Qualla: Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. In 1920, a man named Clifford Clark wrote an indignant letter to the sheriff about the rowdy drunks in nearby Monticello. The locals were having "good times, drinking wine," Clark complained, and there was "no question, but what the wine comes from Nichelini's." He was almost certainly right. The Nichelini family had been making wine in Chiles Valley since 1890, and a little thing like the Eighteenth Amendment was not about to change that. Anton Nichelini's winery "officially" closed during Prohibition. Unofficially, it supplied the governor's household, kept local miners in good spirits, and once ran a sacramental wine delivery service as cover. Today, more than 130 years later, the winery is still in the family's hands - the oldest such arrangement in Napa Valley - and the current head winemaker is the seventh in an unbroken line.

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: From Ticino to Chiles Valley

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Anton Nichelini emigrated from the Swiss canton of Ticino and homesteaded a 160-acre tract of rugged wilderness in Chiles Valley, converting about 30 acres to vineyards. He was the first Swiss settler in the area, but he would not be the last. In 1890, he married Caterina Corda, ...

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: The Prohibition Hustle

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. When Prohibition arrived in 1920, the Nichelini Winery shut its doors in the way that a theater goes dark between acts - technically closed, still very much in business. The family's bootlegging was an open secret in the valley. Beyond Clifford Clark's letter, the winery was well...

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: A House Built on a Winery

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sanfranman59, CC BY-SA 3.0. The physical property tells Nichelini's story as clearly as any archive. The 1886 Homestead Cabin, recently restored, is believed to be the only structure of its kind remaining in Napa County, earning a place on the Napa Valley Historical Society's "10 Treasures" list. The stone ...

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Image: Sanfranman59 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: Seven Winemakers, One Family

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The succession reads like a family tree because it is one. After Anton, his son William took over. Then James Nichelini. Then Jo-Ann Nichelini Meyer. Then Gregory Boeger, followed by Justin Boeger, and now Aimee Sunseri, who was named Woman Winemaker of the Year at the 2017 Inter...

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Nichelini Winery: Bootleggers, Miners, and Seven Generations of Wine: Outlasting Everything

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Nichelini Family Winery has survived Mexican land grants giving way to American settlement, the temperance movement, Prohibition and its federal agents, the consolidation of Napa Valley by corporate wine interests, and the transformation of wine country from agricultural region t...

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain