How Oliver Hill Wines came to be.
Two college roommates reconnected after retiring from their successful but divergent careers. One bought a vineyard in Oakville and the other began to pursue his passion for winemaking. They got together and made some pretty decent award winning wines . Each year it improved, to the point at which they and those who tasted it felt it was better than most of the affordable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon available in today’s market.
Oliver Hill Wines, is a collaboration between Mike Oliver, the grower and Jerry Hill, the wine maker/owner. Mike provides the Cabernet and Pinot Noir grapes and Jerry handcrafts wine in small batches producing less than 500 cases a year.
Using their last names “Oliver” and “Hill” they developed the olive branch on a hill concept for their logo.
Their first commercial crush was the 2005 Oakville, Cabernet Sauvignon using the Oliver Vineyard Cabernet grapes, winning 2 bronze medal's, first in the 2009 Dallas Morning News Wine Competition and then again in the 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition along with a Silver Medal for his 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon vintage.
The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard clone 7 was planted in 1993 and is in its prime producing years.
It’s now time to share our wine with the world. We believe it’s exceptional. We hope you agree.
Enjoy!
Current Releases
Meet the Winemaker
The first commercial release for Oliver Hill Wines was 2005, but winemaker Jerry Hill has been involved in the wine industry and making wine for several years. His undergraduate minor was in chemistry from Chico State College so he understands the fermentation process. Jerry has taken many courses over the years at the University of California Davis School of Viticulture and Enology to sharpen his skills as a winemaker.
During Jerrys long term career as Assistant Secretary of State of California he hosted a French Student winemaker (Michael) from France introducing him to the Napa Valley Wineries and how wine is made and produced here as well as learning from Michael how his family's vineyard is farmed in France.
Jerry was also involved in the early development stages of Make a Wish wine tasting events in Sacramento.
Jerry reunited with an old college roommate Mike Oliver in the early 1990’s who retired to his Oakville, Napa Valley vineyard. At that point, they began making home wine, and as the vineyard matured, the quality of their wine improved. Jerry retired in 2004 and after a few months he began plans to make, market and develop Oliver Hill Wines with a source of premium cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir grapes. Jerry is the Winemaker and Mike is the grower.
Using the grapes from the Oliver Vineyard in Napa Valley, Jerry has produced Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon wine. The 2005 Cabernet has won 2 Bronze Medals and the 2007 recently won a Silver Medal.
Since then Jerry has made other wines from old vine Zinfandel grapes from Amador County, Barbara from Lodi and Malbec from Rutherford.
Starting out as a hobby, Jerrys love for making wine has turned into a small commercial business, Oliver Hill Wines, producing less than 500 cases a year.
Jerry continually works for perfection with every vintage, loving every aspect of the business.