the Carter House Victorian was built in the mid 1980s and later joined by the Hotel Carter and Restaurant 301. For the restaurant, Mark Carter compiled a wine list, and in 2006 Wine Spectator described his Eureka restaurant as Grand Award-winning. Winemaker dinners brought Carter together with Nils Venge, and the two became fast friends. Carter wanted a label without a brick and mortar facility, sourcing fruit from the most renowned vineyards in Napa. Venge crafted the Carter Cellars wines beginning with the first vintage in 1998 and is no longer the winemaker.

• 1998: first vintage, from the Coliseum Block of the Hossfeld Vineyard
• 1999: a Cabernet from the red volcanic soils of the Fortuna Vineyard
• 2000: start of the relationship with the Beckstoffer portion of the original To Kalon Vineyard
• 2001: Merlot from the Truchard Vineyard in Carneros; 2004: Cabernet from the Revilo Vineyard in St. Helena
• 2012: the Weitz Vineyard on the Oakville Bench and the Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard join the portfolio

In 2006 Mark Carter and Nils Venge founded Envy Winery on Tubbs Lane in Calistoga as a permanent home for Carter Cellars, with seventeen acres of estate Merlot, Cabernet and Petite Sirah. The same year brought the Hossfeld Red Blend, a predominately Merlot blend modeled on Château Pétrus. Carter Cellars now receives guests at The Carter Room at 1170 Tubbs Lane, at the base of Mount St. Helena, by appointment. In 2006 Carter made the four-hour drive from Eureka to Napa Valley every few days, and he still splits his time between the hotel and restaurant and the vineyards and winery.

• Envy Winery founded in 2006 by Mark Carter and Nils Venge on Tubbs Lane, Calistoga
• The Carter Room: 1170 Tubbs Lane, Calistoga, CA 94515
• Tastings by appointment

Carter Cellars is made from four vineyards, all farmed by Beckstoffer Vineyards. The Beckstoffer portion of To Kalon in Oakville was first planted by Hamilton Crabb in 1868; Beckstoffer acquired it in 1993 and replanted it between 1994 and 1997 to multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on Bale loam and Bale clay loam. Las Piedras, named for 'the stones', is considered the first vineyard planted in what is now the St. Helena AVA; Beckstoffer acquired it in 1983. Missouri Hopper in the Oakville AVA was acquired by Beckstoffer Vineyards in 1996 and has been protected by a conservation easement since 2002. At Bourn in St. Helena, Beckstoffer Vineyards acquired thirteen almost entirely planted acres in 2010.

• To Kalon (Oakville): The O.G., The Grand Daddy, The Three Kings, The F.RED and The G.T.O.
• Las Piedras (St. Helena): La BAM, La Verdad, Los Compadres and La Bomba
• Missouri Hopper (Oakville): a vineyard-designated Cabernet Sauvignon
• Bourn (St. Helena): a vineyard-designated Cabernet Sauvignon, between the Dr. Crane and Las Piedras vineyards

Five further sites supplied past vintages. The Hossfeld Coliseum in Soda Canyon is steep and terraced, with volcanic soils. The Weitz Vineyard, also known as the Leopoldina, covers sixty-two acres on the Oakville Bench. The Fortuna Vineyard is a fifty-nine acre site on the Oakville valley floor. Revilo in St. Helena was farmed and named by Reg Oliver of El Molino Winery, and the Truchard Vineyards in Carneros were established in 1974 by Tony and Jo Ann Truchard.

• Hossfeld Vineyards, The Coliseum (Soda Canyon)
• Weitz Vineyard (Oakville Bench), sixty-two acres
• Fortuna Vineyard (Oakville), fifty-nine acres
• Revilo Vineyard (St. Helena), its name Oliver reversed
• Truchard Vineyards (Carneros), established in 1974

The estate describes its approach as matching the best grapes from world-renowned vineyard sources with purist, non-interventionist winemaking. Grapes are harvested completely by hand; in the Calistoga winery, under the direction of Russell Bevan, small lots are hand sorted and passed over an optical sorter, then pressed gently. The wines rest eighteen to twenty months in new French barrels with minimal sulfur and minimal racking. Mike Smith produced the wines from 2009 through 2020. Total production runs between 2,000 and 3,000 cases depending on the year, and all bottles are individually numbered. Beyond the vineyard designates, 'Carter' is a Cabernet assembled from barrels of the best sources, 'The Haze' is a Cabernet Sauvignon, and 'The Daze' is a red blend of equal parts Merlot and Cabernet.

• Barrels: Darnajou, Taransaud, François Frères, Vicard and other new French oak
• The G.T.O. is bottled in magnums only, usually less than 400 per vintage
• 2020 production did not include all normal vineyard sources because of smoke taint from the Glass Fire
• The Napa Wine Project reports that an earlier vintage of La Verdad was the winery's first 100 point wine

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://cartercellars.com/, https://cartercellars.com/pages/history, https://cartercellars.com/pages/carter, https://cartercellars.com/pages/vineyards, https://cartercellars.com/pages/to-kalon, https://cartercellars.com/pages/las-piedras, https://cartercellars.com/pages/bourn, https://cartercellars.com/pages/missouri-hopper, https://cartercellars.com/pages/haze-daze, https://cartercellars.com/pages/winemaking, https://cartercellars.com/pages/visit, https://cartercellars.com/collections/current-release. Secondary sources: https://www.napawineproject.com/carter-cellars/, https://www.winespectator.com/articles/carter-cellars-11680. Last verified 2026-10-12. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.