Sinegal Estate

The Free Bacchus Story

Alton Williams bought this land in 1879 and planted its first vines in 1881, at the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains just outside St. Helena. It became known as the Inglewood Estate, and its big house served for a time as a summer hotel and a boarding school. A lawn now grows where that first vineyard stood.

In 2013 it was bought by David Sinegal and his father, Jim, who co-founded Costco and ran it as chief executive from 1983 to 2011. David had worked at Costco for 21 years himself. He moved his family onto the property, so that he can, as the winery puts it, sleep at the office.

The winery describes him as having an obsessive eye for detail, and the vineyard shows it. He split the vines into small blocks, and the 2013 harvest was picked in 30 separate passes rather than all at once. Sensors report on temperature and soil moisture, so the team can water a single vine in a single row. The winery counts 1,403 steps in making its wine and says its operations now run entirely off the grid. There is a two-acre lake on the estate, fed by a stream, with herons and geese.

The organic certificate is recent and specific. CCOF has certified the estate’s crops since October 2023, on 9.27 acres. There is no certificate for the winemaking, so the wine is not certified organic. Not every bottle is estate fruit, either. The winery describes its 2022 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon as coming from the estate and neighbouring vineyards, and the lower-priced Details by Sinegal range includes a Sauvignon Blanc from the wider North Coast.