Silverado Vineyards

The Silverado Vineyards estate is named after The Silverado Trail, the 'quiet' road that runs parallel to Highway 29 in the Napa Valley (which, in turn, had been named after the abandoned mining town at the top of the Napa Valley where Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, had once stayed). The estate was created in the mid-1970s when Ron and Diane Disney Miller decided to buy vineyards with the intention of replanting them to premium varieties and selling the fruit to other winemakers. Diane, the only biological daughter of Walt Disney, had long loved the Valley and wanted to be a part of it in some way. Ron was a professional football player who eventually became president of Walt Disney Productions. They changed their mind about only growing grapes and began building a winery in 1981. They produce seven wines of what they call, 'Unique Bottlings'. In their words, "what if we put a little Cabernet in the Sangiovese? What if we took the Zinfandel out of the Sangiovese and let it stand on its own? Sometimes it’s just being open to what a vineyard or a block or a clone shows us in a particular vintage." Though Diane passed away in 2013, her legacy is still being carried forward by Ron and their excellent winemakers and viticulturalists.