Napa’s east side: Soda Canyon to the Stags Leap hills
A walk north along the foot of the Vaca Range: off the gravel fan at the mouth of Soda Canyon, over the volcanic hill east of Oak Knoll, and up toward the Stags Leap palisades. Tap a layer to read it.
Swipe the plate sideways to see the whole section.
Schematic. The line runs SSE to NNW for 8.1 km, from 38.348° N 122.277° W, on the flats below the mouth of Soda Canyon, to 38.416° N 122.3125° W, on the hills above Stags Leap. It follows the foothills, so it runs along the slope rather than down it. Grassi is placed at the foot of Soda Canyon Road, on the bench just off the Silverado Trail that the Napa Wine Project describes. Signorello is placed on the hill east of the Silverado Trail opposite Oak Knoll Avenue, from its address and the lie of the ground; its block lines are not mapped. Tom Fazika is placed from the grower’s description, “just south of the Stags Leap District”, and is approximate. The Stags Leap District itself lies just west of and below the north end of the line; its boundary is not drawn. The Soda Creek fault is real but its trace is poorly located (USGS rates it “poor”); it is drawn only roughly, at the mouth of Soda Canyon. The order of andesite over rhyolitic tuff follows the palisades and is simplified here. Check contacts against the USGS Napa map (Graymer and others, 2007). Heights from AWS terrain data.
7 layers, youngest at the top
Single vineyards we pour from. Tap one on the plate.
Why the east side tastes the way it does
- West-facing slopes along the Silverado Trail take the full afternoon sun, so fruit ripens with dark colour and firm tannin.
- The hills are volcanic: thin, stony soils over andesite and tuff keep vines small and crops low.
- Creeks off the Vaca Range drop gravel fans at their mouths, like Soda Creek’s, with deeper, better-watered soil than the slopes.
- This is the south end of the valley, closer to San Pablo Bay: afternoon wind and cooler nights keep acidity.
Did you knowThe Hambright soil series, a shallow rocky loam over volcanic rock and typical of these hills, was first described from a site on Atlas Peak Road near Silverado Country Club, a kilometre or two east of this line.
Pas Mal wines on this ground
Signorello Estate, east of Oak Knoll
- Hope's Cuvée ChardonnaySignorello
- Padrone Cabernet SauvignonSignorello
- SignoriSignorello
Tom Fazika, below Stags Leap
- SangioveseGrassi
Sources: USGS Scientific Investigations Map 2918, geologic map of the Napa 1:100,000 area (Graymer and others, 2007); USGS Quaternary fault and fold database, Soda Creek fault (no. 227); California State Parks, GeoGem notes on the Sonoma Volcanics and the Stags Leap palisades; USDA official soil series descriptions, Coombs and Hambright; Signorello Estate, history and vineyard pages; Napa Wine Project, Grassi Wine Company and Signorello Estate; Grassi Wine Company technical notes; Wine Spectator, on the afternoon sun of the eastern foothills; AWS Terrain Tiles.