(SFGate) - Rudy Von Strasser is moving down the mountain. The longtime fixture of Napa Valley’s Diamond Mountain District has purchased Lava Vine Winery, located off Silverado Trail in Calistoga, from Joe and Jill Cabral.

The acquisition of Lava Vine is Von Strasser’s second act, following the sale of his estate vineyard and winery earlier this year. Though we still don’t know who bought Von Strasser Winery, we now at least know where Rudy Von Strasser is headed.

“Lava Vine is my opportunity to make really interesting wines,” Von Strasser said. “Von Strasser has always been only Diamond Mountain District; I limited myself to that concept.” The winery’s logo was a diamond, and Von Strasser was instrumental in establishing the district as an American Viticultural Area. By contrast, Lava Vine makes 28 different wines from all over northern California, he said, including curiosities like Verdejo, Riesling and Tempranillo. He’ll maintain both labels separately; the Cabernet Sauvignon-focused Von Strasser label will continue to source from five Diamond Mountain vineyards (the only vineyard that won’t remain in the portfolio is the estate vineyard, since it’s been sold).

The appeal of Lava Vine to Von Strasser is not merely creative freedom — it’s regulatory freedom, too. When I wrote about Von Strasser in an October column, he told me that one of the greatest frustrations for a small-winery owner like him is the restriction on tourism and visitor permits, as established by the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve. Small-scale vintners in Napa depend on hospitality to drive direct-to-consumer sales, but there are severe limitations on how many visitors they can see. Those conditions made Von Strasser’s business model all but untenable, he said.

Happily, Lava Vine does not fall within the Agricultural Preserve; it has a commercial permit, with much greater leeway for hospitality. “They can do things I could never have done on Diamond Mountain,” he said. He was especially drawn to Lava Vine’s unconventional tasting room. “It’s an old barn-like environment. The employees are all musicians and at the drop of a hat they may pick up and start playing music. It’s a very non-Napa Valley place to go.”

For the rest of 2016, Von Strasser will operate both wineries. He helped with the blending of the 2014 Lava Vine wines, and took over winemaking for Lava Vine’s 2015 vintage entirely. Construction is underway at Lava Vine for two new buildings, a space for fermentation and a space for barrel-aging. The production for the Von Strasser label will likely decrease from 4,000 cases to 3,000 (due to the loss of the estate vineyard); Lava Vine will stay at its current production of between 4,000-5,000 cases. Von Strasser hopes to be able to keep the full staffs of both wineries.