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Charter Oak Winery featured on CNN, Food Network and The Today Show


Charter Oak Winery
& Vineyards

FEATURED ON CNN
Small Business Success Story
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Food NetWork Films Segment
“I Left My Artichoke in San Francisco”
at Charter Oak Winery & Vineyards/Art Studio

Charter Oak Winery
& Vineyards
Commerical

By Big Picture Productions
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Live in the Vineyard Goes Country


May 2022
O.N.E. The Duo “Guilty”
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Live in the Vineyard Goes Country


May 2022
Ian Flanigan “Under A Southern Sky”
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Live in the Vineyard Goes Country


May 2022
Carolyn Jones “So Many Skies”
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Live in the Vineyard Goes Country


May 2022
Brooke Moriber “This Town Made Us”
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A Place in Napa Where They Make Wine the Old-Fashioned Way


June 22, 2020
Wine Travel Stories2

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Charter Oak Winery

March 2020
The Napa Wine Project

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A Family Affair

Fine Art and Luscious Wine
A Conversation with Layla and Rob Fanucci

January 2019
St Helena Living

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Napa Valley Wineries with the Best Zinfandel

February 27, 2016
Intowine.com

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The Food Network Visits Charter Oak Winery


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Friends Enjoy Their Visit to Charter Oak Winery


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Episode 17, Robert Fanucci,

Charter Oak, Wine Maker and Owner

“Charter Oak Winery is a gem of Napa Valley. Like many other wineries in the valley it began as a small family operation. While it’s grown since its founding in the early 20th century by Italian immigrant Guido Ragghianti, Charter Oak is still family run, by Guido’s grandson Robert Fanucci, who continues to use much of Guido’s original equipment and techniques today. The tiny winery is located in a house, just off of Highway 29, at the end of Charter Oak Avenue, in St. Helena. It’s a place I highly recommend you visit and get to know Robert, his world renown artist wife Layla, and their delicious wines.”

March 21, 2017
The Honest Pour with John Lenart

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2014 Petite Sirah Receives 94 Points

“Very dark ruby color; aromatic, ripe berry, black cherry, plum, spice nose; delicious, ripe berry, black cherry, plum, spice palate with good balancing acidity; long finish” 94 points

February 23, 2017
Richard Jennings

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2014 Monte Rosso Receives 93 Points

“Very dark ruby color; aromatic, savory, black raspberry, talc, dried cherry nose; delicious, elegant, tight, savory, black raspberry, talc, dried cherry palate with good balancing acidity; medium-plus finish” 93+ points

February 23, 2017
Richard Jennings

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My Napa Valley Diary

Charter Oak winery makes everything by hand. You heard that right, handmade wine, with no added chemicals and preservatives, and aged in barrels over a century old and pressed with paddles used by her husband’ Robert’s grandfather, Guido, who started the winery and who’s recipe and process they still use today. The result? A silky, satin taste that is so pure.

July 2016
Allison McNamara Blog

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Charter Oak: Blending Art & Wine

Your GPS has just guided you to a quiet neighborhood at the northern end of Napa Valley in St. Helena. Without a winery in sight, you get the sinking feeling you must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see a couple of well-used wine barrels in front of an old house.  This is the only marker signaling that you’ve arrived at Charter Oak Winery & Vineyards.

July 2016
Vino Visit Blog

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The 6 Coolest Bottles of California Wine (that taste great, too)

Co-owner and artist Layla Fanucci etches and hand-paints each design before it’s sealed and waxed onto Charter Oak’s bottles. Just like the bold, Picasso-esque art, the fruit for this ripe and jammy old-vine Zin is handpicked and bottled in small batches.

April 2016
www.purewow.com


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Napa Valley Wineries with the Best Zinfandel

Charter Oak Winery and Vineyards- This family winery keeps things real, they pride themselves on being the “most original, old-world” winery around, plus they bottle some of the Napa Valley’s most elegant Zinfandel. Visiting Charter Oak Winery and Vineyards is a blast…

February 2016
www.intowine.com

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Winemaker Robert Fanucci Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATT_xLOPdSU&feature=youtu.be

The Cooking Channel Visits Charter Oak Winery

Fran and Sal are in the Bay Area to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Berkeley location of Artichoke Basille's Pizza. To reward the staff for all of the hard work, they are surprising them with an anniversary party on the beautiful Charter Oak Winery Vineyard in St. Helena. While in San Francisco, the guys check out a Goat Hill Pizza, a favorite in town for 40 years, to try a couple of their time-honored pies. The guys finally make it to Charter Oak Winery in the Napa Valley and meet their hosts Robert and Layla Fanucci. The couple give Fran and Sal a tour of the vineyard and wine making process, and then cook up a delicious meal in anticipation of the Artichoke staff's arrival. In the end, everyone arrives, the guys make a toast to Artichoke Berkeley, and food and Charter Oak wines flow as the sun sets in the Charter Oak Vineyard.


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Robert Fanucci/Winemaker

Winemaker, Founder of Charter Oak Winery &Vineyards

Robert Fanucci, founder of Charter Oak Vineyards, is devoted to crafting the world-class wine that his family has been producing for four generations. During the harvest of 1986, Robert left his career in securities in New York to pursue the art of winemaking that his grandfather, Guido Ragghianti, an immigrant from Lucca, Italy, developed in the 1920s.  His grandfather, who passed away the same year, imparted to Robert his old-world tools, including a 100-year-old basket press, hand-grape crusher, timeworn wooden barrels, and homemade punch-down tools, which Robert still uses to craft Charter Oak wines today. In 1990, Robert and his family made St. Helena their permanent home.

Some of Robert’s earliest memories are of helping his grandfather make wine on the vineyard surrounding his home on Charter Oak Avenue in St. Helena, and crushing grapes ripened by the California sun in the palms of his hands. Today, he carries on his family’s winemaking tradition with his wife Layla and their three children, Michelle, Nicole and David. The Fanuccis’ hand is present in every step of the time-consuming process used to craft their artisanal, award-winning wine, from crushing the grapes to designing the bottle labels.

Robert Fanucci was born in San Francisco.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from San Francisco State University in 1978 and graduated from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1982. In 1989, Robert was awarded a Graduate Law Degree in Taxation (LL.M.) from New York University.  When he is not making wine, Robert practices transactional law as a partner of Gagen, McCoy, McMahon, Markowitz, Koss and Raines, with locations in Danville and St. Helena, Calif.

Rediscovering the Soul of Napa Valley

While planning a recent trip to Napa Valley I put some feelers out looking for small, undiscovered gems in Napa Valley. I was looking for a different Napa experience. My friend Brandy told me about a place I had never heard of before, called Charter Oak Winery in St. Helena...

October 2014
Chicagoist.com

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What's on your 'Zinfandel Mind'?

The lively, colorful and albeit, haunting and mysterious artwork on the label of Charter Oak Wine 2012 “The Zinfandel Mind #13” foretells of the seductive wine inside.

April 23, 2014
Examiner.com

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Award-Winning Charter Oak Winery

DEBUTS FIVE NEW WINES

2012 vintage – “One of the best of the decade”

Wine Industry Advisor
April 2014


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Devine Wine

Winery's Zinfandels are Hidden Gems


March 19, 2014
Peter, Hoyne, Chicago Sun Times

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Charter Oak Winery in St. Helena California

See California destinations, local events, travel tips and advice, maps, dining suggestions and other related topics.

March 2014
By: SeeCalifornia.com


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Charter Oak Winery Releases two new wines

We think some of the best wine in the world comes right from our own country in Napa Valley...

February 21, 2014
By The Examiner


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Wine Country Weekend

The best way to celebrate “spring break,” adult-style? A trip to Napa Valley, California. Here are must-sees for your weekend itinerary.

February 15, 2014
By Celebrated Living


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Charter Oak 2010 Monto Rosso on Drink Hacker

“The A List”

October 2, 2013
By Drinkhacker.com


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Creativity Abounds:

At Charter Oak Winery, it's a marriage of art and wine.

March 2013
By NorthBay Business Magazine


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2010 Charter Oak Guido Raggihianti Old World Field Blend EARNS TOP RATING of 94+  AT ZAP 2013

2010 Guido Raggihianti Old Field Blend, one of two wines out of 250, earns top score of 94+ rating at ZAP 2013



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Charter Oak chosen one of seven ‘Best Wines’ at ZAP 2012 Plus 2009 Monte Rosso Rated 93 Points

Zinfandel Styles: Sublime to Riduculous


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Charter Oak Featured on the Today Show

March 2011
Featured on the Today Show

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A Very Good Year - SF State University Magazine

With their wine winning accolades and her artwork the subject of a new book, these Gators have reason to raise a glass.

June 2012

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Radio Talkshow with Allan Wolper on WBGO

June 2012

Allan Wolper talks to international artist, Layla Fanucci, and her husband Robert Fanucci, who makes award winning Charter Oak wines in Napa Valley.

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Charter Oak Winery on KRON Channel 4

December 2011
Robert Fanucci on KRON Channel 4

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Heard it Through the Grapevine

December 2011
Layla Fanucci on KRON Channel 4

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Charter Oak Wines: Quiet Pursuit of Excellence

April 17, 2012
By Richard Jennings, Huffington Post


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For a 22-year-old, David Fanucci spends a lot of his life in the distant past.

How else can one explain Fanucci’s appreciation for the 100-year-old basket press that his great-grandfather brought over from Italy, his devotion to the labor-intensive winemaking techniques from yesteryear?

Fanucci’s respect for his ancestors is palpable; he incorporates it into everything he does at his family’s Charter Oak Winery in St. Helena. In June, the throwback style won him a prestigious honor: The title of “Top Young Winemaker” during the NextGen Wine Competition for Millennial Wine Buyers in Santa Rosa.

In particular, Fanucci was recognized for his Sonoma Valley Monte Rosso Vineyard 2007 Zinfandel. The wine took “Best of Show” at the competition and BEAT nearly 750 other wines.

“Good wine is all about great fruit,” Fanucci said, noting that the wine is made with grapes from one of the oldest vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties combined. “But I’d like to think the way we go about all of this certainly makes a difference, too.”

Winemaking certainly is in Fanucci’s blood. His great-grandfather, Guido Ragghianti, was the family’s first oenophile, and brought a basket press and wooden grape vats from Lucca, Italy, when he immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. He set up shop at a home on Charter Oak Avenue in St. Helena.

It wasn’t until 1986 that Fanucci’s father, Robert Fanucci, started Charter Oak. Since then, the elder Fanucci passed along winemaking knowledge to David, who remembers toiling over his first chores in the cellar when he was 5 or 6 years old.

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Fanucci named 'Top Young Winemaker'

July 30, 2010

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