Jean-Charles Boisset closes two Napa Valley tasting rooms

When Chateau Buena Vista opened in downtown Napa three years ago, it beckoned guests with a carefully staged, extravagant experience: sparkling wine paired with caviar and artisanal chocolate in a tasting room dressed in leopard prints, feathers and alligators. It was theatrical, indulgent and unmistakably Jean-Charles Boisset.

That chapter has now closed.

As first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the French vintner has shuttered the Chateau Buena Vista tasting room on Napa’s First Street, along with the JCB Tasting Salon in Yountville. The closures are part of a broader reshaping of some of Boisset’s local brands within his expansive wine, spirits and luxury lifestyle portfolio.

Patrick Egan, senior vice president of marketing and communications for Boisset Collection, said the Chateau Buena Vista experience will relocate to the historic Buena Vista Winery estate in Sonoma. The JCB brand, he said, will now focus on its two remaining locations at Raymond Vineyards and on Main Street in St. Helena, along with a planned outpost in Rutherford.

“(The Boisset Collection) will have as many destinations in Napa as ever – and soon, likely more,” Egan said, expressing confidence in the long-term health of the Napa and Sonoma wine industries.

“Wine is, and always will be, an essential part of our culture,” he said.

Egan described the move as an opportunity to integrate elements of the Chateau Buena Vista tasting room into Sonoma’s Buena Vista Winery, often called the birthplace of California wine. The Sonoma site includes a historic wine tool museum, wine caves and one of the region’s earliest gravity-flow wineries. The JCB Tasting Salon in Yountville will close because its lease is expiring, said Egan.

Jean-Charles Boisset, a Burgundy native, has become one of the most recognizable figures in Napa and Sonoma wine, known as much for his flamboyant tastes as for his Wine Country acquisitions. In addition to Buena Vista Winery and Raymond Vineyards, his holdings include DeLoach Vineyards in Santa Rosa and Oakville Grocery in Napa Valley.

Boisset, who is married to Gina Gallo, a third-generation winemaker from the E. & J. Gallo Winery family, purchased St. Helena’s Flora Springs winery and tasting room last year and Rutherford’s Elizabeth Spencer Winery in 2021. That same year, Boisset and Gallo entered the hotel business, buying the historic Ink House south of St. Helena, complete with an Elvis Room.

The Boisset Collection also includes a variety of French and international wine brands, such as Domaine Henri Marie, Louis Bernard and Jean-Claude Boisset, the Burgundy winery founded in 1961 by Boisset’s father. 

But Boisset’s decades-old empire has not been immune to economic headwinds.

Oakville Grocery closed its Healdsburg location in 2023 after 25 years (Boisset bought Oakville Grocery, including its Napa Valley flagship location, in 2018). Other JCB locations in San Francisco and Healdsburg have also closed in recent years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Egan, the spokesperson, emphasized the company’s resilience and agility.

“Boisset has always been a dynamic, creative wine and spirits company, constantly adapting with new wines, new spirits and new ways of enjoying those products,” he said.

Some locals, however, viewed the closures with unease. Devyn Evrist, who moved to Napa last year, said she recently bought tickets to Raymond Vineyard’s annual Valentine’s Day Red Party and hopes the changes do not signal deeper trouble.

“I think it’s an unfortunate loss,” she said. “Having those (tasting rooms) so close to downtown was really convenient.”

Evrist also noted the earlier closure of Be Bubbly, another downtown Napa sparkling wine lounge.

“Chateau Buena Vista had a great story,” she said. “JCB was just fun and flashy – I loved the ambiance. I am just happy I can still head up to St. Helena to enjoy their wines.”

Local business leaders framed the shift as strategic rather than alarming. Jeri Hansen, president and chief executive of the Napa Chamber of Commerce, said wineries are reassessing where experiential offerings resonate most with visitors.

“Rather than signaling retreat, this is an example of evolution,” she said.

Boisset has long embraced risk and spectacle. During the pandemic, he told the North Bay Business Journal that he considered adorning wine bottles with jewelry and purchasing the Calistoga Depot for a tasting venue. (Boisset launched the re-imagined Calistoga Depot in April 2024.)

“I have zero concerns,” he said at the time. “I’m 100 percent optimistic.”

That optimism now extends beyond wine and spirits.

Egan confirmed that Boisset Collection plans to debut a new venture, Napa Fragrance, later this year, underscoring what he described as the company’s “dynamic, ever-evolving” approach to luxury experiences.