Bill and Jane Ballentine of William Cole Vineyards have engineered a modern-day renaissance of sorts.

In 1999, the couple became aware of a historic St. Helena home on the market for the first time in 60 years, prompting the successful St. Helena vintner and his family to discover the estate’s rich past while sparking an all-consuming passion to restore the regal structure to its former glory.

Over the last five years they have painstakingly restored and revived one of St. Helena’s oldest and historic wineries, the J.C. Weinberger Winery, founded in 1876.

In the process, the family learned it was one of St. Helena’s most important and productive early wineries with founder John Weinberger being an influential leader and businessman in early St. Helena.

Weinberger, a nurseryman from Ohio, purchased his 240-acre estate from Caroline Bale, daughter of early St. Helena pioneer Dr. Edward Bale. After establishing his estate and bonded winery, Weinberger became a founding member of the original St. Helena Viticultural Society, becoming its first treasurer while serving with such noted fellow vintners as Charles Krug, Dr. H.W. Crabb, Connely Conn and Seneca Ewer.

City’s first murder

At the apex of his career as successful vintner and community leader tragedy struck. Weinberger was murdered in broad daylight on March 21, 1882. The Napa County Recorder’s front page story reported how a recently discharged Weinberger winery employee tricked Weinberger with a fraudulent telegram and awaited the vintner at the Lodi Train platform in St. Helena, shooting him point-blank. It was believed the young man sought revenge because Weinberger found his former employee’s interest in his daughter Millie “distasteful,” and believed him a bad suitor for her. The infamous event is also believed to be St. Helena’s first homicide.

“John’s funeral procession up Spring Street had just about the entire town following behind all the way to the cemetery,” said William Cole proprietor Jane Ballentine. “My research has shown he was well-liked and had a lot of friends. His pallbearers included Charles Krug and the Beringer brothers, who were very good friends.”

First woman vintner

In the wake of the tragedy, Weinberger’s widow Hannah was left to assume control of the winery and by some accounts may have become Napa Valley’s first woman winemaker.

“It (the winery) took three years but it was built to last generations and is one of the first stone wine cellars in Napa Valley,” added Ballentine. “Hannah was possibly the first Napa Valley woman winery owner, since she ran the winery until Prohibition.”

The winery ceased production at the onset of Prohibition in 1920 and remained vacant until 1938 when the Harrison family of San Francisco purchased the remaining estate and commissioned famed architect Bourne Hayne to convert the top two levels of the now dilapidated gravity-flow winery into a summer residence.

The beautiful white Victorian-era mansion Weinberger built for the family had become a victim of time and neglect. Hayne informed the new owners that restoration would be lengthy and costly and as a result the old home was razed. The old winery remained a seasonal residence until Bill and Jane set the ball in motion to acquire the historic property in 1999. Researching the home’s history, Jane Ballentine found that it didn’t end with Prohibition.

Thomas Church garden

The backyard garden was designed by Thomas Church, a famous landscape artist in 1938 and the garden is basically intact to his original design, with many camellias, hydrangeas, and olive trees, she said. “His original landscape drawing is framed in our house. We found it in the attic.”

The estate also included two original horse-drawn coaches belonging to the Weinbergers.

Today, the estate totals just five acres of the original 240, largely due to John Weinberger Jr. selling off parcels over the years so the family could retain the residence and winery buildings.

Winery restored

Beginning in 2002, the old winery underwent a thorough refurbishing from its 1938 conversion. The bottom level, the original barrel room, is now William Cole Vineyards, a fully operational 5,000-square-foot winery. Two and one-half acres of the estate are planted to cabernet sauvignon with the possibility of an additional half-acre in the future. In 2004 the renaissance was complete as wine was once again being produced at the old winery for the first time in almost 90 years.

Bill Ballentine, a third-generation vintner with family roots stretching back more than 100 years in Napa Valley winemaking, manages the two and one-half acres as well being William Cole’s winemaker. A long time consulting winemaker, Bill has agreed to take on a few clients whose wines he will produce in the historic structure.

The family’s current release, a 2003 William Cole “Cuvee Claire” is produced primarily from the estate’s 10-year-old cabernet sauvignon vines. The wine is 100 percent cabernet sauvignon blended from small hand-picked lots, then aged for up to 36 months in French oak. The 2003 vintage produced only 315 cases. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered and is packed in three-bottle wooden boxes, exhibiting the same premium on presentation as the meticulous hand-crafting of the wine itself. The wine is released in the fall and offered to those on the winery’s mailing list.

The proliferation of collector circles and speculators looking for the next “cult wine” have turned their attention to William Cole, making Bill Ballentine cognizant of the fact he will never have the production to meet growing demand. On the advice of trusted fellow vintners, he has resisted submitting his wine to trade publications for reviews and scores knowing this will only exacerbate the scarcity issue.

“As a winemaker, I’m also a craftsman,” he said. “Wine is very personal for many of us and I can only create what I can coax from the land,” adding, “and of course we’re never going to be able to craft enough to meet demand.”

Looking to the future, son Cole and daughter Claire have expressed a desire to carry on the family winemaking tradition, perhaps for generations to come. Actively involved and eager to learn the business of growing grapes and making wine, Cole has committed to collegiate viticulture studies in a few years; a commitment and determination not lost on his father.

“This is a long-term commitment,” said Ballentine. “What we don’t achieve in my lifetime for this estate, my children most likely will.

“We’re pleased with what we’ve achieved so far and we’re excited about the future.”

(Editor’s Note: Shaun McDonald is a St. Helena resident and a wine industry consultant, whose clients include William Cole Winery.)

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