Designed and built in 1886 by a Scottish sea captain Hamden McIntyre, the winery was originally known as Eshcol. He designed it to use a "gravity-flow" system. A horse-drawn winch would bring grapes to the third floor for crushing; gravity would then carry the juice to the second floor for fermenting and eventually to the first floor for aging. The winery was heralded in the local papers of the time as a "model farm".

Known as the "Big Four", is the small cluster of McIntyre-designed wineries -- including Greystone (now the West Coast campus of the Culinary Institute of America), Far Niente, and Inglenook (now the Niebaum-Coppola Winery).

The Rise and Fall of the Wine Industry…
During the last decade of the nineteenth century, Napa Valley was a thriving viticultural community with nearly 140 wineries producing wine. There was a built in market for these fine wines as the French growers were battling the dreaded phylloxera disease in their vines. Fine wine production was nearly diminished in Europe, so the time was ripe for these young American vintners to sell their wares abroad.

In the late 1890's, phylloxera plagued the Napa Valley vines and production came to a crashing halt. By the time the growers had recovered with re-planted vines, the market in Europe was lost. Next came Prohibition, which was a stake in the heart to Napa's vintners. The old Eshcol winery continued to make wine through Prohibition, up until 1940, leased to the Beringer Brothers who had a contract with the Catholic church to make sacramental wines.

The Wine Industry Rises Again…
From 1940 until the Trefethens bought the property in 1968 the winery was vacant and had fallen into serious disrepair. When John Trefethen brought his wife-to-be Janet to see the old building, she commented, "Well, it would be a great place to keep my horse." Instead, John and Janet committed themselves to restoring the building to its former glory. They carefully researched the winery's past and worked for years to restore it. Short of replacing the dirt floor on the first floor with concrete, they made no significant structural changes. The Trefethen's restoration efforts were recognized by the Department of the Interior in 1988. The winery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as the only existing wooden, gravity-flow winery of the era, in Napa County. Trefethen is unique.

Today, there is state of the art winemaking in the newer Fermentation Building and Barrel Cellar, but the historic winery still plays an integral role. The first floor is again used for aging wine but now also houses the Guest Reception, Estate Tasting Room and Wine Library. The second floor cellars barrels of Bordeaux reds and the original de-stemmer-crusher is on display.