Steve Tonella was born in Napa Valley and grew up living in Sonoma and Rutherford. He is the 4th Generation crafting wines from this wonderful Napa estate.
From an early age Steve worked in the vineyards with his father and grandfather. Enjoying the hot sun and helping in the vineyard by suckering vines (removing unwanted shoots) tying, training, and irrigating formed his early encounters in vineyards. He says he is amazed to have survived as the mode of transportation was the infamous 3-wheeler motorcycles that were accident prone and tipped easily.
Those early years shaped Steve’s endless commitment to vineyard management and passion for winemaking.
Today, Steve manages the 100 year old family vineyard and wine business with the help of his wife Ariadna.
2010 marked the first release of Steve’s S.R. Tonella Cellars wines. Since that time he has been recognized by Decanter Magazine, Robb Report, and Wine Spectator among other notable news outlets for crafting some of the best Cabernet Sauvignon from the Rutherford AVA of Napa Valley.
Fast forward to the turn of the century when Steve began making wine and produced small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon. College took him to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he earned a degree in Business Administration. After college, Steve entered the high-tech industry and quickly moved into sales leadership positions that took him around the world. Fluent in both Italian and Spanish, he’s lived and worked in Rome, Italy, and Barcelona, Spain, besides stints in England and Japan. During all his travels, the dream of cultivating Rutherford wine never left. After working across three continents, the time had come to resurrect the dream of producing Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon into a reality: The 2010 was the ‘first’ of many vintages to come.
