Our sister brand Kith & Kin, Old English for “Friends & Family,” showcases the beauty of Napa Valley fruit and our winemaking prowess, resulting in supple approachable wines.
Our parents started making wine in a tractor shed in 1994 – one barrel of Cabernet being made in a metal barn that was probably 115 degrees in the summer. (Perfect conditions for making fine wine of course!) There is some qualitative debate as to how that first barrel turned out, but Mom and Dad were hooked on making wine after that.
Dad wanted to make wine from right outside his doorstep, and it just so happened that doorstep led to some of the finest dirt for making great wine: the heart of Napa Valley. When Dad started making this wine he joked that he “didn’t want to make some Bordeaux knock-off.” What he wanted to make was a really good, easy-drinking Cabernet that he and Mom could share with their friends and family. Their first bottling was called “Tractor Shed Red” and had a hand drawn tractor on the label. They always shared the wine with a smile and a simple note to enjoy it sooner rather than later.
When we started to produce our Kith & Kin Cabernet Sauvignon, we found great inspiration in those first years of our parents’ making their Tractor Shed Red. As an homage to what they were doing, we put a picture of a tractor on our label and named it Kith & Kin, which means Friends and Family. The wines may have grown up a little from those first years in the tractor shed, but the heart and soul is still the same. We hope your friends and family enjoy it the way ours have.
– Ryan and Miles MacDonnell