United States · California

Vineyard 29

Vineyard 29 is a Napa Valley estate founded in 1989 by Chuck McMinn on Highway 29 in St. Helena, focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Merlot from estate vineyards. The 29 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is the flagship, sourced from old-vine blocks on the St. Helena corridor. The Aida Estate wines — Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot — come from a separate farmed property, while the Clare Luce Abbey Cabernet represents a further single-vineyard tier. The 29 Estate Franc is a stand-alone Cabernet Franc expression. The estate works with Philippe Melka as consulting winemaker, whose fingerprint appears across many of Napa's luxury boutique projects. Melka's influence produces wines of considerable concentration and precision, typically earning scores in the 93–96+ range from Wine Advocate. At auction, Vineyard 29 averages $175 per bottle across 233 lots with peaks reaching $1,434 — the latter driven by older library vintages or premium single-vineyard expressions in large formats. The 29 Estate Cabernet from 2013, 2016, and 2018 represent the estate's strongest modern bottles. As a Melka-influenced boutique with estate-grown fruit from a prime St. Helena location, Vineyard 29 occupies the upper-mid tier of the Napa Cabernet secondary market.