A Colorful History
Patrick McNeil loves telling a good story, making and distributing wine, exploring his family’s deep legacy, and now, sharing his first-ever rosé. By Daniel Jewett 26 july/august 2021 marin living.
WHEN PATRICK MCNEIL’S grandfather Joe started sending romantic notes and colorful illustrations — he was a commercial graphic artist working at Schmidt Lithography Co. (known by the famous clock tower by the entrance to the Bay Bridge) — to his grandmother in the late 1920s, he never could have guessed that the envelopes would eventually become wine labels. “A wine label has to be authentic; it has to be real because people can tell the difference,” McNeil says. He started putting his grandfather’s correspondence — which includes 50 envelopes that are now housed at the Marin County Free Library’s Anne T. Kent California Room — on the bottles of wine he and his dad began making in 2003. “I thought: our story and my family are more rooted, more colorful, and more entertaining on paper than anyone else I could imagine working with.” McNeil is not kidding. Even before his grandparents were married at the endlessly photogenic St. Mary’s Church in Nicasio in 1928, both of their families were some of the town’s first residents post–Gold Rush — his grandmother, Ellen Redding, was born on the town square in 1899. Shortly after getting married, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where McNeil’s father was born. His father joined other Los Angeles professionals who made the move north to Napa in the 1970s and got into the wine business — McNeil’s father teamed with Carl Doumani in purchasing Stags’
All images courtesy of Wines That Deliver and Patrick McNeil
Patrick McNeil’s limited-edition wines include the new rosé (this page) and two versions of the 2019 pinot noir (opposite). The art is by his grandfather.
