Mankas Hills Vineyards are owned by MGR Partners, a family-owned and run partnership. Joe, the vineyards manager, is a founding partner. He migrated to California from the Langhe hills in Piedmont Italy in 1962. Since his boyhood he developed a passion for viticulture in the family vineyard in Italy. At 17 years he was running the best vineyard of the “Contado” in the Miocene hills between Piedmont and Liguria. It was hard work with no mechanical means and little income but a great learning experience with a lot of charm.

In the “Contado,” the vineyards area around the medieval country village, there was tremendous pride in producing the best grapes from small vineyards planted in soils painstakingly arranged in terraces. The vines were manicured with continuous care and producing the the prime bottle to receive the appreciation of the wine merchant was a way of life.

Joe’s philosophy is that “great wines are made in the vineyard.” The attention he dedicates to pruning, summer hedging, lifting wires and dropping foliage, knitting the canopy, plucking leaves around the fruit to enhance exposure, thinning the crop is the result of a religious passion for viticulture.

Mario, Joe’s brother and founding member, in his many peregrinations around the world has developed a taste for the vintner's art and the best wines of the globe. If great wines are made in the vineyard than they have to be pampered all along the the crushing, the fermentation, the maceration, the aging process to give birth to a noble and delicate creature. His passion is to create a world prime in the Suisun Valley AVA Cabernet Sauvignon, with the help of the best winemaking skills available in California.

Permeated by this philosophy, MGR Partners is committed to grow ultra-premium grapes and turn them into highest quality wines with a combination of old hand work and new technology.

The current focus of our efforts is to produce world class Cabernet Sauvignon.