Justin Meyer, 63; Founder of Napa Valley’s Silver Oak Cellars

Vintner Justin Meyer, one of the founders of the high-quality Napa Valley wine industry and the creator of one of the first wines to attract a devoted following, has died. He was 63.

Meyer died Tuesday while vacationing with his family near Lake Tahoe.

The family would not specify the cause of death.

With his friend and partner Ray Duncan, a Colorado oilman, Meyer founded Silver Oak Cellars in 1972. At that time, Napa Valley had been relatively quiet for decades, except for a handful of large-volume wine producers. Meyer was one of a new generation of passionate wine lovers who brought new life to the valley.

The winery’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon quickly became one of the most recognized California labels. Its popularity has never flagged; last year it was the most popular Cabernet in U.S. restaurants, according to an annual poll in Wine & Spirits magazine.

Silver Oak was one of California’s first boutique wineries, a producer of small quantities of hand-crafted wines sold at high prices, comparatively glamorous after the jug wines of large producers. Silver Oak wines, along with those from Heitz Cellars, Chateau Montelena, Joseph Phelps, Clos du Val and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, helped create a new image for Napa Valley.

Silver Oak Cabernet is styled to be popular: ripe, luscious and ultra-smooth, with a distinctive tang of American oak. The annual release of the latest vintage is a major event in the wine world. Hundreds of people converge on the winery, where they wait in line all night to buy the allotted two or three bottles each. The ’98 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon “Alexander Valley” sells for $60; the ’97 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon “Napa Valley” is $100.

Winemaking was an accidental career for Meyer, who was born in Bakersfield and had planned to be a teacher. Immediately after high school in 1957 he joined the Christian Brothers, a Catholic teaching order, and became a teacher at the Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento.

But in 1964, his life was guided in a new direction. He was made an assistant to Brother Timothy, the legendary winemaker at the large Christian Brothers winery in Napa Valley.

“I said I’d give it a try, but I don’t know why they chose me,” he said in a 1999 interview. “I still don’t know. In 1964, a glass of Chablis was stretching it for me. I much preferred a beer.”

That changed quickly. Meyer developed a passion for wine, and in 1972 he left the Christian Brothers, got married, and teamed with Duncan to start a winery. They made their first wines in an Oakville dairy barn.

The pair established a second Silver Oak winery and vineyard in Alexander Valley in 1991, and last year the two Silver Oak facilities together produced about 50,000 cases of Napa Valley and Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

In 1975, the partners bought the bankrupt Franciscan Winery in St. Helena and turned it around, then sold it for a profit four years later.

Meyer retired in 2001, citing health problems, and sold his half of Silver Oak to Duncan for a reported $120 million. He remained active in the company as a consultant and grape grower.

“We’ve had virtually zero employee turnover in this company, because of how people felt about Justin,” said Silver Oak’s marketing director, Bob Little. “He was a distinct leader. Everybody looked up to him.”

Meyer was working with one of his sons, Matthew, on starting a winery in Mendocino County. Meyer is also survived by his wife, Bonny; another son, Chad; and a daughter, Holly.