Pictures: Abreu Vineyards
Text by: Symbolic Wines team
Brad Grimes is the star winemaker behind Abreu Vineyards. Here’s an almost Hollywood story of a craftsman who became an artist of fine wines by the will of fate. This story was written on the basis of an interview we had with Brad some years ago.
Not every Brad is Pitt, but not every Brad is a talented winemaker either. Abreu Vineyards winemaker Brad Grimes looks like a Hollywood superstar: tall, slim, tanned, with designer sunglasses and a wide American smile. He makes some of the coolest Bordeaux blends in the world. If you meet him on the streets of San Francisco, it’s hard to imagine that he’s going to a winery and not to a film shoot. A convinced perfectionist, a geologist by education, a chef from Seattle – how did he end up devoting his life to winemaking in the Napa Valley? When you listen to Brad’s story, you think of the romantic comedy-drama Sliding Doors from the late 90s. The sliding doors through which Gwyneth Paltrow’s character passes are a key point in the film. It would seem that doors are just doors, but after them, your whole life changes. Everything happened just as incredibly for our hero. He moved to California to follow his then girlfriend, now his wife. When Brad followed his love, he did not expect that he would work at a winery and moreover, that he would be considered one of the best in his field, and wine connoisseurs on the other side of the world would write about him in foreign languages, from Cyrillic to hieroglyphs. But it happened!
The wine bug
Brad has been working in the food service industry since he was 15. “At first, it was just a source of income and a reason to hang out with friends. I washed dishes at a local pizzeria, then I was promoted to pizza maker. The work was interesting and intense. I liked cooking”, – he recalls. In the 90s, Brad also worked at Starbucks: “I was offered a manager’s position. To open coffee shops in different cities on the West Coast. Knowing that this chain was moving towards automation of all processes, I refused. I always liked a completely different approach to coffee, where the choice of varieties and roasts, measuring the grind, and even cleaning the coffee machines – is an art”. He declined the offer and moved to Seattle, where he returned to the kitchen and entered culinary school. “By mid-1998, I firmly decided to work in France and learn from the best chefs. I saved up money and went there for a couple of months. I traveled around the country looking for work. I was even invited somewhere, but my French was very bad, and in general, I began to feel burdened by being abroad. I kept thinking about my favorite restaurant, Matt's in the Market in Seattle". Working in the food service industry often develops an interest in wine: you can catch what the Americans call a wine bug. Thanks to his experience working in restaurants, by the time he moved from Washington to California, Brad had become deeply immersed in the wine theme. These were the doors that changed his destiny.
David Abreu
Abreu Vineyards is owned by David Abreu Vineyard Management (DAVM), founded by David Abreu in 1980. David Abreu manages the best vineyards in the Napa Valley. He is responsible for such wonderful wines as Harlan Estate, Colgin Cellars, Staglin Family Vineyards, Araujo Estate Wines, Pahlmeyer Vineyards, Bryant Family and Screaming Eagle. It is difficult to find a top vineyard in the Napa Valley that his company DAVM has not worked with. David Abreu consulted with Sloan Estate during its creation. The first harvest was born in 2000. A year later, the wine received 99 points from Robert Parker, and two years later – 100.
Brad flew back to Seattle and asked to work for Matt, the owner of that place. He was hired. It was the first restaurant in his career where wine was given special attention. "Every week the owner bought new bottles, the wine list was constantly changing. It was there that I got acquainted with many regions of France that I had never heard of before – Vaqueras, Gigondas, Tavel. I also learned a lot about wines from Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Southern Hemisphere. My knowledge and appreciation of wine expanded exponentially”, – he recalls. When his girlfriend, who worked with him in the kitchen, got a job as a personal chef at Stuart Sloan (Sloan Estate Winery) and was about to move to California, Brad faced a choice: quit his favorite job or quit his love. Eventually, they both moved to California, and a magical series of events began. “I met David Abreu through Stuart Sloan in 1999. My wife was Stuart’s personal chef, and I was helping him in the cellar. It was very convenient for David to have additional labor in Napa starting in 2000, because he was just starting Sloan Estate Winery”, – Brad says. So, in February 2000, at 27, Brad started working at Abreu Vineyards. He was sent to the vineyards, where he pruned, tied and thinned the vines. The work was hard and monotonous: “I was much more interested in winemaking. Gradually, I began to move up the career ladder and took on other tasks, such as judging the harvest and selecting grapes. Then David asked me to take on a job in the cellars at Sloan Estate to help with their first harvest”.
Brad Grimes
Triage as an art
When Brad started working with David Abrew, triage was a new process to the whole industry. “I remember picking grapes on a table during the 1999 harvest. I’m not sure we knew why we were doing it. In 2000, we bought the triage tables, and then the skills came along”, Brad says. These days, selecting the perfect bunches starts in the vineyard. Of course, the meticulous approach to sorting grapes continues in the winery, but harvesting has also become a much more precise science. Crews have become so skilled that they can identify the perfect bunches and pick only those, then harvest the rest at another time. “It’s a very painstaking process, so we started picking in natural light. Before, like everyone else, we picked at night to make sure the grapes were the right temperature, but it’s very difficult to see the nuances in the dark. “We take our time now, harvesting at dawn, putting the bunches in the refrigerated van and starting the triage the next day”, – says Brad.
The process of triage
Brad pays close attention to every little detail. He sorts the grapes twice and ages the wine for 26 months in new French oak barrels, then another 2.5 years in bottle. More than 80% of his wines are sold directly, and it’s not easy to get on the list of buyers. Most of his clients have a quote of just 3 bottles per year. A small amount of his wines are exported to the outside world. On average, each harvest produces 2,400 cases of wine per year, but the rigorous selection process only results in 1,500-1,700 cases. Despite being a renowned winemaker, Brad still loves to cook, recalling his years working in the kitchen. “Wine is made to go with food,” Brad emphasizes. “Ideally, a bottle of wine should be opened at a good table, in the company of loved ones. When I started working with David, he showed me the true essence of wine. He was generous with his cellar, opening up great Bordeaux vintages from 1959 onwards. He showed me white Burgundy and German Riesling. At that point, my palate was not fully formed. I didn’t understand the best wines in the world. My understanding of wine was formed then. As I got older, I continued to look for wines that inspire me. I don’t try to copy them, I have my own style. The main thing is to see and taste as many as possible”.
The lion tamer
Since 2001, Brad has worked not only in the fields, but also in the winery. The next 5 vintages of Abreu Vineyards were created by his hands at the Sloan Estate. In 2006, Abreu Vineyards moved to expand production. Since then, the winery has been located in a natural cave, one of the oldest in the Napa Valley. Brad was greatly influenced by the proximity to iconic winemakers. In his first year, he met Tony Soter, Ric Forman, Heidi Barrett, Mia Klein, Bob Levy, Mark Aubert, Françoise Peschon, Michel Rolland and Celia Welch. "At that time, I did not realize that I was working side by side with the stars. The early 2000s were a great era in the history of the region. New styles of winemaking began to appear here. While many remained faithful to the classics, more and more winemakers began to pursue super-ripe grapes. “Watching my neighbors at work was an invaluable experience and taught me how to and how not to make wine” – says Brad. “Of course, David Abrew himself was a huge influence on me. It was first-hand knowledge”. In the world of wine, as in the kitchens of the world’s best restaurants, passion for one’s work often turns into obsession. When you watch Brad and taste his wines, it begins to seem like they are an extension of himself. Yes, he is obsessed with them, but in a good way. He used to hire assistants, but now he works alone with his wines. Like a lion tamer. And they perform the most beautiful tricks in the area.
Abreu Rothwell Hyde
The Rothwell Hyde is a blend that typically showcases a combination of the varietals grown on the estate vineyards, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.
This wine is made from all four Abreu Vineyards vineyards: Madrona Ranch, Cappella, Thorevilos and Las Posadas. Rothwell Hyde showcases the interplay between the four individual vineyards, farming methods and winemaking philosophy of the Abreu Vineyards team. Each vintage offers the opportunity to select and pick grapes from different sites. Each part of the Rothwell Hyde blend is aged separately in barrel for a year, then blended and left for another year before bottling. This wine is known for its richness and complexity, often displaying aromas and flavors that include dark fruits like blackberries and plums, as well as earthy and spicy notes.
You might also like to read this article from our columnist, Greg Somm, about Sloan Estate and Abreu Vineyard’s “second” wines.
