Behrens Family Winery

Behrens Family Winery began in 1993 when Les Behrens and Lisa Drinkward partnered with Bob and Lily Hitchcock to produce their first vintage of 175 cases under the Behrens and Hitchcock label. Before entering the wine industry, Behrens and Drinkward operated Folie Douce, a restaurant in Arcata, California, where Behrens also worked in construction and woodworking. The couple moved their winemaking operations from a garage in Humboldt County to Napa Valley in 1997 and later purchased property on Spring Mountain in 1999. Following the retirement of the Hitchcocks in 2005, the winery briefly operated under the name Erna Schein, which was the name of the mother of Les Behrens, before adopting its current name in 2009. The estate continues to be family operated with Les and Lisa at the helm and their son Sean involved in the production.

The winery is located at the summit of the Spring Mountain District, overlooking the Napa Valley from a high elevation site near the Sonoma County line. Rather than relying solely on estate fruit, the producers source grapes from approximately ten vineyards across Napa and Sonoma counties, including sites in Calistoga, St. Helena, and the Oak Knoll District. Specific vineyard sources include the Moulds Vineyard and Ritchie Creek Vineyard. Winemaking follows a manual, low intervention approach that Behrens describes as low tech. Grapes are fermented in small one ton bins and punched down by hand before being gravity fed or moved to French oak barrels. This process is designed to maintain the character of each vineyard lot without heavy industrial processing.

Behrens Family Winery is recognized for producing small lots of intense red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon and proprietary Bordeaux style blends. The winery gained prominence for its distinct labeling practices, which use simple yellow labels for single vineyard wines and modern American art for its various blends. Notable releases include The Heavyweight, Spare Me, and The Road Les Traveled, which often receive high scores from critics like Robert Parker and Jeb Dunnuck. The production remains limited, typically releasing only six or seven different wines each year. This focus on small scale production has earned the winery a following among collectors of bold, mountain grown California reds.