Ballentine is a bit different than many of the other wineries I’ve featured from the St. Helena AVA for a couple of different reasons. To start, they make slightly more wine. Total production for the winery seems to hover at around seven thousand cases, which is hardly a big production operation but there are some nice side effects of having a winery with that level of production.

To start, Ballentine is still able to hand craft specific wines from small portions of their vineyard. They make, for Napa Valley, a reasonably priced small production Cabernet Sauvignon like many of their neighbors but they also make a variety of other varietals such as Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel and Petite Syrah.

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