Cuvaison was founded in 1969 near Calistoga by two Silicon Valley engineers, Thomas Parkhill and Thomas Cottrell, making it one of the early wineries of Napa Valley's modern era. In 1979 the Swiss Schmidheiny family acquired Cuvaison, and the family has owned it ever since. Over the decades Cuvaison shifted its center of gravity south to Los Carneros, where it farms about 400 acres of vineyard, and in 2009 it built a modern winery and tasting room there, later consolidating its operations in Carneros. Carneros is known for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and those are Cuvaison's best-known wines, but the family also owns the Brandlin Estate on Mount Veeder, where it grows Bordeaux varieties for mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends. That combination makes Cuvaison an interesting producer to follow: cool-climate whites and Pinot from the valley's southern edge, and structured reds from one of Napa's steepest mountain appellations.