Keeping alive the legacy of her winegrowing parents, Cecilia Harris is the driving force behind the new Pedras wine brand.

Actually, Pedras Wine Company isn’t an entirely new venture. It’s an extension of the winegrowing operation Cecilia’s mother and stepfather, Urannia and Brunno Ristow, launched two decades ago.

Encouraged by her husband, Wall Street trader Wil Harris, Cecilia decided to make and market a vineyard-designated wine after her parents opted to return to the role of valley grapegrowers.

Taking its name from the Portuguese word for stone, the groundwork for Pedras Wine Company was laid in the Ristows’ Quinta de Pedras Vineyard, located uphill east of Silverado Trail and south of the Stags Leap District.

The Ristows purchased their rocky hillside tract in 1983, first building a spacious home and then turning their attention to grapegrowing. With the help of seasoned vineyard managers and winemakers, they painstakingly removed tons of rocks from a fertile plateau in order to plant their first cabernet sauvignon vines in 1988.

Once they and industry veterans determined the site produced fruit of exceptional quality, the Ristows purchased and planted an additional eight acres of Bordeaux varietals.

With respected winemaker Pam Starr in charge of cellar operations, the Ristows produced their first commercially released wine — Ristow estate cabernet sauvignon — in 1995.

Cecilia decided to join the family’s winegrowing business three years later, just as the inaugural vintage was released. She quickly assumed the public face of the winemaking effort, taking charge of the brand’s sales and marketing program.

In 1999, the Ristows opted to replant a rocky section of the vineyard “with more appropriate clones and rootstocks,” says Cecilia, using a cave trencher to carve out terraces for the vine rows.

After a decade of making and marking wine, her parents decided to make the 2004 vintage the last for the Ristow brand, letting Cecilia’s mother “focus solely on her love of growing grapes.” That decision allowed her stepfather, Brunno Ristow, foremost plastic surgeon in the United States, to concentrate more on his role of grandfather than that of vintner, adds Cecilia, mother of two.

Encouraged by her husband, Cecilia decided to continue making wine from this special vineyard. To that end, the couple brought on board “surfer-turned-winemaker” Jamey Whetstone to craft “a smaller production of richer, full cabernet sauvignon,” a guy also shared their philosophy of “quality over quantity,” Cecilia notes.

The majority of the fruit grown on the Ristow family’s 18 acres is sold to other valley winemaking operations.

“Jamey focuses the grape selection to include only the most expressive sites in the vineyard, keeping case production at 300 to 500 cases per vintage,” Cecilia points out. “Usually, we wind up picking about 10 tons from a four-acre block (of Quinta de Pedras vineyard).”

Whetstone has been working in the wine industry for the past decade. He began his career at Turley Cellars and eventually launched his own wine brand, Whetstone Winery, where he produces limited quantities of viognier, syrah and pinot noir today. He is also consultant at Temple — where he makes a cabernet sauvignon — and Manifesto — where sauvignon blanc is the focus.

A velvety wine with silky tannins and aromas and flavors of cherries, blackberries and plums, the exceptional Pedras cabernet sauvignon is made at Laird Family Estate Winery. Released last month, the inaugural Pedras cabernet is offered at a good price point — $60 per 750ml bottle.

“We intend to keep production at around 500 cases,” says Cecilia, “building a solid customer base with a small production. I will be marketing the wine in California.” It is being distributed as well in nine other states — Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and, of course, in the state where Cecilia and Wil live, New York.

At present, Cecilia is directing the marketing operation from her New York City home. She spends the lion’s share of summer months at the family home in the Napa Valley.

Asked about the future of the brand, Cecilia says she wants “to keep things steady for a while. If we’re successful with the cabernet sauvignon, I’d like to add another varietal at some future date.”

Locally, the newly released 2005 Pedras cabernet sauvignon can be found on the wine list at Bistro Don Giovanni.