When Heitz Wine Cellars opened in 1961, the Napa Valley had fewer than twenty wineries.
Today there are more than two hundred.
The original winery on St. Helena Highway is still open to the public as a sales and tasting room for visitors and is a glimpse into the origins of Heitz Cellars. Within a few years Heitz Cellars had outgrown the original premises and purchased the present 160-acre residence and ranch on Taplin Road, a narrow fold in the hills just east of St. Helena. The home property was originally developed as a vineyard and winery in the 1880s by the Swiss-Italian family of Anton Rossi. The beautiful old stone cellar built in 1898 has made the transition through time and the Heitz family continues to mature fine wines within, carrying on the tradition of the art of fine winemaking in the Napa Valley. Growth has always been slow and calculated with quality and consistency of utmost importance.