Phillip Corallo-Titus

Coming Up

At University of California, Davis, the work was technical first: the discipline of winemaking that Corallo-Titus brought out of school shows up later in a career built on patience, accuracy, and close reading of fruit. Early winemaking opportunities at Stratford and Cartlidge & Brown wineries moved that discipline into cellar practice, where process becomes muscle memory. A further step came as Assistant Winemaker at Chappellet Winery in Napa Valley (1981–1985), where daily repetition inside an established house helped set the terms of a long run in wine rather than a brief stint in it. Since 1990, Phillip has served as winemaker and Vice President of Winemaking of Chappellet Winery, while also serving as winemaker of Titus. Those titles point to continuity more than ornament: steady responsibility, season after season, with decisions shaped by accumulated vineyard knowledge rather than by reinvention.

Where They Are Now

Since 1990, Corallo-Titus has led winemaking at the St. Helena winery, and the work depends on familiarity sharpened over time. Repeated harvests at the same estate create a different kind of competence: one that can compare block to block, season to season, without losing the specifics of either. In Corallo-Titus’s case, the vineyard remains the center of the method, with each vintage built from close attention to sites already well known to him.

Signature

Signature Cabernet Sauvignon and Chappellet Signature Chenin Blanc define the range here. The Cabernet points to Corallo-Titus’s specialty with Pritchard Hill fruit, while the Chappellet Signature Chenin Blanc shows the same controlled approach in a different variety. Together, they read as wines made through long contact with specific vineyards, not through a one-size-fits-all style.

In Their Words “Because I’ve worked with our vineyards for so long and know each block so intimately, I am able to focus on the individual characteristics of each vineyard lot.”