A good life in the Shenandoah Valley

What do engineering, life insurance and winemaking have in common? The answer is, more than you may think. For BellaGrace Vineyards’ proprietors, husband and wife Charlie and Michael Havill, the three industries share two people who have discovered a single passion: winemaking. Not content with simply appreciating fine wine, as they did for many years, Charlie and Michael found themselves drawn ever closer to the wine industry in the last decade, by way of wine-industry acquaintances, until actual purchase of a vineyard became their goal.

Once their vision to be involved with wine on a deeper level began taking shape, Charlie and Michael searched the Amador County region and finally settled on a fifty acre parcel, of which twenty were vineyard, in the Shenandoah Valley appellation. Early on, they worked the vineyard and sold their estate-grown Zinfandel, Primitivo and various Rhone wine grapes to regional commercial wineries and home winemakers. Before long, they realized that in order to capitalize on the quality output from the vineyard, wine production at BellaGrace was the next logical step.

Establishing BellaGrace Vineyards

Doing things right the first time is the driving force behind BellaGrace Vineyards' winegrowing: from preparing the soil, planting nutritional cover crops, and pruning for low yields, to thinning the crops during the summer, sorting the grapes during harvest and ensuring customer satisfaction. These are the elements that go into every bottle of BellaGrace wine.

New focus on wine making – while still committed to growing and providing grapes to wineries that have won such awards as the 2010 California State Fair "best white wine," BellaGrace Vineyards is now a fully-equipped wine making facility. A custom designed and engineered wine cave currently under construction will serve as a focal point of the property with its 12-feet high by 12-feet wide barrel storage design. Future plans include a tasting room.

From our vineyard to your table, we hope you enjoy the end result as much as we enjoy the process.

--Charlie and Michael