Our story · planted 2010

We were trying to hold a hillside together

Larry and Esther Thal planted their vineyard in Lafayette in early 2010 and harvested their first grapes in 2012. The reason was a hillside that would not stay put.

Larry and Esther Thal standing together at the edge of the vineyard, with vine rows and hills behind them.

The reason

Erosion control, then a vineyard

Vines are drought tolerant and fire resistant, and their roots go deep and hold. That was the original incentive: a slope with an erosion problem, and a planting that would solve it. The roots have done that job exceptionally well.

The fruit turned out to be worth taking seriously, so we did. A hillside planted to hold the soil went on to take a Double Gold and 98 points at the 2024 California State Fair.

The vineyard

The vineyard, in four facts

Planted

2010

Vines

Over 2,000

First harvest

2012

Labels

Two

We have over 2,000 vines. More than half are Cabernet Sauvignon. The rest is divided between Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. We have a vineyard manager who helps us take care of the vines, and a winemaker who makes our wine.

Thal Vineyards is a member of the Lamorinda Wine Growers Association. We are focused on natural winegrowing and sustainability.

Lamorinda AVA · established 2016

Small hillside vineyards, most too small to carry a label

Lamorinda is Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda. It became a federally recognized American Viticultural Area in 2016. The vineyards here are hillside plantings and most of them are small, too small to carry a label of their own. That is why our Stag Hill label exists, and it is part of why a cooperative tasting room works in this valley.

The vine rows and the trellis wires on the Lafayette slope.

Two labels

Thal is ours. Stag Hill is the neighbourhood.

Everything under the Thal Vineyards label is estate fruit from this hillside. Everything under Stag Hill is made by us from grapes grown by other Lamorinda growers.

The fine engraved deer is Thal. The coarse block-printed stag is Stag Hill. Same winemaking, different print.

See All Thirteen Wines

The place

Six frames from the hillside

Two deer standing on a mown lawn with the fenced vineyard on the slope behind them. — Deer on the grass below the vine rows.

A grass slope in the foreground with a fenced block of vines rising behind it and oaks along the ridge. — Looking across the property toward the vine rows.

A dense cluster of dark blue grapes hanging on the vine among broad green leaves. — Cabernet Sauvignon on the vine.

A small cluster of pale green grapes hanging from a woody cane. — Sauvignon Blanc ripening on the vine.

Yellow plastic harvest lugs stacked several high, each one filled with dark picked grapes. — Lugs stacked and full on picking day.

A yellow lug filled to the brim with pale green picked grape clusters. — White grapes in from the harvest.

Local Vines, the cooperative tasting room and winery on Mount Diablo Boulevard in downtown Lafayette, lit at dusk.

Our tasting room partner

Taste Thal wines at Local Vines

Thal Vineyards grows and makes the wine. Local Vines, a cooperative tasting room in downtown Lafayette, pours and sells it.

3393 Mount Diablo Blvd, Lafayette · open Thursday through Sunday

(925) 298-5109

Our wines are sold through our tasting room partner, Local Vines, in downtown Lafayette. The button below opens their online store, where you can browse and buy our wines.

Shop All Wines at Local Vines Get Directions to Local Vines

The online store is at local-vines.com/collection/wines. For directions, search a map for 3393 Mount Diablo Blvd, Lafayette, CA 94549.

Prefer to order by phone? Call Local Vines at (925) 298-5109. The same number reserves a tasting.

Wines are available for pickup at Local Vines in Lafayette.

The shop link opens the Local Vines website, which is a different business from Thal Vineyards. Directions open in Google Maps.