Far Niente Winery is a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

based in

Oakville, California Oakville is a census-designated place (CDP) in the of Napa County, northern California. The population was 71 at the 2010 census. Oakville's ZIP Code is 94562, and it is located in area code 707. The local economy is based on Napa Valley wine ...

, located within the

Oakville AVA Oakville is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley AVA and centered on the town of Oakville, California. The appellation extends over a flat expanse of well-drained gravel soil between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains. Oak ...

appellation. It was founded in 1885 by John Benson, but abandoned during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

in 1919. The property was restored by

Gil Nickel Gil Nickel (1939 – October 30, 2003) was an American vintner. He was the owner of the historic Far Niente Winery in the Napa Valley. He also established the Dolce Winery and the Nickel & Nickel Winery. Early life Harold Gilliland Nickel was bo ...

in 1979. The winery now produces wines from

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...

and

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

. The name of the winery comes from the Italian phrase ''

dolce far niente (literally 'sweetness fdoing nothing, sweet idleness') is an Italian saying. See also * Critique of work * ''Dolce far niente'' (poem) * Idleness * Ennui * ''Sehnsucht () is a German noun translated as "longing", "desire", "yearning" ...

'', meaning "the sweetness of doing nothing". It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

Wineries in Napa Valley 1885 establishments in California Buildings and structures in Napa County, California {{winery-stub