William Cole Vineyards

Cole Ballentine is fifth-generation Napa Valley, born and raised in St. Helena. A natural athlete like his father, in high school he quarterbacked the football team and played basketball on both the high school and Bay Area travel teams. He later attended college in Montana, returning in 2015 to join the family business. Today Cole is involved in all aspects of the operation, and on any given day you might find him racking wines, working the bottling line as the official “corker,” then heading to an airport to fly to a customer wine dinner. During harvest he’s in constant motion, although he says that blending, that careful, ruminative exercise, is his favorite part of the process. In 2020 Cole married Brooke Day, who grew up in central California and attended college in Angwin, where the couple met. In his free time, Cole loves spending time outdoors, especially mountain biking or rambling with his dog, Riley, at the family’s ranch on Howell Mountain.