ST. CLAIR BROWN

We are a boutique urban winery, nano-brewery, and culinary garden located in the city of Napa.

St. Clair Brown was founded in 2010 by colleagues, and longtime friends, Winemaker/Brewmaster Elaine St. Clair and President Laina Brown. We opened our doors in 2013, launched our nano-brewery in 2018, and hope to be here for the rest of our lives.

Elaine and Laina have worked together for over 24 years at large wineries such as Domaine Carneros Winery, where Laina was Director of Marketing and Hospitality and Elaine was Co-Winemaker, and most recently at Black Stallion Winery, where Laina was founding President and Elaine was Head Winemaker. When the owners of Black Stallion Winery sold in 2010, Laina and Elaine sat down and made a list of everything they wanted this, their own venture, to encompass.

For award-winning Winemaker/Brewmaster Elaine St. Clair, the opportunity to make both wine and beer was always at the top of her list. Elaine has been making wine in the Napa Valley for over 30 years. As a UC Davis graduate, she attended both their Winemaking and Master Brewers programs and holds a degree in Fermentation Science. During the 90’s, Elaine was also Head Brewer and Co-Owner of Napa Ale Works for 10 years; one of Napa Valley’s original breweries.

President Laina Brown is a wine industry executive and veteran. She has a background in fashion design, business development, and was an early pioneer of the direct-to-consumer winery business model. For Laina, it was about creating a place where people could enjoy world class wine, beer, food, and music in an inspiring and inviting space. (In this case, in a deserted lot, and former machine shop, but we’ll get to that later). For her and Elaine this is what life in the Napa Valley is all about.

They slowly gravitated toward the realization of doing something urban; allowing us to bring all these elements into the accessibility of the city where we actually live. In a way, to kind of just selfishly create the place we ourselves always wanted.