Winemaker Notes

Sam Baxter quite literally grew up among the grapevines in Saint Helena, most often found just a few small steps behind his father, Phil, a legendary winemaker starting in the late 1960s in the Napa Valley. Sam began working in wineries as a young teenager and began learning the art of blending from his father at the age of 16.

After graduating from the University of California in Davis with a degree in Fermentation Science in 1998, Sam worked abroad in Australia before returning to his hometown. He started as Cellarmaster at Terra Valentine Winery at its inception in 1999 under his consulting winemaker father, where the father-son team began the transformation of the ghost winery property into a world class vineyard estate on Spring Mountain. His first encounters with Terra Valentine were cultivated during the early years at the winery, dubbed the "cowboy era" (1999-2001) due to the rough-and-tumble condition of the winery and its vineyard land, which allowed for barely enough energy to run the lights, but no hot water.