Napa Wineries Push Growth Plans

NAPA VALLEY, CA — Two Napa wineries are seeking approvals from the Napa County Planning Commission that could significantly change their operations. Barnett Vineyards in St. Helena is asking to increase wine production by 10,000 gallons, add events, and accommodate more daily visitors in a new tasting room. Meanwhile, Diamond Creek Vineyards on Diamond Mountain Road is pursuing a lot line adjustment and updated permits to reconfigure its parcels, consolidate winery operations, and ensure compliance with county regulations. Both projects involve changes to staffing, visitor access, and site improvements, and will be discussed at the Jan. 7 meeting.

The first involves a permit to double wine production, allow larger and more frequent events, and add a new tasting room and office at Barnett Vineyards Winery in St. Helena.

The winery is located at 4070 Spring Mountain Road.

The owners, Hal and Fiona Barnett want to add more events and tastings as well as increase their annual wine production from 20,000 gallons to 30,000 gallons. Plans also call for new 1,700-square-foot tasting room and office. The new winery building would be atop an existing flat shelf on the hillside.

The request would add nine annual events: four with a maximum of 20 guests, three with a maximum of 60 guests, and two with a maximum of 100 guests.

Daily tours and tastings would be scheduled on the same days as marketing events.

The new plans also call for 30 daily visitors to the winery for by-appointment tours and tastings, with a weekly maximum of 210 visitors. They would increase their current 5-person full-time staff to nine employees.

About 1,150 square feet of vineyard would be removed. Parking would be doubled — to 12 spots.
The project also includes a 12,000-gallon fire protection water tank.

The project would be at least 51 percent screened within five years through new landscaping, including myrtle and red maple trees, marina strawberry trees and shrubs, while maintaining required defensible space and meeting state fire safety standards, according to documents.

Diamond Creek Vineyards

The second involves Diamond Creek Vineyards, an estate company known for cabernet sauvignon now owned by the French Maison Louis Roederer.

The winery on Diamond Mountain Road is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m on Monday-Saturday with a daily maximum of 22 visitors — 47 visitors per week.

Diamond Creek wants to convert the standing 7,540-square-foot winery into to a
single-family home, and construct two new buildings, including a 23,245-square-foot winery building, and 2,170-square-foot shop.

They will be changing their marketing strategy with more events, but fewer people overall.

Diamond Creek Vineyards was built in an unincorporated part of Napa County, near Calistoga, within the Agricultural Watershed. The property consists of two neighboring parcels under the same ownership: one approved for winery use and one containing a residence. The problem is that the existing property line cuts through the footprint of a proposed new winery structure, creating a legal and zoning conflict.

To fix this, the owner will first apply for certificates of compliance for both parcels. These certificates formally confirm that the parcels were legally created and meet county requirements. Once those certificates are approved, the owner will then file for a lot line adjustment, which will shift the boundary between the two parcels.

The adjustment would place both the existing winery building (to be converted to a residence) and the new winery facilities on a single winery parcel, while the existing home would remain on a separate residential parcel. All winery improvements would be confined to the winery parcel, except for limited driveway improvements.

The reconfigured winery parcel would total about 73 acres, including roughly 20 acres of vineyards, with access via a shared private driveway crossing a historic 1885 stone bridge on Diamond Mountain Road. Surrounding uses include residences, vineyards, wineries and a resort under construction.

The history of Diamond Creek Vineyards’ approvals dates back more than 50 years and reflects several changes in the originally permitted uses. The original use permit, approved in 1972, allowed production of 5,000 gallons of wine. In 1977, a second permit authorized storage and shipment of bottled wine from the cellar of the owner’s nearby residence. In 1980, Napa County approved construction of a new 5,000-square-foot winery with production increased to 10,000 gallons, with plans showing a winery on the ground floor and a residence above it, although the residential portion was never built, according to the application.

The current governing permit, approved in 1997, allowed a 4,000-square-foot second-story addition to the winery, set staffing at five employees, limited visitors to trade-only tastings capped at 10 per day and 10 per week, and authorized five marketing events of up to 100 people each. A key condition of that approval required all winery operations — including offices and storage — to be located solely on the winery parcel, restricting the residence to personal wine storage and a wine library. As a result, the earlier permit that allowed winery activities in the residence was effectively ended.

According to permit application, the vineyard plans to replace an existing irrigation well near Diamond Mountain Creek with a deeper well located farther from the stream to reduce potential impacts on surface water. The winery would also cut water use through conservation measures, including transitioning two vineyard blocks to dry farming, resulting in a reduction in annual water use from 11.92 to 11.46 acre-feet — about 25 percent of the site’s estimated average annual groundwater recharge.

The item will be continued at the Jan. 21 meeting.