Silverado Bench Vineyard
Surrounding the winemaking facility, the 142-acre Silverado Bench Vineyard is William Hill Estate’s home vineyard. Situated in the Napa Valley on the rolling hillside of Silverado Bench, just north of Napa, just east of the Napa River and just south of Stags Leap District, Silverado Bench Vineyard offers superb growing conditions for Bordeaux grape varieties. When planted in the 1980s, the vineyard included several acres of Chardonnay, but recent replanting has eliminated that grape: today the vineyard is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, with smaller plantings of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.
The Silverado Bench Vineyard’s microclimate features foggy mornings, warm days and cool bay breezes in the late afternoon. Exposures here are primarily southerly and westerly, so most of the Cabernet Sauvignon blocks enjoy full sun throughout the afternoon. The few blocks with eastern exposure are planted to Merlot and Cabernet Franc, which prefer less direct sun. The soils are a mixture of well-drained gravelly loam and slightly denser clay loam; both esteemed for producing lush, deeply fruited Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes.
