2020 Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay, Napa Valley

The Cakebread Cellars Story

In 1974, Jack Cakebread was a full-time mechanic with a garage in Oakland, and a hobbyist photographer, albeit a very talented hobbyist photographer who just happened to be a student of Ansel Adams. Jack even had his landscape photography displayed in the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Neither he nor his wife Dolores had the slightest pull to go into the wine business.

But, as fate would have it, all of that changed when Jack got a call from Crowne Publishing, who asked him if he could step in for an injured photographer and take over the shoot for an upcoming book about the American wine industry called, “A Treasury of American Wines” by Nathan Chroman. 

The assignment took Jack Cakebread from Oakland to Napa Valley, where he photographed Robert Mondavi, Joe Heitz, and the winemakers at Christian Brothers and Beringer. When he got to talking to Mondavi, who would go on to mentor Jack, he found Mondavi’s passion contagious. On a lark, as he and Dolores were driving back home to Oakland after one of the shoots, they stopped by an old family friend’s ranch in Rutherford, and, somewhat jokingly, somewhat not, told the family that if they ever wanted to sell the ranch, he and Dolores would buy it.

When they got back to Oakland, the phone was ringing and the rest is history. 

From the First Cakebread Cellars’ Vintage to Today

Cakebread produced its first vintage in 1974 with 157 cases of Cakebread Chardonnay. Although Cakebread is famous for their chardonnay today, the inaugural vintage of the brand’s Chardonnay was made with grapes purchased from growers in Carneros, not from the Cakebread estate.

At the time, Jack had only planted Sauvignon Blanc at his new ranch turned vineyard. He thought that if the wine didn’t sell, he and Dolores, whose favorite wine was Sauvignon Blanc, wouldn’t mind drinking it themselves. Sounds like a pretty good plan!

For seventeen years Cakebread Cellars was a side project of sorts, and the couple split their time between Jack’s mechanic business in Oakland and the Napa Valley vineyard. It wasn’t until 1994 that they were able to commit to being full-time Napa Valley vintners.

It was a slow and steady process, but one that saw the husband and wife team turn 22 acres and 157 cases, into 1,600 acres and 200,000 cases a year.

Cakebread Vineyards

Cakebread didn’t become one of Napa Valley’s most well-known wineries by resting on their laurels. Beginning in 1982, Jack began purchasing surrounding properties whenever they became available. 

Today, Cakebread owns or farms 16 vineyard sites, 11 of which they own, that reach from Napa Valley, to Carneros, and all the way up to Mendocino County. All in, the company owns just over 1,600 acres of vines on prime grape growing land. Maintaining these diverse vineyards provides them with grapes from warmer climates, cooler climates, those on mountainsides, and those hit by coastal breezes. 

The range of grapes that winemaker Stephanie Jacobs has to work with allows Cakebread to create some stellar bottles. The 2016 Cakebread Dancing Bear Ranch Cabernet received a 100 point score from Robert Parker.  

Cakebread Cellars Garden and Culinary Program 

Dolores and Jack Cakebread were a close-knit team. While Jack focused on the nuts and bolts of the wine side of the business, Dolores was busy looking for ways to bring a warm, welcoming food-driven experience to their new project, and the greater Napa Valley. Interactive features that would show their customers that they were interested in providing true hospitality, in addition to their well-crafted wines. 

To that end, Dolores created an acre garden on the property with fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and a pollination program. She hosted culinary workshops, like the American Harvest Workshop and invited local chefs, and she encouraged guests to look at wine as a lifestyle experience. It wouldn’t be understanding things to say that Dolores was instrumental in Napa Valley growing into the food destination that it is today.