The History

Midnight Cellars began as a slightly tipsy, laughing mention on the back patio at Domaine Carneros in the summer of 1993. Enjoying a family getaway to Napa and Sonoma, and after several winery visits, Rich is responsible for making the whimsical statement that would change their lives forever: "hey old man, when you retire you should buy a place like this and have us run it for you."

Laughed at and forgotten, years later it became a possibility. Robert decided to retire early from his career as a patent attorney and was still full of energy and passion to begin a new venture. He amazingly remembered Rich's idea and said to him "if you were serious about this winery thing, I'm in." Rich was newly married and living in Chicago with his beautiful wife Michele, and the initial response was "no way Dad."

However, after considerable thought and glasses of wine, Michele and Rich committed to the crazy plan. They sold their new house, one of their cars and drove to California to start a new life. It sounds crazy, but no kidding this happened! They arrived in California on July 31, 1995 and immediately dove into country life. No bars. No restaurants. No shopping. There was nothing in Paso Robles. The Chicago city folk experienced a major culture shock. 

Each family member selected a job and set about learning their role: Robert and Mary Jane focused on the overall operations.  Michele managed the tasting room and later became the bookkeeper. Rich began learning how to plant, maintain, and harvest the vineyard followed by the heady task of making wine. 

After 30 years of steep learning curves, the focus remains on keeping wine accessible, affordable, and fun for everyone. 

Cheers to the Hartenberger Family for making this dream a reality.

our growing PHILOSOPHY

We let the fruit do the work.  Making sure the fruit is being grown properly and carefully is of key importance.  The location (weather, moisture, topography) all factor into fruit quality.  Further, monitoring the fruit throughout the season to ensure there are no invasive pests, crop load is ideal, and the canopy is open enough to ensure filtered sun exposure and all-important air flow around the fruit.  Finally, calling the pick when the fruit is ideally ripe, both chemically and organoleptically, will almost always ensure a high-quality wine.  Then the job is easy: maintain the wine by topping and monitoring sulfite levels, and taste all barrels regularly.  Bottle when everything is ready!
 

For the Estate vineyard, we are very aware and take great care to farm sustainably.  Anyone who owns a small family farm understands the importance of giving back what you take out of your field every year.  We use all organic nutrients and monitor our vine health several times throughout the year.  We drop fruit at least once or twice during the growing season to ensure vine health and to concentrate the fruit.

"Winemaking isn’t just about the finished bottle - it’s about the labor, the land, and the decisions you make every single day," says Hartenberger. "It’s pruning in the winter, walking the vineyard in the summer heat, making the call on when to pick. It’s being covered in grape skins at 2 AM, exhausted but pushing through because you know the work you put in now is what makes the wine worth drinking later. Midnight Cellars was never a vanity project. It was, and still is, about getting our hands dirty, making honest wines, and building something that lasts."