Hess Persson Estate Napa Valley Wine Tasting with Special Guest Owner Tim Persson

"By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt."

~ Thomas Jefferson

If only a modern-day politician could contribute as much to the quality of our life as the late great Thomas Jefferson.  He was one of the first advocates of wine in the United States and he is one of the reasons why we have the greatest selection of wines from all around the world in the U.S. today.  So, remember...no matter how bad it gets, we still have the best selection of the world’s greatest wines at the most competitive prices in the world here in the U.S. of A.

And if you are a Cabernet Sauvignon grape Napa Valley is sacred ground as they produce some of the best versions of this varietal on the planet.   We have a lot of good friends in Napa and when our friends from the Hess Persson Winery sent me a message that Tim Persson was coming to South Florida, we put a date on the calendar to share some of the vintage Hess Collection wines that we just received in a private collection with our “Wine Drinking People”.   

I will never forget my first visit to this winery in the early 1990’s not only were the wines some of the most talked about in Napa Valley at that time but the winery had one of the most impressive collections of art and a movie theater to tell the history of the winery that began in the late 1970’s during the renaissance period of Napa Valley.

Join us as we welcome Tim to South Florida for an incredible evening of Hess Persson Estate wines featuring the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon going back to the 1994 vintage.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner and gratuity is $225 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@wineatch.com. 

Hess Persson Estate Napa Valley Wine Tasting

with Owner Tim Persson

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

7:30 PM

2024 Hess Persson Estates Shirtail Ranches Sauvignon Blanc North Coast

2023 Hess Collection Chardonnay Napa Valley

2023 The Hess Collection Chardonnay Lioness Napa

2023 Hess Persson Estates Panthera Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

2023 Hess Cabernet Sauvignon Allomi Napa image

2021 Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa

2019 Hess The Lion Cabernet Sauvignon Napa

1994 The Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa

Menu

Selection of Cheese and Charcutier

Sea Scallop Carpaccio with Candied Citrus and lavender Aioli

Beef Tartar served over Bone Marrow with Truffle Aioli and Whole Wheat Toast

Iberico Pork Loin with Mongolian BBQ and Root Vegetable Puree

Chocolate and Dark Cherry Crème Pot

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner and gratuity is $225 + tax.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and chefs Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you. 

A bit about the Hess Persson Estate

This is a vintage winery profile written by Wine Watch founder Jim Turner.

“The Hess Collection Winery has been one of the best kept secrets in the Napa Valley.  For over fifteen years, Hess Vineyards on Mt. Veeder has concentrated on quietly establishing itself as an exceptional producer of premium cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay grapes.  All the while, small experimental lots of wine were being made to define the estate's own style and winemaking concepts, which are now realized in The Hess Collection wines.  The Hess story began when Swiss entrepreneur Donald Hess visited the Napa Valley.  In the course of his stay, an associate suggested that they share a bottle of wine from a prominent Napa Valley winery.  The wine was stunning, and Mr. Hess was drawn immediately to the prospect of being part of this beautiful valley's burgeoning reputation as a world-class wine region.  After considerable reflection and personally conducted research, Donald Hess found himself on the steep slopes of Mt. Veeder - the southernmost mountain in the Mayacamas Range that forms the western rim of the Napa Valley.  There he observed a small group of viticulturists struggling to establish mountain vineyards on this difficult terrain.  He realized that their efforts were driven by a dedication to the quality of grapes from Mt. Veeder.

Understanding that exceptional wines can come only from the highest quality wine grapes, Hess has focused on establishing vineyards that provide permanent continuity in producing such grapes.  This has been the cornerstone philosophy of the Hess vineyard and winery operations since their inception in 1978.  To date, approximately 285 acres have been planted on the mountainsides of Mt. Veeder.  These plantings are divided between chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, together with smaller lots of related red varietals - cabernet franc and merlot. During its first years of operation, Hess sold its grapes to highly regarded premium wineries that included Duckhorn, Beaulieu, and St. Clement while reserving a portion of each harvest for its own winemaking research.  Such experimentation has been essential to achieving a consistently high level of wine quality, due to the diverse viticultural conditions within the mountain vineyard terrain.  The three estate vineyards are composed of 95 blocks, or small vineyards, each with differing combinations of sunlight exposure, planted varietals, soil types and other viticultural factors.

In 1989 Hess opened its completely renovated, turn-of-the century winery.  The original building and property (purchased in 1986) dates back to 1903, when award-winning wines were made there by Theodore Gier.  In the early part of the century the old building had been the first Napa Valley winery of the Christian Brothers - it was then known as Mt. La Salle.  Several blocks of old cabernet vineyards have been retained from these bygone days: one which Brother Timothy (retired winemaker for Christian Brothers) attributes to a 1939 origin and the other, a piece on the upper slopes which dates back to Theodore Gier in 1903!

A portion of the original ivy-covered stone structure has been set aside to house owner Donald Hess' distinguished collection of paintings and sculptures by contemporary European and American artists.  The permanent exhibit represents a major portion of the artwork he has acquired over the past twenty years.  In putting his collection together, Mr. Hess has relied upon close personal contacts with the artists, rather than forays into the auction room.  Available for public viewing by visitors to the winery, it features a collection of celebrated artists.  Among the best known are Morris Louis, Robert Motherwell, and Frank Stella in the United States; Francis Bacon in England; the late Henri Michaux in Paris; Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter in Germany; Per Kirkeby in Denmark; Emilio Vedova in Italy; Arnulf Rainer in Austria; and a group of Swiss abstract artists, headed by Max Bill and Richard Paul Lohse.  Most striking perhaps is the work of American sculptor Bruce Robbins, whose lean, elegantly simulated ladders - made of oil paint, aluminum, wood, canvas, wire mesh, plaster or all of the above - stand at a slight angle to the wall and challenge us not to see them as an intelligent contribution to sculpture.

Randle Johnson, the winemaker, has worked with Mt. Veeder grapes since 1977, when he was with the Mayacamas Winery.  The first of The Hess Collection vintages (1983) were released in 1987 and 1988.  However, the first truly great Hess wine was the 1984 Hess Collection Reserve - the winery produced only 250 cases (all the rest of its fruit was sold to other wineries).  In 1985 Hess made no reserve, but the regular bottling was produced and turned out to be one of the stunning values of that great vintage.  Beginning in 1986 Hess seemed to arrive at a formula to which it has adhered since.  From the estate Hess produces about 18,000 cases of The Hess Collection Cabernet - the very best barrels are reserved for a minuscule amount of The Hess Collection Reserve.  The latter wine would have to be regarded as one of the most sought-after and prized Cabernets in the State of California.  Because of the incredible demand, it is now sold only at the winery.

A lot has changed at the Hess Collection over the years and they have moved away from their Reserve wines in favor of making vineyard designated wines with the Hess Winery label divided into three tiers today with the wines made from purchased grapes under the Hess "Select" brand.  The Hess "Select" wines sport green, red, and blue labels for the Chardonnay, Cabernet, and Pinot Noir respectively.  Over the years they have garnered a reputation for excellent value.  The next level is now the vineyard designated series with the purple labeled “Allomi Vineyard” Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, the Suskol Vineyard Chardonnay has replaced the Hess Collection Chardonnay and then there are the Estate bottled wines the Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon which brings up the top level of quality for the winery.  They have also added a fourth tier of wines called the small block wines that exemplify their individual vineyard sites.

The Hess Collection also has a new winemaker at the helm with Randall Johnson retiring, they brought in one of the top names in California, Dave Guffy.  Dave is in the vineyards year-round. "I learned very early that I have to walk the vines. During harvest, I continually taste the grapes to keep an eye on the maturity of flavors and tannins to ensure the best expression of a particular vineyard. As a student I loved Cabernet, especially from the Napa Valley and it inspired me to go into winemaking. Now, I’m literally on top of Napa, making mountain Cabernets. Mountain fruit is different from valley floor fruit — and so are the wines.  They are structured, complex, rich wines, with distinctive tannins, ageability, and concentrated fruit.”  A California native who grew up in San Jose, he spent summers with his grandparents on a 500-acre Kansas farm and Guffy has kept a strong attraction to the earth. “The farming aspect of wine has a primal challenge about it and the same with winemaking — you can never know everything. Every year the challenge is to do it better than the year before.”

In May of 1995 we participated in a unique vertical tasting of every Hess Collection Cabernet produced from 1983 to 1992.  We were awestruck by the remarkably high quality and beautifully balanced fruit.  Beginning with the 1990 vintage, the regular bottlings also seemed to step up several notches in quality.  The 1992 Hess Collection Cabernet set a new benchmark of quality for this winery.  Not only is it the best regular bottling ever produced at Hess, we also selected it as the 1995 Wine of the Year in The Wine News.  The objective for The Hess Collection's Cabernet Sauvignons is to achieve elegance and drinkability in wines that will also age well for an extended time.  The challenge has been to mold the powerful, concentrated flavors and aromas that are characteristic of mountain grapes into wines that have finesse as well as depth.  Selective lots of merlot and cabernet franc are blended with the base cabernet for additional breadth of character.  In 1989 author James Laube, who classified Hess a "second growth" in his California's Great Cabernets, described the Hess style as one of "richness, concentration, power and finesse."  Without question Hess has surpassed this exalted praise with its 1992 Hess Collection Cabernet.” -   Penned by our founding father Jim Turner