Somerston Estate is one of Napa Valley's largest wine properties and one of its least visited, spread across 1,682 acres in the Vaca Mountains roughly ten miles east of the Silverado Trail. It joins two historic ranches: the 660-acre Priest Ranch, carved from the Rancho Catacula land grant in 1869 by Gold Rush prospector James Joshua Priest, bought by Allan Chapman in 2004, and the adjoining 955-acre Elder Valley Ranch added in 2006. Only about fourteen percent is planted — some 215 acres across 144 blocks, ranging from 800 to 2,400 feet — with the rest deliberately left as grassland and oak woodland. The ranch sold fruit for decades to David Ramey, Caymus, Viader and Biale before bottling under its own Somerston Estate and Priest Ranch labels, with co-founder Craig Becker directing viticulture and winemaking. After the 2020 Hennessey Fire burned some 1,400 acres of the property, the team declined to harvest a single grape rather than risk smoke taint.