Hess Collection Winery

When Swiss-born Donald Hess saw the hills around Mount Veeder in the 1970s, he knew he could make great wines here. 

Winery Hess Collection - Discovered by an Art Collector

But Hess had not always been a winemaker. In Switzerland, the Hess family stands for a nine-generation tradition of brewmasters and quality water producers. At the beginning of California's winegrowing boom, Hess traveled through the Valleys and discovered the ideal composition of soil structure and microclimate at the feet of Mount Veeder.

In 1978, he purchased 900 hectares of best vineyards and founded the Hess Collection Winery. As early as in the 1860ies, there had been a small wine cellar carved into the rock at this very spot. This is still part of the winery on Mount Veeder, which contains the art collection of the patron.

Californian wine from Hess Collection

According to the relevant art press, Donald Hess has been one of the top 200 art collectors in the world since the 1980s. Since the founding of the first mountain winery, the Hess Group enterprise has grown tremendously to include notable wineries such as Peter Lehmann in Australia, Colomé in Argentina, and other smaller estates in South America and on the American West Coast. Today, the Hess Collection Winery stands for quality wines from the best terroir combined with the highest quality technical know-how.

And these are the grape varieties at Hess Collection 

• Chardonnay
• Zinfandel
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Durif
• Malbec
• Petit Verdot