I handcraft my two Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, without compromise, from some of the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley- a region that I believe can make Cabernet as well, or better, than any other place in the world.  These benchland vineyards are located between Rutherford and St. Helena, where deep, stony alluvial soils promote the ideal growing conditions for the Cabernet vine.  These vines regularly produce some of the most concentrated and superbly ripened fruit anywhere.  My winegrowing philosophy is to make complex wines that walk the fine line between power and elegance. 

My winemaking techniques are very traditional, using only small French oak barrels sourced from several forests for complexity.  It is my job to let the vineyards speak.

- Cathy Corison 

Cathy discovered her passion for wine while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biology at Pomona College in Claremont, California.   Inspired by the notion that wine is “alive at every level,” she went on to receive a master’s in Enology from U.C. Davis in the mid 1970’s.

Almost thirty years of winemaking for others, including Chappellet Vineyard, Staglin Family Vineyard, York Creek Vineyards and Long Meadow Ranch, honed her skills and left her eager to express her own winemaking voice.  In 1987 she made the first vintage of Corison Cabernet.  “There was a wine inside me that needed to be made”, she says.

Family Winery
Though it's Cathy's name on the label, Corison is a true family winery. Cathy's husband, William Martin, a winery Renaissance man, designed the barn, keeps all the equipment humming, does the books and accounting and keeps the computers online.

The Label The images on the Corison label are inspired by old life symbols- one based on rain and the other on a sprouting seed. They embellished vases excavated from the site of one of the earliest European cultures to cultivate grapes and make wine over 7,000 years ago.