If you've had wine from Napa, you've tasted his smuggled grapes.

In the 1970's, John Everett Caldwell was selling shoes and working odd jobs in the Napa Valley. When a real estate deal gone wrong stuck him with 50 acres of land in Southeast Napa, a farmer finally found his purpose - and an impossible dream - to make the best bottle of wine in the world.

But he needed cash. To legally bring in the French clones, vines, and rootstocks he knew were the best would have taken 7 years before he saw a cent. So he came up with another plan. He found the clones in Canada, and made a decision that would change the wine world. He bought the vines, and prepared to smuggle them in...

This is his story. Of smuggling, of saving the valley from insect plagues, of changing the wine world and becoming an unsung hero. Filmmaker Charles has loved Caldwell's wine for over a decade, but it was only in 2022 that he first heard the smuggling story. 

A year later, he was back with a crew and filming began. Currently, the team has filmed about half of the footage. Charles and his crew continue to fundraise and fight to get back to Napa and finish this story that needs to be told. The story of...

John FUCKING Caldwell.