Hagafen Cellars

About the winery

Hagafen Cellars is a kosher winery on the Silverado Trail in Napa, owned and run by Ernie and Irit Weir^2,4. Ernie Weir founded it in 1979, and its first commercial vintage was harvested in 1980². The name means "the vine" in Hebrew⁵ and comes from the blessing over wine, borei pri hagafen⁴. "I remember as a boy how much I loved to say borey pri hagafen and since then I have wanted to make wine," Weir wrote in the winery's spring 1998 newsletter⁶.

Weir grew up in Southern California, toured the wine regions of Europe and Israel in 1973 and moved to the Napa Valley the same year, earning a degree from the UC Davis viticulture program in 1978, according to the winery's pages on Web Winery in 1999⁵. His aim, they said, was dry Napa Valley wine made under strict rabbinic rules^5,7. The same pages said that all its wines but the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve were mevushal (flash-pasteurized) and certified kosher for Passover by the Orthodox Union from the 1993 vintage, and that after years of having its wine made at other wineries it finished its own winery on the Silverado Trail vineyard in the summer of 2000⁷. The winery's own account today says it grew from a small partnership, and that in 1986 the Weirs bought a few acres on the Silverado Trail to grow Cabernet Sauvignon².

Hagafen wines have been served at the White House since 1981². A 1995 Napa Valley Register item kept on the old site reported its 1988 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve at a July 1994 state dinner and its 1991 Chardonnay Reserve at the September 1995 lunch for the Middle East peace signing⁸. The 2024 harvest was Weir's 51st in the Napa Valley², and an April 2026 interview described Hagafen as the only winery in the valley given over entirely to kosher wine⁴.

Recipes from Hagafen

• Soup or stew

  Hagafen Beef Stew with Pinot Noir

  First shared on Web Winery in 1999.

• Pasta

  California Indian Summer Pasta

  First shared on Web Winery in 1999.

• Main course

  Chicken Breasts with Prune Stuffing

  First shared on Web Winery in 1999. From a published cookbook; the page names the book.

• Appetizer

  Gravlax

  First shared on Web Winery in 2000.

• Main course

  Grilled Fish and Veggies

  First shared on Web Winery in 1999.

• Main course

  Lamb Chops with Nectarine Chutney

  First shared on Web Winery in 1999.

All 14 recipes from Hagafen

In the press

• Publication not recorded, January 1997, “Seventeen Medals in our Seventeenth Year”

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

• Chicago Jewish News, May 1999, “BEHIND THE HISTORIC SCENES”

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

• Napa Valley Register, May 1999, “Kosher gourmet food and wine for tastier Passover celebration”

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

Nearby in Napa Valley

• Artisan Wine Company Not confirmed