James Hall cofounded Patz & Hall in 1988, sold it to a Washington-based conglomerate decades later, then bought it back in 2024 for an undisclosed sum. Now the Sonoma winemaker has opened a new tasting room just a block from Sonoma Plaza, the final piece of a comeback that saw Hall reclaim the brand he built.
Patz & Hall opened its new tasting space at 596 1st St. East in Sonoma, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, whose reporter Lucy Hodgman detailed the winery's return to its Sonoma roots. The space sits inside a single-story Arts and Crafts-style building that once housed a doctor's office, and more recently served as tasting and administrative space for Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery, per the Chronicle's reporting. Stone Edge Farm had converted office space at 596 First St. East into a tasting room, the paper reports.
Hall sold Patz & Hall to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates in a deal that sources date to either 2015 or 2016 — Robb Report puts the sale in 2015, while the Napa Valley Register places it in 2016. Either way, Hall stayed on through the corporate era overseeing wine production, a period he has described as a great interlude, according to the Chronicle.
A Brand Built on Single-Vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot
Patz & Hall built its name making single-vineyard California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, sourcing grapes from growers including Chenoweth Ranch in west Sonoma and Hyde Vineyards in Napa — a relationship that, per Robb Report, has lasted more than two decades. Hall has said he feared the winery would eventually land with a conglomerate less interested in preserving those grower partnerships, a concern that helped drive his push to buy the brand back, the Chronicle reports.
The 2024 buyback brought in two new partners alongside Hall, and the deal included the Patz & Hall brand, inventory, equipment and the lease of the Sonoma House tasting room and winery at 21200 Eighth St. E., according to the Press Democrat. Hall became Founder & Winemaker Emeritus, while James McCeney, who stepped in as senior winemaker in May 2023, now oversees the winemaking in close consultation with Hall, according to the winery's own account of its history. At the time of the buyback, annual production stood at 40,000 cases from the 2022 vintage, with somewhat more expected from the large 2023 harvest, the Press Democrat reported.
Trimming the Lineup and Rehiring Old Faces
Since retaking the reins, Hall has trimmed the number of wines in rotation from 21 to 18 and rehired much of the staff who worked at the brand's old 8th Street tasting room, per the Chronicle. Gus Slagle, Patz & Hall's vice president of marketing, described the new Sonoma location as the last step in fully reclaiming the winery, the paper reports.
The new tasting room seats about 24 people inside and another 18 outside, according to the Chronicle's reporting. Basic tastings were complimentary during the space's first month and will run $20 per person afterward, with other tasting options priced up to $75. The winery also plans monthly Vinyl and Vino nights and dinners pairing Hall in conversation with guests from outside the wine world, per the same report.
A Wider Reckoning in California Wine Country
Hall's return is unfolding against a brutal stretch for California's wine industry. Analyst Rob McMillan has called the current slump the industry's biggest reset in 30 years, as reported by Wine Spectator. U.S. wine sales fell below 300 million cases in 2025, down from a peak of 344 million cases in 2021, the outlet notes, and roughly a quarter of the state's wine grapevines have been uprooted amid the downturn.
The vineyard removals have continued: California lost 8% of its wine-grape acreage between August 2025 and August 2026, with 47,229 acres removed and 439,115 acres remaining statewide, according to the Sacramento Bee. Forecaster Peter Ekman has predicted the industry will keep struggling into 2028, since many wineries remain on shaky financial footing, Wine Spectator reports. Hall is among several winemakers who have bought their labels back from large conglomerates during the shakeout, a trend that also includes James MacPhail, who repurchased MacPhail Family Wines from Hess Persson in 2024 after selling it 13 years earlier, per Wine Spectator; that deal excluded vineyards and its price went undisclosed, with MacPhail planning a return to small-lot, single-vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir.
Despite the industry turbulence, Hall has said the winery is in a great spot, according to the Chronicle's reporting. With a trimmed wine list, familiar staff back on the floor and a new home steps from Sonoma Plaza, Patz & Hall looks, for the first time in years, like it belongs fully to the man who founded it in 1988.
