The Estate
Forty four years ago, Richard Thornton Boswell had the foresight to create a Napa Valley winery with the goal of excellence in small lot French Style wine production with wines sold directly to the client. The Wall Street Journal remarked upon his unique concept of a "Boutique" winery at a time when the other 71 wineries in the Napa Valley sold mostly through distribution. Chateau Boswell remains among a handful of privately owned family wineries amidst the 554 wineries in the Napa Valley today.
RT’s vision was to focus solely on the noble Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon varietal in his hand hewn stone winery nestled along the Silverado Trail in Saint Helena. For the last 25 years the winery has been under the direction of Susan Boswell who continues her husband’s love of Cabernet Sauvignon yet has expanded her portfolio to include Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from many of California’s most treasured vineyards. Our pursuit remains true, to craft, quite simply, the greatest expression of terroir.
Famed winemaker André Tchelistcheff graced our winery with his immense knowledge and directed our first efforts. It is with a great sense of history and continued quest for excellence that we continue on this path under the tutelage of consulting winemakers, Philippe Melka and Keith Hock, who both work closely with Allison Nunnikhoven, Winemaker for Chateau Boswell.
We have sought to capture California’s purest representation of terroir from Napa Valley’s storied Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard to Northern Santa Barbara’s spectacular Rita’s Crown, Radian and Bentrock Vineyards, Santa Maria Valley’s renowned Bien Nacido Vineyard, Sonoma Coast's Sun Chase Vineyard, and then soaring to the glorious Russian River Valley for our Purrington Rued, UV, and Dutton Sebastopol Vineyard designated Chardonnays.
Our quest remains to produce wines that express the unique characteristics of their vineyard source. Our vineyard designated wines are true to their source with each of these wines being very limited in production with less than 350 cases per bottling.
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At Château Boswell we have always strived to be responsible to our community's ongoing dependence upon a strong environmental structure. Our Estate vineyards and landscaping are all maintained organically by hand labor and with this closeness to our land and fruit we have developed a very sensitive and attention to detail approach to the production of our hand crafted wines.
In 2007 Château Boswell became the first winery to be certified Napa Green. In 2010 the entire Château Boswell property was also certified as a Napa Green Land property.
2023 marks the 44th Anniversary of Chateau Boswell and it is fitting that this is also the 5th certification for Chateau Boswell under the Napa Green program with each re-certification earned by continuing to go above and beyond to preserve, protect and restore the environment of Napa County. The Napa Green program assists in meeting the goals of California’s and Napa County’s Climate Action Plans as well as providing a very important part of the 6 pillars of sustainability; Climate Action, Energy Efficiency, Waste prevention, Water Conservation, Regenerative Agriculture, and Social Equity.
Without the talented skills of our growers, vineyard and winery employees we would not be able to produce the beautiful wines for which we have become known. The Napa Green program recognizes the importance of supporting our community both environmentally and economically.
The Napa Green Program sets the bar high with required monitoring and auditing of our water and energy use and recycling percentage as well as land management practices required to protect the Napa Watershed. Government agencies certify only after compliance with the Napa Green Program standards and all State, Federal, and local regulations. Chateau Boswell has been Deep Green,100% Marin Clean Energy from renewable energy non fossil fuel resources, since the inception in Napa County.
For a preview visit of our Estate Experience you may watch our video on Vimeo by Creel Studios in Los Angeles.
