1885
Far Niente winery is built in Oakville, CA (Napa Valley) by John Benson, one of the original forty-niners of the California gold rush. Far Niente is the Napa Valley’s first gravity flow winery, and one of its first stone wineries.

1919
Far Niente closes at the onset of Prohibition, and is abandoned.

1950
Far Niente is included in the 6,000-acre holdings of Martin Stelling, but no restoration of the building is conducted. Mr. Stelling dies in a car accident, his holdings go into trust, and Far Niente remains abandoned.

1976
Gil Nickel relocates to San Francisco, from Oklahoma. He begins studying winemaking at the University of California Davis, and searching the Napa Valley for a site to establish a world-class wine estate.

1979
Gil Nickel purchases the old, dilapidated Far Niente winery and begins restoring the building. He also buys into a partnership of the 100-acre Stelling Vineyard, located behind the winery in Oakville. Over the succeeding years, Gil purchases the entire vineyard.

This year also marks the first vintage of Far Niente Chardonnay, which was crushed at Markham Vineyards, then fermented, aged and bottled in Sausalito.

1981
Far Niente becomes the first winery in North America in the 20th century to develop new wine caves. A total of 600 square feet is excavated from the hillside behind the winery.

1982
The winery restoration is completed, and the first crush in more than 60 years is held at Far Niente, with the debut vintage of Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon.

Far Niente becomes the first winery in Napa Valley to hand-sort the grapes prior to crushing them. Gil Nickel’s brother, John Nickel, joins him as a partner in the winery business. The name “Nickel & Nickel” is created to reflect the partnership, and it’s placed on the Far Niente label.

The Far Niente winery building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1983
Far Niente creates the “Piano Case” lot for the Napa Valley Wine Auction, the first of the specially packaged, custom lots that ultimately revolutionized charity wine auctions worldwide. The lot attracts a $7,000 bid, setting the record for the number one auction lot that year.

1985
The first experimental lot of the botrytised, late harvest wine Dolce is produced.

1986
John Nickel divests his shares of the winery, and returns to Oklahoma to manage the Nickel family’s commercial nursery business, Greenleaf Nursery Company. The phrase, “Nickel & Nickel, Proprietors,” remains on the Far Niente and Dolce labels.

1988
Gil Nickel names his director of sales and marketing, Larry Maguire, and director of winemaking, Dirk Hampson, managing directors. Together, the pair assume the day-to-day management and long-range planning for the business.

1989
Far Niente excavates an additional 15,000 square feet of wine caves.

1991
Gil Nickel names Larry Maguire and Dirk Hampson as his partners in the winery businesses.

1992
Dolce is formed as its own business, becoming America’s only winery devoted to producing a single, late harvest wine. The winery debuts its first commercial release with the 1989 vintage.

1995
Far Niente excavates an additional 13,000 square feet of wine caves.

1996
After years of development, the concept of the Nickel & Nickel winery is finalized. Nickel & Nickel is founded as a sister winery to Far Niente and Dolce, devoted exclusively to producing 100 percent varietal, single-vineyard wines.

1997
Far Niente wins the international General Electric Edison Award for excellence in lighting design. The finalists, in addition to Far Niente, were The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Bloomingdale’s, New York; and the FDR Memorial, Washington, DC.

Nickel & Nickel crushes its first harvest. In lieu of Nickel & Nickel having its own winery, and in the interest of keeping it separate from Far Niente, the wines are crushed at an off-site facility.

1998
A completely intact bottle of Far Niente 1886 Sweet Muscat is found in a Marin County, CA wine cellar. The label is attributed to the artist Winslow Homer, a nephew of John Benson, who founded Far Niente in 1885. The bottle is believed to be the oldest existing bottle of California wine.

A 42-acre parcel of vineyards, an abandoned home and barns along Highway 29 in Oakville is purchased as the future home of the Nickel & Nickel winery. The site is purchased for approximately $100,000 an acre, a record at the time.

1999
Napa County Landmarks, a countywide non-profit historic preservation organization, confers an “Award of Merit” to Far Niente, in recognition of Gil Nickel’s preservation of the historic winery.

2000
The first releases from Nickel & Nickel are introduced to the market with the 1997 vintage.

2001
Nickel & Nickel breaks ground on its new winery facility in Oakville, along Highway 29, just north of Opus One. The architectural concept is to recreate the farmstead that once stood on the property in the 1880s, yet house an ultra-modern facility designed to produce 100 percent varietal, single-vineyard wines. The project includes the historic restoration of the 1880s Sullenger House, built by the settler of the farmstead, John C. Sullenger.

Gil’s nephew, Erik Nickel, joins the company to help manage the winery construction and historic restoration.

Far Niente excavates another 12,000 square feet of wine caves, bringing the total to 40,000 square feet of interconnected, underground wine aging caves.

2002
Nickel & Nickel holds its first crush at the new winery.

Erik Nickel joins his uncle, Gil Nickel, and Dirk Hampson and Larry Maguire, to become the fourth partner in the winery businesses.

2003
The Nickel & Nickel winery construction and historic restoration is completed, and the winery opens to the public.

Napa County Landmarks confers an “Award of Merit” to the Sullenger House at Nickel & Nickel and names Gil Nickel “Preservationist of the Year.”

Gil Nickel passes away on October 30, 2003, leaving his legacy firmly in place with longtime partners Larry Maguire and Dirk Hampson. They are joined by Gil's nephew Erik, wife Beth, and son Jeremy, as they lead Far Niente, Dolce and Nickel & Nickel to the successful future, for which Gil planted the seeds so many years ago.