Pine Ridge Vineyards

Cabernet from the hillside bench

Cabernet sets the pace for Lisa Evich , winemaker at Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa, where the Stags Leap District fruit comes off steeply terraced hillsides edged by pine trees. The decision here begins with site and structure: Cabernet Sauvignon leads the program, with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc also in the house vocabulary. Evich’s own path has moved through laboratory work, enology, assistant winemaking and director-level cellar responsibility across California houses; at Pine Ridge, the role asks for the same discipline in a narrower frame, reading fruit from a district known for red wine with muscle and composure. Her training at Sonoma State University and University of California, Davis pairs with the slope, the cellar, and the daily decisions that turn Stags Leap District fruit into still red wine.

A red program held in balance

The method published here is not a recipe, and Pine Ridge does not give the cellar sheet: no fermentation temperatures, no barrel regime, no lot count. What is clear is the shape of the program. Cabernet Sauvignon carries the estate identity, supported by the Bordeaux family of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot, with Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc widening the cellar beyond the red pass. In a place like this, the craft turns on proportion, extraction and patience; too much force can flatten the site, too little can leave Cabernet without its frame. Evich’s work sits inside that pressure. She has spent time as an enologist and winemaker, which matters because this kind of wine asks for both the read of the lab and the judgment of the hands. The stated focus is still red wine, and the house language returns to power and elegance. Read without gloss, that means tannin, fruit, acid and oak have to arrive together, not as separate claims.

Cave light and terraced rows

The room is quiet by design. Pine Ridge receives visitors in an intimate cave-tasting setting, with the vineyard and hillside views close enough to keep the glass tied to the slope outside. The place has a classic Napa posture: polished, restrained, scenic without turning the cellar into a stage. Around it, the Stags Leap District landscape does much of the speaking. Terraced vineyard rows climb the hillside, pine trees mark the edges, and the rocky contours keep the eye moving from vine to ridge to cave door. Inside, that geography narrows into the glass. The tasting room may be composed, but the work behind it is agricultural, seasonal and physical; Cabernet arrives from a rugged hillside before it becomes a poised wine on the counter.

The line to follow in the cellar

Evich’s next move here is best read through the Cabernet program, not through a public claim the house has not made. Pine Ridge’s two current awards belong to this address, and it continues to handle Stags Leap District fruit in a cellar built around Cabernet Sauvignon.