Estate grown & bottledEst. 1889Sonoma Valley
ZinfandelChardonnayPinot NoirCabernet Sauvignon
Four generations of one family on one hillside above Glen Ellen, still farming the 1904 Zinfandel that started it all.
Tasting room open daily
10 to 4:30, by reservation
Glen Ellen, California
Estate bottled · 750 ml
I. The estate
Josiah Calloway paid $340 for forty acres of rock above Glen Ellen and planted Zinfandel nobody else wanted. We have farmed it by hand, and without irrigation, ever since.
In 1904 his son planted the Bellwether Block: head-trained vines on their own roots, named for the old ram who kept the grass down between the rows. Those vines are still here. They give barely a ton an acre, and they make our best wine.
Through Prohibition the family shipped grapes east by rail to home winemakers in Chicago and New York. In 1974 they bottled their own, under a label engraved on a copper plate on Sansome Street in San Francisco. We still print from it.
Today Adeline, the fourth generation, makes the wine. Her father, Graham, still drives the tractor. And Efraín Castañeda, who came for one harvest in 1996 and stayed, knows every vine on the hill by the way it leans.
The Calloway family, Glen Ellen
II. The wines
Everything is grown, fermented and bottled on the hill, about 4,800 cases in a good year. Choose a vintage to read what it gave us.
Vintage
2023 · The late one
A wet winter, a cool spring and the latest budbreak in twenty years. Harvest ran into November, with bright acidity and lower alcohol across the board.
Domaine Calloway
2023
Chardonnay
Well House Vineyard
Sonoma Valley
Estate bottledAlc. 12.9% by vol.750 ml
No. I · White
A cool year and a bright wine: green apple, lime zest, chamomile and wet stone, with a snap of acidity at 12.9%. Lovely with Dungeness crab.
Add to order · $54Domaine Calloway
2023
Pinot Noir
Fog Gap Vineyard
Sonoma Mountain
Alc. 12.8% by vol.750 ml
No. II · Red
Cranberry, sour cherry, black tea and white pepper. Translucent and nervy now; give it until 2027 and it will sing.
Add to order · $68Domaine Calloway
2023
Zinfandel
Bellwether Block · 1904
Sonoma Valley
Old vineAlc. 13.9% by vol.750 ml
No. III · Red
Raspberry, cardamom, sage and red earth. Our freshest Zinfandel in years, at 13.9%, and the bottle Adeline opens at home.
Add to order · $62Domaine Calloway
2023
Cabernet Sauvignon
Josiah’s Reserve
Moon Mountain District
Estate bottledAlc. 13.8% by vol.750 ml
No. IV · Reserve
Just released. Red currant, violets, pencil shavings and a long, cool finish, from the latest pick in the estate’s history, on November 3.
Add to order · $145Scores from the West Coast Cellar Review. Older vintages are library releases, priced as they age. We also make a Grenache rosé and a field blend, poured and sold only on the porch.
III. Visit
The tasting room is the 1891 farmhouse porch and the stone cellar under it. Seatings start on the hour, and we keep them small enough that you can hear the bees in the cover crop.
Five current releases on the farmhouse porch, poured by someone who helped pick them, looking down the Bellwether rows to the valley floor.
60 minutes · Daily, on the hour · Fee waived with two bottles
$45
Down twelve stone steps into the 1891 cellar to taste next year’s wines from barrel with our cellar team, then back up for the finished ones.
90 minutes · Daily at 11 and 2
$85
A slow walk through the 1904 Zinfandel with Efraín, then a seated tasting of library wines back to 2012 and a plate from the kitchen garden.
2½ hours · Fri to Sun at 10 · Up to eight guests
$140
September and October only. Pick a lug of grapes at first light, stomp it barefoot, then lunch at the long table under the oak.
4 hours · Saturdays in season
$195
Yes, on the porch and on a lead. There’s a water bowl by the steps, and Graham’s old setter, Rook, will come over to inspect.
Of course. We pour them grape juice pressed from our own Chardonnay, in proper stemware, and there’s a sandbox under the oak.
The porch and restrooms are step-free from the lower lot. The cellar is twelve stone steps down; tell us and we’ll bring the barrel tasting up to you.
Bring lunch to the tables by the Well House, or order a board of Sonoma cheese, our own olives and warm bread on the porch for $28.
To 38 states. Six bottles or more ship free, and Cellar Book members always pay $15 flat.
IV. The Cellar Book
Our club has been kept in the same leather ledger since 1974. Members get the wines before anyone else, the library bottles nobody else can buy, and a standing place on the porch. There are 412 names in the book, and a short waiting list for the Bellwether.
CertificateTier I
Four bottles, twice a year, in March and October
About, per shipment$210
Join the PorchThis certifies that the bearer holds a place in the Cellar Book of Domaine Calloway.
CertificateTier II
Six bottles, three times a year, in March, July and October
About, per shipment$360
Join the CellarThis certifies that the bearer holds a place in the Cellar Book of Domaine Calloway.
CertificateTier III
Twelve bottles, twice a year, with library vintages
About, per shipment$840
Join the waiting listThis certifies that the bearer holds a place in the Cellar Book of Domaine Calloway.
Free to join. Choose your own wines or let Adeline choose. Pick up on the porch, or ship to 38 states for $15 flat. Leave after any two shipments, no questions and no hard feelings.
V. Harvest calendar
What’s happening in the rows each month, and the days we open the gate a little wider. Members hear first; most of these fill before they’re announced.
Pruning
Efraín’s crew prunes every vine by hand to two buds a spur. The Bellwether Block alone takes eleven days.
Bleeding
Sap rises and the fresh cuts weep. We sow mustard and bell beans between the rows.
Budbreak
Woolly buds crack open on the Chardonnay first. The frost fans stand ready on cold, clear nights.
Shoots
Shoots grow an inch a day. We walk every row and thin the doubles by hand.
Bloom
The vines flower, tiny and green, and for a week the whole hill smells faintly of honey.
Fruit set
Flowers become berries the size of peppercorns. We pull leaves on the morning side for light.
Closing up
Clusters fill out and close. The cover crop is mowed and the rows are dust from end to end.
Véraison
Red grapes turn color berry by berry, and the first sugar samples go to the lab.
Harvest
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir come in at dawn, in half-ton bins, picked before nine.
Crush
Zinfandel, then Cabernet, and the presses run late. The valley smells of fermenting fruit.
Leaf fall
The leaves go gold and claret and drop. New wine goes down to barrel in the stone cellar.
Rest
Dormancy. We taste every barrel, settle the blends, and Graham takes the tractor apart.