History
The Black Sears family has farmed Howell Mountain for three generations. Robert and Elsa Black returned to the land in the 1930s. Joyce and Jerre Sears followed the same pull decades later. Ashley and Chris came up the mountain in 2008. The wine came after — because farming this land needed a reason to share it.
A Return to Land
In the early 1930s, Robert and Elsa Black left San Francisco for Oakville. They built their own home with their own hands. They farmed. It wasn't a romantic notion — it was a choice, made deliberately, to live closer to the land and further from everything else. That choice is the root of everything that came after it at Black Sears.
Family Tree
Decades later, Joyce and Jerre Sears felt the same pull. They left the city for Howell Mountain — not to make wine, but to live more deliberately, closer to the natural world. The winery came later, and almost by accident. When they realized the newly abandoned Zinfandel vineyard next door might result in noisy neighbors, they bought it. Mainly so no one else would. That single decision, made more out of self-preservation than ambition, is where Black Sears begins.
Agriculture
Having acquired a diseased, neglected Zinfandel vineyard planted on top of a former apple orchard, Joyce & Jerre spent the first decade in their new home nursing what they originally called the “Hard Luck Vineyard” back to health. And in their new roles as farmers, and ultimately as vintners on Howell Mountain, they discovered the perfect combination of stewardship, agriculture, and contemplation to satisfy their longing for a more deliberate, connected life.
As the health of the vineyard improved and the character of the site become more apparent, and as Joyce and Jerre honed their craft and planted seven additional acres, the fruit from “Black & Sears,” as they were then known, became highly lauded and sought after for single-vineyard-designate wines from some of Napa’s top producers. And thus, “Black Sears” was born.
The First Vintage
It wasn’t until the mid 80s, however, when Joyce and Jerre partnered with fellow Howell Mountain pioneer, Mike Beatty and winemaker Ted Lemon—and neared completion of a new winery facility—that they became wine producers. With the goal of producing wines that were “an uncompromising expression of the terroir of Howell Mountain,” they bottled their first vintage for their new label, “Howell Mountain Vineyards.”
Nearly a decade later, Joyce and Jerre decided that they wanted to put their names on the highest possible quality expression of the land they called home. Hand-selecting fruit exclusively from their very favorite sections of the vineyards, in 1997 they also began to bottle a few hundred cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel under a new “Black Sears Estate” label along with the “Howell Mountain Vineyards” bottlings.
Generations
In the early 2000s, Joyce and Jerre decided it was time to slow down. They sold the Howell Mountain Vineyards label and handed the ranch to their daughter Ashley and her husband Chris. Ashley and Chris had grown up watching what Joyce and Jerre had built — meaning found through agriculture, a life lived in closer conversation with nature. They wanted the same thing. In 2008 they moved to the top of Howell Mountain. Black Sears — the estate, the label, the family — is what they are building now.
Timeless
The land high in the Howell Mountain region of Napa Valley is a timeless piece of paradise, where no wine or vineyard or winery could possibly be so sublime as to rival the natural beauty on display. Surrounded by thousands of Napa county’s most wild and biologically diverse acres, any discussion of what makes Black Sears special or unique begins and ends with the land and the other species that inhabit it. To have the opportunity to share our fruit with the local black bears… to see the earthworms surface by the thousands during a February storm… to forage wild matsutakes and chanterelles… Even the wildfires, the rattlesnakes, the yellowjackets, the poison oak… Even with the unyielding encroachment of Nature in all of its violence and transgression against our more civilized dispositions… what a Gift!
Our goal here is to keep it that way: to grow a few grapes and share a little wine and make some friends along the way… so that this very special part of the Napa Valley can remain timeless.