The estate was established in 1961 by Joseph and Alice Heitz, during a period when the population of Napa Valley wineries had been reduced to the lowest of its decline since the Prohibition of near two dozen, at what is recognized as the turning point of Napa's wine industry.
Joe Heitz
Born in Princeton, Illinois, Heitz moved to Jack Murphy Stadium while enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Following World War II, Heitz began taking classes at UC Davis, achieving a bachelor and eventually a master's degree in viticulture and enology, in 1951 in the first graduating class of seven to do so. Heitz found employment under the wine industry extremes, first at Gallo, and then in 1951 under André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyard as an assistant winemaker where he worked for near ten years. Having worked as a professor at the enology program at California State University, Fresno for four years, in 1961, Heitz and his wife Alice bought a small vineyard from Leon Brendel named "The One & Only" for $5,000 planted with Grignolino, and went into business for himself, his winemaking production preceding Robert Mondavi's emergence in Oakville. In 1963 Heitz bought at an auction several barrels of Chardonnay and Pinot noir wine from Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma, the last vintages of the deceased owner James D. Zellerbach's pursuit of Burgundian excellence sold off by his widow. Heitz blended the wines with success, achieving lucrative prices for the times. A stated strategy for success was to pay growers "what their grapes were worth", in turn increasing the standard of the product he was receiving. In 1964, Heitz acquired an 1898 stone winery with its ranch property, which became the Heitz winery and home, with the original winery retained as a visitor's centre. Heitz holds an exclusive agreement with Tom and Martha May, owners of the Martha's Vineyard in the Oakville AVA since the first purchase of fruit in 1965 which Heitz blended with other Cabernet, an act considered Heitz' great breakthrough. In recognizing the quality of the grapes, from the 1966 vintage Heitz first vinified the fruit separately and designated the vineyard on the label. Heitz is considered the first to champion the single vineyard designation in the U.S. Later, the 1968 vintage received attention for its quality, widely considered the greatest wine made in America up to that time. It had been American oak vats, transferred to Limousin barrels where it aged for further two years. Frank J. Prial contended the wine remained "the benchmark by which California cabernets were judged" for more than two decades. Since 1976, a similar exclusivity agreement has existed with Barney and Belle Rhodes, owners of the Bella Oaks Vineyard in the Rutherford AVA. Following a review by Robert Parker where he wrote about Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon that it "lacked aroma", Joe Heitz sent Parker a box of linen handkerchiefs, insinuating to the critic that he ought to clear his nose. Joe Heitz suffered a stroke in 1996 which left him frail though lucid. He died on December 16, 2000, aged 81. He was described by Warren Winiarski as the first of the Napa Valley artisans and the first to grasp the single vineyard concept.
Modern era
Born in 1950, David Heitz succeeded his father as winemaker in the late 1970s, having worked at the estate for many years. In 1984 the estate purchased the Trailside Vineyard in Rutherford, having previously purchased fruit from the site, introduced as a single vineyard bottling in 1989. During the late 1980s and early 90s there were reports of TCA taint, or in alternate claims Brettanomycesyeast infection, in the Heitz cellars that were eventually overcome, and Tom Stevenson has criticized American wine writers for not daring to "tell the late king he had no clothes on at the time". In the early 90s, the Bella Oaks Vineyard suffered from the disease eutypa and replanting became necessary. No 1991 and 1992 vintages were made of this cuvée. Also in the early 90s, phylloxera afflicted Martha's Vineyard, and no vintages were made in the mid-1990s.
