In fact, even before graduating from Colorado State University Joe had amassed quite a bit of work experience: as a newspaper carrier, print shop owner, filling station attendant, fishing lure purveyor, surveyor, and estimator. However it was in construction that Joe first made his mark, building the company his father had founded, Hensel Phelps Construction Company, into one of the largest and most successful construction companies in the U.S. in little more than a decade. He continued to lead Hensel Phelps Construction Company well after he established Joseph Phelps Vineyards and hired the firm to build his winery in Napa Valley. Though he sold the firm to its employees in 1986, he always credited his years there for a good deal of the success he found in the wine business. It taught him the lesson that would stay with him, and that he practiced, throughout his life: that success should be shared, and can only come with a team of motivated people working towards the same goal.

Singular expression wines from the Joseph Phelps Freestone Estate, where site and clonal selection are the beginning of a new and distinctive winemaking story.

We are pleased to introduce Joseph Phelps Proem No.1 and Proem No. 2 from our Freestone Estate on the western Sonoma Coast. Each bottling represents a sense of place, the purest expression of our Freestone Estate. We invite you to join us on this journey.

Sonoma Coast Winemaker Justin Ennis identified our first clonal block selection in 2014. During the initial tasting of young Pinot Noirs from this vintage, a block stood out and begged to remain separate during aging. Justin decided in the end to bottle the winery’s first ever block designated Pinot Noir. The 2014 Joseph Phelps Pinot Noir, Pastorale Vineyard, Block 212 wine was richer in texture, depth, and concentration when singled out on its own. The seed was planted. In select years, the winery would highlight distinctive blocks that offer a pure expression of our Freestone Estate…