Sonoma (or Napa?) Valley winery question

[Smithy]

My mother, sister and I are headed for the Sonoma Valley (or is it Napa?) this fall. My mother particularly wants to see a winery she and Dad visited a couple of decades ago. The thing she particularly remembers is that this winery gives tours and that their storage barrels were hand-carved so that the type of grape being fermented inside is depicted on the cask front: chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and so on. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember the name of the winery.

I'm sure it's one of the older wineries, and with a bit of luck it hasn't changed names and changed hands. Still, it can be a long search trying to find the winery by this description. So I ask the cogniscenti of the Northern wine country: help, please! Anyone know which winery this is?

I DO know the difference between the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, by the way. I just don't know where they took their "wine country" tour although I suspect it was the Sonoma Valley.

[chezcherie]

I think there are a number of variations on that theme (casks carved with the varietal), but could it be Sebastiani?

Most notable is the famous hand-carved wine cask collection. Local winemaking scenes, various grape varietals and an array of birds have been chiseled into hundreds of antique redwood casks. They were carved by a friend of Samuele’s son, August, the second-generation family member to assume control of the winery.

Here's a link describing the location (from a wedding destination POV) that might help rule it in or rule it out.

sebastiani info

good luck with the search!

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm sure Sebastiani is what you are thinking of as ChezCherie suggested. Those barrels were carved by Earle Browne and you see some of the images on this site.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Carolyn Tillie (log)