Cliff and Patricia Ehrlich first discovered the Napa Valley in 1967 on a driving tour of California with their one year-old daughter, Susan. Newly settled in Southern California from the East Coast, they had taken the suggestion of their neighbor to visit wine country and were immediately smitten. 

The Valley was not yet established as a mecca for wine lovers. A Visitors Map featured ten wineries, eight open for tasting.  A visit to Charles Krug, Inglenook and the Robert Mondavi Winery, which had opened only a year earlier, sparked an interest in wine that led to a procession of return visits over the next thirty years. As interest turned into passion, Cliff and Patricia made the decision to become vineyard owners in 1998 with the purchase of a ten and a half acre property in the heart of Oakville.