Donn Chappellet, pioneering Napa vintner, dies

Donn Chappellet founded Chappellet winery in 1967 and trademarked its Pritchard Hill location. Donn Chappellet founded Chappellet winery in 1967 and trademarked its Pritchard Hill location. Photo: Courtesy Of Chappellet Photo: Courtesy Of Chappellet Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Donn Chappellet, pioneering Napa vintner, dies 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Donn Chappellet, who founded Chappellet winery in 1967 and built it into one of Napa’s most acclaimed brands, died on Sunday of natural causes. Widely regarded as one of Napa Valley’s modern-era pioneers, he was 84.

According to Mr. Chappellet’s son Cyril, he died “completely peacefully” at his home, alongside his family. “We were all with him” he said. Mr. Chappellet’s health had been declining for the past eight months; his mind, however, remained lucid to the end.

Mr. Chappellet’s lasting achievement was not only to bring his own winery to greatness, but also to establish Pritchard Hill, the slope on which his property lies, as a sought-after area for grape-growing.

In a very unusual move, Mr. Chappellet — who preceded his current neighbors, including Colgin, Ovid, Continuum and Bryant, by at least 25 years — trademarked Pritchard Hill, never allowing it to become an official American Viticultural Area. To this day, Chappellet remains the only winery permitted to use “Pritchard Hill” on its label. It’s also been an incubator for some of Napa’s greatest talents: current winemaker Phillip Corallo-Titus, on board since 1990, followed Helen Turley, Mia Klein, Cathy Corison, Tony Soter and Philip Togni.

Astute businessman

Born in Los Angeles in 1931, Mr. Chappellet attended Pomona College and married his wife, Molly, in his senior year. Like many winery owners in Napa, he struck it big in another industry before coming to wine. In 1954, after graduating from college, he founded Interstate United Corp., a distributor of vending machines that produced hot coffee on demand. A methodical businessman, Mr. Chappellet built Interstate United into a nationally traded stock with 7,000 employees.

“It was fun, it was entrepreneurial, and he loved doing it,” Cyril Chappellet said. “But after 12 years, that changed. He wasn’t being entrepreneurial anymore; he was just running the business.” At 34, he was too young to retire, and so he began to think about his passion: wine.

“He went about it like any businessman would,” Cyril said. “What are the best places to do this?”

An avid collector of Bordeaux and Burgundy, Mr. Chappellet decided that the highest potential lay in the Napa Valley, and in hillside vineyards. Few wineries existed in Napa then; fewer still pursued the level of quality that Mr. Chappellet hoped to achieve. He got in touch with Beaulieau Vineyards’ André Tchelistcheff, who led Mr. Chappellet to the 1,600-foot peak above Sage Canyon Road known then to its neighbors as Pritchard Hill — so named for Charles Pritchard, who had owned land there in the 19th century.

So in 1967, Mr. Chappellet brought Molly and their five (soon to be six) children to St. Helena, where they set to work planting a vineyard and building a winery on their new, 320-acre property. “’45 Mouton, ‘61 Latour — those were his benchmarks,” said Cyril Chappellet, referring to prized French wines. “He wanted to see if he could make wines of that caliber.”

Many would argue that Mr. Chappellet came as close as any in California to realizing that goal. With the help of his family and wisely chosen staff — a few of whom have now been with the winery for 47 years — the Chappellet winery thrived, in quality and business alike. The winery itself, strikingly shaped like a pyramid, has become an architectural icon. Today it produces 30,000 cases of wine, and now an additional 15,000 cases under the Sonoma-Loeb label, whose wines had long been made at the Chappellet facility when the family purchased the brand in 2011.

Family ownership key

Paramount for Mr. Chappellet was keeping the business family-owned. “I don’t know if there was anything more important to him,” Cyril said. The string of winery sales in recent years to larger corporations left him deeply disappointed. All of Donn and Molly Chappellet’s six children have worked at the winery, and Cyril was named chairman in 2013. “We have the business structured in such a way that no one family member could ever radically change the ownership,” Cyril said. “As far as we’re concerned, the winery will never go outside the family.”

Standing 6 feet 4 inches and not particularly social, Mr. Chappellet much preferred one-on-one interactions to large groups, often leaving Molly to take one of their sons as her date to wine-industry functions. His precise, orderly manner, Cyril believes, was what made him so good at running a business. He loved perfection. In his final hours, he told his family he expected them to keep making 100-point wines.

“The saddest thing for me,” Cyril said, “is I don’t think my dad had any idea of what he really created. He never took credit for any of it. He was proud of other people and proud of their accomplishments. When we got a high score for wine, it wasn’t him doing it — it was the winemaking team, or it was the vineyard.”

He is survived by his wife, Molly; his sister, Sybil; his six children, Lygia, Cyril, Carissa, Jon-Mark, Alexa and Dominic; 11 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Funeral arrangements will be shared at a later date.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob