SoMa Cellars Founders – Peter Hartman and Jim Harker
SoMa Cellars began as a private wine club and has grown over twenty years into an international producer of fine wines from Northern California and Bordeaux. Our 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was our first commercial wine. SoMa has produced this wine ever since and over the years has developed a lineup of fine red, white and rosé wines! SoMa Cellars wines are all table wines which may be enjoyed with food or on their own.
SoMa Cellars is able to achieve outstanding quality wines by collaborating with The Wine Foundry, Napa Valley’s premier custom-crush facility; and, with VINIV, a custom-crush facility located in the village of Bages within the Paulliac Appellation. Viniv is the sister winery to Chateau Lynch-Bages.
Peter Hartman
Founder
When we started in 2004 at the small co-op in SoMa, we made wine just for ourselves, sourcing grapes from vineyards in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties and gaining professional winemaking experience. Encouraged by friends and family to "go pro,"we produced our first commercial vintage, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, in 2007.
SoMa Cellars now offers a range of wines from premium California vineyards – Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Sonoma Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, Russian River Valley Viognier, Clarksburg Rose and Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc plus our flagship Napa Valley Cabernet. We now produce fine wine in Napa and also Bordeaux, France, a life-long dream for both of us. But during our growth and evolution we’ve remained true to our original vision of producing outstanding wines distinguished by balance, elegance and varietal character. Salud!
Jim Harker
Founder
We grew up together in Wisconsin where we were college roommates. Then we both made our ways to California – Peter to San Francisco, Jim to Orange County – where we each became immersed in the state's burgeoning wine culture in the 1970s and 80s. Peter was a "garagiste" vintner making wine out of friends’ garages in the San Francisco suburbs and driving to weekend winemaking classes at UC Davis. Meanwhile Jim became involved with various wine tasting groups and began building an international wine collection.
In 2004 we jumped at the opportunity to make premium wines at a co-op winery right in Peter's South of Market San Francisco neighborhood, known locally as SoMa. The co-op subsequently moved to Napa and is now Napa’s premier custom crush facility, The Wine Foundry.
Beginning with our 2012 vintage, SoMa has produced a traditional left bank Bordeaux in partnership with VINIV a French custom crush house affiliated with Chateau Lynch Bages. In 2016, we were proud to introduce our Right Bank Bordeaux as well.
Patrick Saboe
Consulting Winemaker, The Wine Foundry
In 1996, Patrick Saboe was reshaping the Charleston, SC restaurant scene when a honeymoon to California’s wine country changed his life. What initially began as an excuse to celebrate the nuptials while enjoying a glass, transformed into a journey in pursuit of the perfect fermentation.
Toward this end, Patrick traded the kitchen for textbooks when he enrolled in the Enology & Viticulture program at U.C. Davis. Since graduation, Patrick’s professional winemaking experience includes overseeing production at Verismo, Keller Estate, Petroni and Pezzi King wineries.
Patrick’s winemaking philosophy is simple: exceptional wines are made from exceptional fruit with exceptional care. Consequently, he collaborates closely with us and the numerous growers where we source our grapes assuring that quality is paramount to achieve our vision for our wines.
Daniel LLose
Consulting Winemaker, Viniv
Daniel LLose is perhaps one of Bordeaux’s most discrete stars, whose impressive career not only spans five decades but also some of the wine world’s most respected estates.
The story starts in the army, in 1976, when Daniel met a young officer named, Jean-Michel Cazes who was looking for a new winemaker for Château Lynch-Bages. Together, they embarked on an ambitious, and successful, renovation of the domaine.
Today, as Chief Technical Director, Daniel works alongside the winemaking teams in each of the Cazes family ventures, in France and abroad, including their bespoke winemaking venture, VINIV Bordeaux. It is thanks to VINIV, that we have been able to work alongside Daniel since 2012 to create our fantastic SoMa Cellars Bordeaux blends.
