Oakville Real Estate
(Napa County, California
The marketing and viticultural genius of Robert Mondavi coalesced historically in Oakville to remake the California wine industry in the mid 1960's. Begin to appreciate the vaunted world of pristine Napa Valley real estate with an informative tour of the Mondavi winery (after a quick snack at the Oakville Grocery). This is a great first stop for anyone looking to get a head start on the Napa Valley wine experience, not to mention those on the hunt for some of the best grape-growing dirt in the world.
Read more about Oakville and Mondavi's famous To-Kalon Vineyard.
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Premium Napa Valley Real Estate--and Wineries to Match
Oakville real estate is a rare thing indeed. It commands steep prices due to the combination of soil quality, aesthetics, and Oakville's world renown as one of the world's highest quality wine growing regions. On your way to the Mondavi winery, stop into Oakville Grocery--the closest thing Oakville has to a non-winery landmark. Does one elbow-bumping little grocery story constitute a downtown? Thankfully it does not! And the residents who prize the tranquility and transcendant beauty of their Oakville paradise, are just fine with that. The town of Oakville earns its own link on this website for the same reason as its famous neighbor to the immediate north, Rutherford. It's a tiny post office address of only a few hundred inhabitants, but the wines produced here sit at the pinnacle of the world's best offerings. A list of the wineries of Oakville includes The Robert Mondavi Winery, Opus one, Nickel & Nickel, Silver Oak, Groth, Plumpjack and Far Niente, among others.
Oakville Real Estate sits in and around Many Famous Viticultural Areas
While Oakville, itself, stands as its own world-recognized American Viticultural Area ("AVA"), it is also adjacent to, or minutes away from several other notable AVA's, namely, the Rutheford AVA, the Yountville AVA, Stags Leap AVA, Oak Knoll AVA and Mt. Veeder AVA. (We can help you find premium estates and vacant land in any of these officially designated viticultural areas, and can also assist in the evaluation of existing vineyards or areas that have potential for planting of premium vineyards.) When considering a purchase of Napa Valley real estate in Oakville, a patient focus and a well-connected premium broker like Sotheby's will serve you well.
Learn Some of Oakville's History--To Kalon and Far Niente
The To Kalon Vineyard. Although a post office was first established in Oakville in 1857, it was not until the 1870’s that the idea of Oakville as a recognized wine growing region began to take hold. A gentleman named H. W. Crabb is credited as the first person to commercialize Oakville's grape-growing potential. His 130 acre vineyard had an initial production of 50,000 gallons. He called his vineyard To Kalon, a Greek word meaning, the “most beautiful.” Today, much of the land that was once Crabb’s To Kalon vineyard is now owned by the Mondavi Winery and is the centerpiece of their reserve family of wines. If you take the Mondavi tour (which we highly recommend) you will be walked up to a landing in the main winery building where one of the tour guides will proudly invite you to turn your gaze out over the gorgeous To Kalon vineyard. You are looking at the history of Oakville, and indeed the Napa Valley, that in which Robert Mondavi played such a pivotal role.
Far Niente Winery. Another historical focus of Oakville centers on the origins of the Far Niente winery, founded in 1885 by John Benson. Benson purchased 400 premium acres in Oakville in 1873, had his first production in 1877 (15,000 gallons) and, in 1885, retained H. W. McIntyre to build the famous winery, which is a must stop if you are touring wineries in Oakville. McIntyre is also famous for his other Napa Valley creations: The Inglenook Winery (now Francis Ford Coppola’s Rubicon Estate, just up the road in Rutherford) and the majestic stone edifice called "Greystone" 15 minutes north in Saint Helena (formerly Christian Brothers Winery, and now the home of the Culinary Institute of America and Wine Spectator Restaurant). McIntyre’s original conception for the building at the beautiful Far Niente winery has been lovingly restored, and is an unforgettable experience--along with the wines.
Something Else You Should Know when considering Oakville Real Estate
The Napa Valley (in Napa County) is geographically separated from the Sonoma Wine country (Sonoma County) by the natural barrier of the Mayacamas mountain range. There are only a few routes to get from the Napa Valley over to the neighboring wine destinations in Sonoma. Here in Oakville you will find one of those routes: the road known as the Oakville Grade. The Oakville Grade is a winding half hour jaunt that will take you up one side and then down the other of the Mayacamas mountain range beginning in the Napa Valley--at Highway 29, and ending in Sonoma, at Highway 12. (Patience is a virtue). For those that want the wine country, but prefer the privacy of a wooded perch up in the hills, there are frequently many luxury estates offered in these hills between Napa and Sonoma. Save your searches for Oakville real estate and you will hear about these opportunities the minute they come on the market. As a small subset of the diverse offerings of Napa Valley real estate, Oakville is truly one of the great treasures in our Napa wine country.
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© 2009 All Rights Reserved. Matthew R. Hooper
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