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Michael Baldacci

Winemaker, Baldacci Family Vineyards

Michael Baldacci
Winemaker
Baldacci Family Vineyards

Exceptional quality wine all begins with a passion. "My passion is one rooted in family," Michael says, "a passion to produce honest wines that best embody my family's love for great wine and the unique estate vineyards that Baldacci represents."

Though he was born and raised in the Bay Area, Michael Baldacci spent many days as a young boy walking his family's vineyards.
Struck early on by the delicacy with which man and nature must work together to make beautiful wines, Michael returned to Napa Valley as an adult to become part of the team at Baldacci Family Vineyards.

New to the business but a veteran of the land, Michael took on a managerial role at the winery after four years of undergraduate study in Los Angeles with the same goal his father had had nearly twelve years before: to make wines that represent the character of the land, the grapes, and the family Baldacci represents.

A boutique winery, with their first vintage in 2000, Baldacci Family Vineyards focuses strictly on single-vineyard wines. The total estate owned acreage includes the original 17-acre estate in the heart of the Stags Leap District, as well as a 20-acre property in Carneros. The newest addition to the estate vineyard portfolio is an 8.5-acre property in Calistoga, a warmer micro-climate of Napa Valley whose lush fruit perfectly complements the Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap. Total production approaches 8,000 cases each year, nearly all of which are single-vineyard, single-varietal wines expressing their respective terroirs.

Michael can be found all around the winery, from the cellar to the tasting room, behind a desk or in the vineyards he first walked in as a child. "The Stags Leap District is an iconic area of Napa," he believes, "and our family's wines strive to show each and every consumer why it is truly the best area in the world to grow world class Cabernet."

Country born: United States

Years in the wine industry: 10-15 years