Backgrounder
Coordinates
300 Cold Springs Road, Angwin CA 94508
CastielEstate.com
Tastings by appointment only by contacting info@castielestate.com
Wines available to purchase online, and in retail shops and restaurants throughout California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Colorado
Founded
2014 by Dave and Kathleen DiCesaris
Team
Dave & Kathleen DiCesaris, Proprietors
Maayan Koschitsky, Winemaker
Bryan Lipa, National Sales Manager
Holly Wyatt, Hospitality
Our Vision
Dave and Kathleen purchased 88 acres of undeveloped land in the Howell Mountain AVA and created Castiel Estate to pay homage to the unusual series of serendipitous moments that led to the land’s acquisition by producing a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon elegantly expressive of its time and place. Their first two vintages were produced entirely from grapes sourced from their next-door neighbor’s Cold Springs Vineyard, owned by Marc and Janice Mondavi. Subsequent vintages include fruit from another ultra-premium Howell Mountain vineyard in close proximity to Castiel Estate and later, the Sylvan Lake Vineyard. Today the winery also produces a “Napa Valley” blend with fruit sourced from both its Howell Mountain AVA sites and select sites on the Napa Valley floor. The first vintage was 2014.
Estate
Castiel Estate consists of 88 acres of viticulturally significant raw land located within the Howell Mountain AVA that sits between Conn Creek to the southwest and Cold Springs Road to the northeast. Neighboring vineyards include Lokoya, Abreu Las Posadas, Dana Hershey, Mondavi Cold Springs and Beringer Bancroft Ranch. While still forested land, Dave and Kathleen have been pursuing a vineyard development permit with Napa County since 2014.
Current Releases
2023 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
(300 cases, Howell Mountain AVA, $195 SRP)
2023 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
(200 cases, Napa Valley, $120 SRP)
2024 Sauvignon Blanc
(150 cases, Napa AVA, $60 SRP)
Occasional availability of re-released library wines
Production
Approximately 600 - 650 cases a year
Hospitality
Tastings by appointment only by contacting info@castielestate.com
Label
The label illustrates the people, times, places and unbelievably serendipitous events that led to the creation of Castiel Estate and pays tribute to Castiel, the angel of divine timing. In designing the label, Kathleen drew inspiration also from the medieval astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Hall, the Orloj.
Both Dave and Kathleen attribute their inspiration for entering the wine business to the year they lived in Florence, Italy and their time spent with Barone Francesco Ricasoli, the great-grandson of Bettino Ricasoli, the inventor of modern-day Chianti. Francesco sensed Dave and Kathleen’s passion for site-specific, vintage variable wines as collectors and suggested Napa Valley could benefit from an increase in small, family owned and operated site-specific producers. Shortly after returning to the United States, Dave and Kathleen began to search for a vineyard to purchase. A series of unusually serendipitous events led to the acquisition of 88 forested acres within the Howell Mountain AVA.
Dave and Kathleen had very little success finding an existing vineyard worth purchasing but instead were entering the realtor’s office when the exact property they had just learned would be perfect for growing cabernet grapes, but had already sold, fell out of escrow at the exact moment they walked into the realtor’s office. When it came time to launch Castiel Estate, it was clear that time and place would become their mission in creating the wine and that the wine label should symbolize the kismet attached to the project. Inspired by her visit to the medieval Orloj at Prague’s Old Town Hall, the Castiel Estate astronomical clock was sketched out by Kathleen in about 15 minutes.
The people, time and places that led to the moment “the land found them” are all numerically and symbolically represented on the Castiel Estate astronomical clock. Of note is the full circle shown at 2:00pm. This is the time the land fell out of escrow which then meant they would be returning full circle to the place they first met. A rainbow is visible on one end of one of the clock hands: this refers to when Dave and Kathleen met for their first date under the iconic arch at Robert Mondavi Winery - she having driven over from Forestville, he having flown up from Los Angeles. They asked each other, “did you see that amazing rainbow over the To Kalon Vineyard?” Little did they know at the time that a rainbow is actually a full circle, a foreshadowing of what was to occur some 30 years later.
Dave & Kathleen DiCesaris, Proprietors
Kathleen
Raised by professional opera singers, Kathleen remembers a childhood of spirited family gatherings filled with food, wine, song, and love. In her youth, Kathleen danced for 14 years with Ballet Pacifica under the direction of former Prima Ballerina Lila Zali and later was an art consultant for renowned environmental artist Wyland. Though wine was always part of her life, her experience in the early 90s as a wine educator at Freemark Abbey Winery introduced her to some of Napa Valley’s most iconic growers, vintners and winemakers. Today, Kathleen’s uncompromising attention to detail and her artisanal approach to her work as a designer and proprietor is undoubtedly drawn from her formal art history education and her Napa Valley roots.
Dave is a former All-America basketball player proud to have been coached by NBA Hall of Fame Coach Gregg Popovich. He built and sold his first commercial finance company in a New York Stock Exchange IPO at the age of 33.
During an impromptu day trip to Napa Valley, Dave followed the advice he came across in a randomly purchased guidebook and visited Freemark Abbey Winery. It was there that he met his soon to be wife and partner, Kathleen, who introduced him to the basics of viticulture and the concept of vineyard-designated wines. This introduction to the importance of site and terroir ignited his passion to produce single vineyard, single varietal Napa Valley cabernets.