Turnbull Wine Cellars combines estate Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon with an unusual cultural program: a serious collection of photography displayed throughout the winery that gives visitors something to engage with beyond the wine itself. The estate vineyards on the Oakville benchland have been producing structured Cabernet since the 1970s from one of Napa Valley’s most consistently celebrated growing sites.

History of Turnbull Wine Cellars

The property that is now Turnbull Wine Cellars was originally developed as Johnson-Turnbull Vineyards in the 1970s, one of the early Oakville estates to recognize the benchland’s potential for Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery changed hands and was reestablished as Turnbull Wine Cellars by Elden Turnbull before its current ownership.

The photography collection was developed under the ownership of the Petroni family, who purchased the estate and began assembling an art photography collection that now numbers in the thousands of works. The combination of serious Oakville Cabernet and the photography program gives Turnbull a distinctive identity among the estates on the Highway 29 corridor.

Turnbull does not just hang some prints for decoration. The winery maintains a curated photography collection, with dedicated gallery space and rotating exhibitions that make a Turnbull visit feel more like a cultural event than a standard tasting room stop. The wine stands fully on its own, but the photography program makes the estate distinctive.

Oakville benchland vineyards

Turnbull farms estate vineyards on the Oakville benchland, the alluvial terraces west of Highway 29 that produce some of the most consistently acclaimed Cabernet Sauvignon in California. The soils on the Turnbull estate are a mix of well-drained gravelly loam and clay over alluvial cobbles, typical of the Oakville benchland character that drives both fruit concentration and natural tannic structure.

The estate block adjacent to the winery building has been planted continuously since the 1970s, with vine age contributing complexity that younger-vine fruit cannot replicate. Additional estate blocks and long-term vineyard contracts across Oakville and the broader Napa Valley supplement the estate fruit in larger-production bottlings.

The wines of Turnbull Wine Cellars

The Old Bull Cabernet Sauvignon is the flagship, produced from the oldest estate blocks and aged 22 months in French oak. It represents the classic Oakville benchland character: dark plum and black cherry fruit, mineral structure, and tannins built for aging. Production is limited and the wine is available primarily through the wine club and mailing list.

The Turnbull Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is the entry tier, more widely available and offering the estate’s Oakville-influenced character at a broader production scale. Small lots of Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and a red blend round out the program in most years.

Food pairings with Turnbull wines

Old Bull Cabernet from Turnbull is a wine for serious dinners: the Oakville benchland concentration and 22 months of oak aging mean the wine needs the richest preparations to show its full range. A bone-in ribeye from quality aged beef, rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic, or roasted prime rib with horseradish cream all give the tannins the fat and protein they need to soften and reveal the wine’s elegance underneath the structure.

The Napa Valley Cabernet at the entry tier is more approachable and works across a wider range: grilled skirt steak, duck leg confit, mushroom risotto, or a rich braised short rib all complement the wine’s dark fruit and moderate tannins. The Sauvignon Blanc, available in limited quantities, suits oysters, grilled fish, and herb-forward salads where its aromatic precision shines.

Turnbull Wine Cellars: common questions