Keever Vineyards
Keever Vineyards is a small family owned and operated winery in Yountville, in the Napa Valley. And when we say family owned and operated, we mean it.
On any given day there are between two and four Keevers on site. During fruit processing we get aunts and uncles in too. Despite recently turning 70, Dad – Bill Keever – drags barrels out of the cave, works with our vineyard manager, and drives the forklift. When he is not getting his hands dirty, he is also our Chief Executive Officer and General Manager.
Mom – Olga Keever – runs the office, works with distributors, and ensures all our compliance obligations are met. She does tours and tastings to boot.
Daughter Ashley is Hospitality Manager and Accounts Payable. She puts the fun into our tours and tastings and ensures that guests at Keever Vineyards feel like members of the family. She works with other wineries and with hotel concierges to ensure that Keever Vineyards is a perfect match to our guests’ itineraries.
Son Jason specializes in production. Winemaker Celia Welch calls the shots, and Jason makes sure everything gets done in a manner that ensures the highest quality and that no details, however small, are overlooked.
On July 14th of 2006, Keever Vineyards celebrated the completion of the winery with an open-house party for family and friends. Since then, visitors have been coming to the winery to sample the incredible wines and to experience a private tour of the winery and cave and the beautiful site.
Biography
Born and raised in Medford, Oregon, as the daughter of an avid wine collector and enthusiastic home winemaker, Celia Welch had an early introduction to both wine appreciation and the basics of winemaking. Realizing that professional winemaking would combine her early fascination with flavors and aromas, her strengths in science and her love of the rural lifestyle, she decided to attend the University of California at Davis and study Enology; the study of winemaking. She earned her B.S. degree in Fermentation Science in 1982.
After graduation, Celia extended her education by traveling throughout the winegrowing regions of the Northwest and the East Coast of the United States, New Zealand and by working in Australia’s Barossa Valley. Upon returning to the Napa Valley, she spent several years assisting in wine production on Mount Veeder and in the Carneros. She joined Silverado Vineyards in 1987 to design, implement and supervise a quality control program. In 1991, she became the assistant winemaker at Robert Pepi Winery and in 1992, began consulting for Staglin Family Vineyard, a small, ultra-premium Cabernet Sauvignon producer. She left Robert Pepi Winery in 1995 to pursue her consulting career, and has acted as an independent winemaking consultant since that time. Celia currently consults for a limited selection of ultra-premium Napa Valley clients, primarily with their own estate vineyards, and produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Petite Sirah and Chardonnay. Vineyard sources include Yountville hillsides, Mt. Veeder, Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain and Carneros, in addition to benchland locations from St. Helena to Napa. In October 2008, Celia was named Winemaker of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine. Celia has been honored with The Rising Star Award from the Southern California Chapter of Women for Winesense, and has been admitted to the Winemakers Hall of Fame by the U.S. national chapter of the same organization.
When not making wine, Celia enjoys bicycling, tennis, skiing and hiking. The Keevers Recall the First Meeting: “When I called Celia to see if she would consider making our wine, we had already heard of Celia’s excellent reputation and had tasted some of the magical wine she produced”, Olga recalls. “We’d also been advised not to get our hopes up because she was highly sought after. I guess that’s why I started the phone conversation by saying, ‘I don’t know if you handle little guys like us but …’.”We met at our house to chat and then walked the vineyards. She examined the vines, crumbled soil in her hands and checked out our fields of rocks. She liked what she saw but said she’d call us back at the end of the week to let us know. Much to our delight, she called on that Friday morning and said she’d make our wine. We were thrilled beyond belief and thus began the adventure of Keever Vineyards!”
Wines from Keever Vineyards
Contact Us
