The Tonella family can speak to “Rutherford dust,” that almost mythical expression of terroir ascribed to the central Napa Valley region. “After more than 100 years and four generations of growing,” says Steve Tonella, “I thought it was time to make the finished wine.”

The four-generation pact with Rutherford fruit began with a serendipitous meeting between Tonella’s great-​uncle Joseph Ponti and Georges de Latour himself of Beaulieu Vineyard. A relationship was born, and Ponti spent 43 years at BV, becoming chief of operations and acquiring his own vineyards along the way. Tonella’s grandfather eventually took over those vineyards, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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