Patz & Hall Winery

Patz & Hall grew out of a friendship formed in the 1980s at Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards in Napa Valley, where James Hall was assistant winemaker and Donald Patz was national sales manager. Hall had joined Flora Springs in 1983 and spent four years there making barrel-fermented, small-lot Chardonnays. In the spring of 1988, while working as winemaker and estate manager for Honig Winery, Hall teamed up with Donald Patz, Heather Patz and Anne Moses to make and release Patz & Hall's inaugural Napa Valley Chardonnay. The wines were made at Honig in Napa Valley until 2006. Before Flora Springs, Hall studied liberal arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he met Anne Moses, then transferred to the University of California, Davis, to study viticulture and enology, and took his first winery job at Felton-Empire in 1981.

• Founding partners: James Hall, Donald Patz, Heather Patz and Anne Moses
• First wine: the 1988 Napa Valley Chardonnay
• Hall and Donald Patz met while both worked at Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards
• Wines made at Honig in Napa Valley until 2006

In 2016 the founders sold Patz & Hall to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates; the purchase price was not disclosed. At the time of that sale the winery produced about 35,000 cases a year from more than 30 vineyard sources around California. In March 2024 James Hall repurchased Patz & Hall from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, returning the winery to independent hands after eight years of corporate ownership. No purchase price was disclosed for the 2024 deal either. Annual production in 2024 was about 40,000 cases, with about two dozen bottlings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in any vintage plus a trio of sparkling wines. Wine Spectator described Patz & Hall as an early powerhouse for both vineyard-designated and regional blends of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, consistently scoring 90+ on its 100-point scale.

• 2016: sold by the founders to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, price not disclosed
• March 2024: repurchased by James Hall from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, price not disclosed
• Production: about 35,000 cases in 2016; about 40,000 cases in 2024

James Hall, Founder and Owner, has guided the Patz & Hall winemaking program since 1988. James McCeney is Director of Winemaking and oversees the winemaking in close consultation with Hall, who hand-selected him as his successor. McCeney stepped in as senior winemaker in May 2023. He had served as Patz & Hall's assistant winemaker in 2012 and 2013, worked harvests at the Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy, in Hawke's Bay in New Zealand and in the Barossa Valley in Australia, earned a postgraduate degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis, and gained experience at Donum, Dutton Goldfield and Acacia before making wine at Lewis Cellars. Moses-Hall Vineyard in Carneros surrounds the family home of co-founders Anne Moses and James Hall.

• James Hall: Founder and Owner; winemaking lead since 1988
• James McCeney: Director of Winemaking; senior winemaker from May 2023
• McCeney was Patz & Hall's assistant winemaker in 2012 and 2013
• Anne Moses: co-founder; Moses-Hall Vineyard surrounds her and Hall's family home

Patz & Hall owns no vineyards and relies on long-term arrangements to buy grapes from growers including Larry Hyde, Lee Hudson, Charlie Chenoweth, Gary Pisoni and Joe and Steve Dutton. The relationship with the Hyde family began in 1990 and is the winery's longest-standing grape purchase partnership, first with Larry Hyde and now with his son Chris, at Hyde Vineyard in Carneros. In the Russian River Valley, Charlie Chenoweth planted a vineyard on his home ranch to Patz & Hall's specifications in 2000; his vineyard management company now oversees Chenoweth Ranch, Bootlegger's Hill, Jenkins Ranch and Little Boot Vineyard. Patz & Hall's partners at Dutton Ranch in the Russian River Valley are Gail, Steve and Joe Dutton. Moses-Hall Vineyard, bought in 1999, sits on a knoll between the Hudson and Hyde vineyards in southern Carneros and is planted to five Pinot Noir selections. Pisoni Vineyard is in the Santa Lucia Highlands.

• Hyde Vineyard (Carneros): Patz & Hall partner since 1990
• Chenoweth Ranch (Russian River Valley): planted in 2000 to Patz & Hall's specifications
• Dutton Ranch (Russian River Valley): Steve, Joe and Gail Dutton
• Moses-Hall Vineyard (Carneros): bought in 1999, five Pinot Noir selections
• Pisoni Vineyard (Santa Lucia Highlands): Gary, Mark and Jeff Pisoni
• Kent Ritchie Vineyard (Russian River Valley): source of a vineyard-designated Chardonnay

The current Chardonnay releases are the 2023 Sonoma Coast, Dutton Ranch, Hyde Vineyard, Kent Ritchie Vineyard, Soberanes Vineyard and Bootlegger's Hill Vineyard bottlings. The current Pinot Noirs are the 2022 Sonoma Coast, Bootlegger's Hill Vineyard, Burnside Vineyard, Chenoweth Ranch, Gap's Crown Vineyard, Hyde Vineyard, Jenkins Ranch, Little Boot Vineyard, Moses-Hall Vineyard, Pisoni Vineyard and Sanchietti Vineyard. The Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir draws on grapes from growers including the Dutton family, Charlie Chenoweth, Mark Sanchietti and Lee Martinelli, while the Gap's Crown Pinot Noir is held back an extra year compared with the other Pinot Noirs. The sparkling wines, inspired by James Hall's visit to Champagne, are made by the traditional method from California sites with nearly five years of en tirage aging. The 2025 harvest began on August 25 with Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay for the sparkling program.

• Chardonnay (2023): Sonoma Coast, Dutton Ranch, Hyde, Kent Ritchie, Soberanes, Bootlegger's Hill
• Pinot Noir (2022): Sonoma Coast plus ten vineyard-designated bottlings
• Sparkling: traditional method, nearly five years en tirage

Patz & Hall says its winemaking approach has been refined over decades to "reveal the distinct identity" of the sites it works with. Chardonnay grapes are hand-harvested in the early morning, sorted in the field and again at the winery, and whole-cluster pressed; the juice goes with its lees into 100 percent French oak barrels, where fermentation proceeds slowly, often finishing in early winter. All Patz & Hall Chardonnays undergo malolactic fermentation and are bottled without filtration. The winery describes the result as Chardonnay that is "rich and pleasing, yet pure and light on its feet." Pinot Noir is sorted in the vineyard and at the winery and fermented in open-topped fermenters; depending on site and vintage, up to 10 percent of the clusters go into the fermenters whole, and a proprietary punch-over device breaks up the cap. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels, of which 50 to 70 percent are new. Patz & Hall works directly with the François Frères and Seguin Moreau cooperages, with stave wood air-dried and seasoned for three years.

• Chardonnay: whole-cluster pressed, barrel-fermented in French oak, malolactic, unfiltered
• Pinot Noir: up to 10 percent whole clusters, proprietary punch-over device, 50 to 70 percent new French oak
• Coopers: François Frères and Seguin Moreau, staves seasoned three years

The working winery is at 21200 8th Street East in Sonoma. As of October 2026, the new Sonoma House, a renovated Craftsman bungalow just south of the Sonoma Plaza, is open for tasting experiences. The winery's membership program is called the Salon Society.

• Working winery: 21200 8th Street East, Sonoma
• Sonoma House tasting room: just south of the Sonoma Plaza
• Membership: the Salon Society

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.patzhall.com/, https://www.patzhall.com/story/, https://www.patzhall.com/growers-vineyards/, https://www.patzhall.com/winemaking/, https://www.patzhall.com/visit/, https://www.patzhall.com/collection/wines/, https://www.patzhall.com/collection/chardonnay/, https://www.patzhall.com/collection/pinot-noir/, https://www.patzhall.com/collection/sparkling/, https://www.patzhall.com/journal/. Secondary sources: Wine Spectator (19 April 2016), https://www.winespectator.com/articles/purchasing-pinot-ste-michelle-wine-estates-buys-patz-hall-53035; Wine Spectator (18 March 2024), https://www.winespectator.com/articles/patz-and-hall-founder-james-hall-buys-his-sonoma-winery-back; The Press Democrat (18 March 2024), https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2024/03/18/james-hall-reclaims-patz-hall-promising-a-return-to-its-sonoma-roots/. Last verified 2026-10-19. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.