Heritage
A house, in its own words
Vintner's Daughter was founded by April Gargiulo in Napa Valley, California, where she grew up immersed in her family's winery. That early exposure to viticulture, fermentation, and the rhythms of the land shaped everything that followed. Gargiulo built her reputation in clean beauty first, launching the skincare line that became known for its multi-correction serums and a strict fewer-is-better formulation ethos. Her background gave her a vintner's instinct: patience, seasonality, and a refusal to rush a living material. Fragrance arrived as a deliberate evolution rather than an expansion. Gargiulo spent more than six years developing Understory, working from seeds to roots to distillation to the final blend. The project drew on her relationships with growers, distillers, and botanical experts already embedded in the brand's skincare supply chain. Independent perfumer Loreto Remsing collaborated closely with Gargiulo on the composition, helping translate raw plant materials into a wearable scent. Each vintage of Understory is released as a limited edition. Around 400 units were produced of the earliest volume, and subsequent vintages have appeared in numbered series. The house continues to treat fragrance as an agricultural product, one that changes with each harvest, rather than a standardized SKU. At Vintner's Daughter, less has always meant more. The brand was built on the idea that a handful of well-sourced, carefully handled botanicals outperform a long list of generic aromatics. That conviction carries directly into perfumery, where Understory reads like a field study rather than a conventional pyramid. Gargiulo has spoken about consciously crafting each release with the same care given to a single vineyard block. Ingredients are selected for provenance first, performance second. The result is a fragrance line that feels closer to natural perfumery than to mainstream commercial scent design. What sets the house apart is restraint married to depth. There is no rush to build a catalog. There is no appetite for chasing trends. Each volume of Understory is treated as a vintage, a snapshot of a place, a season, and a set of plants. Collectors and curious newcomers alike are invited to experience fragrance the way a winemaker invites you to taste a specific barrel.