After leaving the US Marine Corps in 1964, Dick Grace became a stockbroker in San Francisco while he and his wife, Ann, raised Kirk, Mark and Kim in the suburban comfort of Orinda. By the mid-seventies, when the children were teenagers, the idea of moving to the country was holding some allure, and a rundown Victorian that was just out of their price range became both their challenge and their haven. In today's world full of boutique wineries it is hard to believe that the Napa Valley of 1976 really ever existed. At the time, it was just another agricultural region where prunes and walnuts were as viable a crop as grapes, and pig farms dotted the landscape.

Planted with cuttings from the famous Bosché vineyard not far away, Grace Family vineyards started out as a family hobby. The first harvest was picked by family and friends in 1978 and taken to nearby Caymus Winery in the back of a station wagon. Charlie Wagner, the late Caymus patriarch, tasted a bunch of those first 1978 grapes and exclaimed, "You know, Dick, this is damned fine fruit!" And so one of the Napa Valley's first vineyard designated wines came to be produced. Grace Family Vineyards was on its way.

With interest in California wines blossoming, Grace Family Vineyards quickly became the first "cult" wine, which was just as much a surprise to Dick and Ann as to anyone else. That said, let's not forget that Dick's military experience, enhanced by a perfectionist attitude, ensured that no corners were cut. Even if this was to be just a hobby, it had to be done right. It was fortuitous that the family had settled upon a microclimate and soil suitable to making stellar Cabernet.

Since those early days, Dick and Ann Grace have pioneered numerous concepts now practiced throughout the Napa Valley. These include close or European spacing of vines, eliminating the use of pesticides and herbicides in the vineyards, etching and hand-painting large format bottles to be used at charity events as well as currently exploring biodynamic techniques that might positively affect the biology of their terroir.

In 1986 the Graces commissioned friend and architect Jon Lail to design the beautiful gem-like stone winery which now graces the North side of their estate. The winery has offered previous winemakers Gary Galleron and Heidi Barrett—and current winemaker Gary Brookman—a perfect environment to transform the essence of the vineyard in into a bottled form. Kirk Grace, Dick and Ann's eldest son, now manages the vineyard, which he farms organically using biodynamic techniques. Kirk planted an additional one acre upper vineyard in 1985, which was augmented in 1998 with one acre of the Perry family property contiguous to the Graces, increasing production slightly. This increase, however, has hardly made a dent in the list of over 4000 people waiting to be eligible to purchase wine.

Most recently, the Graces have begun to make a small amount of wine from a 1.8-acre vineyard owned by Chotsie and Alan Blank, which—in a circle-of-life fashion—happens to be located next to Caymus. The Blank's vineyard was planted with cuttings from Grace Family Vineyards. But the soil and microclimate at Blank is its own. Not surprisingly, Grace Family wines labeled "Blank" have their own unique character, too.