Ehlers Estate in Napa Valley embraces innovation as climate and market pressures reshape winemaking

In St. Helena, California, a quiet transformation is underway at Ehlers Estate, a winery housed in a 19th-century stone barn in northern Napa Valley. The estate’s new direction is led by Adam Casto, who joined as head winemaker in 2023. Casto was brought in not to preserve tradition, but to reshape the winery’s approach from the ground up.

One of the most notable changes is the creation of Sylviane Estate Blanc, a white wine that blends 87% sauvignon blanc and 13% sémillon. The wine is fermented in concrete and aged for 14 months on lees, then filtered for stability—a step Casto rarely takes. He explains that he wanted to avoid any risk of re-fermentation in the bottle for this first white wine release. The result is a wine with a saline structure and softened edges, achieved through extended skin contact and careful aging.

Casto’s methods reflect a technical and site-specific philosophy. He favors slow fermentation, concrete vessels, and long lees aging. The sémillon component brings a salty character, while the concrete adds body. The wine spends time in both neutral and new French oak barrels, not for flavor but to help transform phenolic bitterness into structure. Casto says his inspiration came from white wines he tasted in Hungary in 2019, which paired with food much like red wines due to their structure.

This approach extends across Ehlers Estate’s portfolio. The 2022 Portrait red blend—composed of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot—was fermented in stainless steel and aged for nearly two years in French oak. Even the labeling is changing: Casto has started removing varietal names from bottles, beginning with cabernet franc. He likens this to “killing off a main character in a story,” opening new creative possibilities.

Naming conventions are also evolving. The estate’s new flagship red was initially called “La Lande,” after the president of the Leducq Foundation, which owns Ehlers Estate. However, copyright issues forced a change, and the wine will now be named “Perdrix,” French for partridge—a term with historical ties to wine through “œil de perdrix,” describing certain rosés’ color. Perdrix blends cabernet franc and merlot but is intended to represent the entire estate rather than a single grape variety.

Looking ahead, Casto is planning vineyard changes to support this blended approach. He is experimenting with high-wire training systems on 200 vines to better handle rising temperatures. About half of the estate’s 21 acres are under review for replanting with blends in mind. The idea is that future blocks will always be planted as blends, allowing flexibility as conditions change.

These changes are happening against a backdrop of significant challenges for California winemakers. In 2024, the state’s wine grape harvest dropped to its lowest level in two decades—just 2.8 million tons—a 23% decrease from the previous year. Napa Valley experienced nearly 40 days above 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the growing season, four times more than in 2023. At the same time, sustainability expectations have become standard: over 90% of California’s wine now comes from Certified California Sustainable wineries, and more than 65% of vineyard acreage is certified under environmental programs.

For Casto, these pressures are inseparable from winemaking decisions. He emphasizes that solutions must address multiple challenges at once—climate adaptation, quality control, and sustainability all factor into his process. To maintain transparency and foster learning, Ehlers Estate will share quarterly reports with club members detailing soil studies, trellising designs, canopy orientation, and clonal selections.

Currently, only about 100 cases of Perdrix are produced each year at Ehlers Estate. This small scale allows for close monitoring and quick adjustments without being bound by large-scale consistency requirements. Casto sees this as an opportunity for refinement rather than rarity.

He describes his winemaking philosophy as process-driven rather than focused on perfection or permanence. For him, restraint and awareness are key elements that guide each decision through changing conditions and ongoing experimentation.

As Napa Valley faces climate shifts and evolving consumer expectations, Ehlers Estate stands as an example of how tradition can give way to innovation—one careful step at a time—while keeping quality and adaptability at the forefront of winemaking practice.