NorthBay biz profiles venerable winegrower Andrew Hoxsey, whose sustainable practices have earned him numerous accolades, including the 2009 Napa Grower of the Year award from the Napa Valley Grapegrowers.
Fourth-generation Napa Valley winegrower Andrew Hoxsey isn’t one to seek attention for himself or his vineyards, but that didn’t prevent the Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG) from awarding him Grower of the Year this past spring. He joins a budding list of fellow growers—Andy Beckstoffer, Davie Piña and Lee Hudson among them—to have been so honored.
Since 2006, NVG has bestowed this, its most prestigious annual award, on a grower who’s demonstrated a commitment to sustainable practices and leadership in agricultural preservation; contributed to the Napa Valley community through their time, resources and personal commitments; and who actively promotes Napa’s reputation for the highest quality vineyards.
“Andrew Hoxsey personifies the Napa grower,” says NVG President Bruce Phillips. “He tends his winegrapes using the most current information available on sustainable techniques and always incorporates the natural environment, his workforce and future generations into his decision making.”
Deep roots
“I felt honored—not only for my work, but the work that previous generations of my family have done on behalf of the Napa Valley grape growing industry,” Hoxsey said in accepting the award.
Last fall, Hoxsey’s family marked a milestone with its 105th harvest; his mother is a descendant of the Pelissa family, who immigrated from Northern Italy and settled into the Napa Valley. Their first piece of land consisted of 32 acres just south of Calistoga, where the family, in addition to vineyards, tended to a dairy cow and a small vegetable garden.
Hoxsey’s grandfather, Andrew Pelissa, was born in 1906 and took over the family vineyards as a teenager after the untimely death of his father. After he married, he moved with his wife, who had grown up on the property that’s now Nickel & Nickel Winery, to the Oakville/Yountville area, where Hoxsey farms today.
It was Andrew Pelissa who began amassing and consolidating various bits of plantable land into what makes up the family’s current holdings: 1,000 acres in all, 635 of them planted, two-thirds in Yountville, the rest in Oakville. In 1929, Pelissa bought the core of the family’s home property and also had a feedlot for cattle up on the hill, using spent mash from a nearby bourbon distillery to fatten the cows. While he always had grapes, he also grew cherries, prunes and corn. In the 1960s, says Hoxsey, “It was pretty clear prunes were going out of the Napa Valley, so he got out of every other crop in favor of grapes. This was before the agricultural preserve.”
In fact, Pelissa was one of the instrumental people behind creation of the Napa Valley agricultural preserve in 1968. “Back then, they knew they could make a living growing crops in the Napa Valley,” Hoxsey says. “And in the 1970s, my uncle Ren Harris of Paradigm Winery was a founder of the California Winegrowers Foundation, which provided health insurance and a bit of a pension for farmworkers; it was the first to include farmworkers. He was also a founding director and president of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers.”
At the time, Charles Krug bought the majority of the Pelissa family’s grapes, with another 40 acres or so making their way to a co-op, which sold the entire production to E&J Gallo. The family was growing a lot of what was typical to the area—Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Johannesburg Riesling, Semillon, French Colombard—early-ripening varietals, a good majority of which were white.
Hoxsey’s mother, Dawne Pelissa Dickenson, raised her sons, Andrew and David, on a cattle ranch in Modoc County with her husband Jerry. The boys would come to Napa during summers, where Andrew was imbued with the ins and outs of farming alongside his grandfather.
After graduating from high school, he went to UC Davis to further his viticultural education, graduating in 1978 with a degree in agricultural economics and business management. But a love of flying and commitment to country led Hoxsey to serve several years as a United States Air Force Reserve Officer, a stint that forced a slight detour for the well-grounded farmer in 1990, when he was called into active duty as a pilot during Desert Storm.
“He’s an interesting blend because he comes across as an Air Force pilot,” notes Jennifer Putnam, NVG executive director, “but then he starts talking about compost tea. He feels so fortunate that, three generations back, they had the foresight to take such good care of this land and plant some crops. He wants three generations forward to look back on him in that same light.”
Change for the better
In 1984, Pelissa handed day-to-day management of the family ranch to his grandson.
“There were six wineries around in those days—Mondavi, Beringer, Charles Krug, Christian Brothers, Beaulieu, Inglenook—and two cooperatives, the St. Helena cooperative, which is now Markham, and the Napa Valley cooperative, which is now Hall,” Hoxsey recalls. “I was one of the architects of going from three or four different people we deliver grapes to, to more than 20. I saw a real need to diversify the number of people we grow grapes for.”
Today, more than 30 wineries buy fruit from Hoxsey, who grows 13 different varietals, from traditional Bordeaux varietals to those typically used to make sparkling wine.
“We don’t always do the expected,” he says. “The Oakville floor is known more for Cabernet Sauvignon than Pinot Grigio, but we don’t always look at it from an MBA’s point of view. We’re looking at a host of issues having to do with frost, timing of harvest, fruit set. If we were all in Cabernet, we’d need 300 guys to pick in a few-week period; we have our vineyard planted so we have 60 guys, and we pick over a two-month period.”
Mumm, Domaine Chandon and Schramsberg are among the wineries that buy Hoxsey’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Other buyers include Nova Wines (producer of Marilyn Merlot), Franciscan, Hall and Nickel & Nickel for Cabernet, and Duckhorn for Merlot, Semillon and Zinfandel (for its Paraduxx label).
Hoxsey’s dedication to growing great fruit is matched by his desire to do the right thing environmentally. He was among the first in the county to farm organically, achieving certification in 1986. He continues to be one of the largest organic grapegrowers in the county.
“I think it’s the right thing to do. My family lives on the farm, they’re drinking water from the wells, and so the thought of me putting something on the vines that’ll get into the groundwater isn’t acceptable,” he explains. “I don’t necessarily market our grapes leading with the ‘organic.’ I cringe when a salesman says, ‘Here, try this wine, it’s organic.’ From my perspective, it should be sold as a good wine and a good value. Once you’ve made the sale, then by the way, it’s a wine made from grapes grown organically.”
Taking the lead
Though he prefers to keep a low profile, Hoxsey has provided substantial leadership when it comes to environmental causes and sustainable farming practices. He’s served as chairman of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization concerned with conservation and restoration of natural habitats, and he’s been on the board of directors of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, chairman of Napa Valley Premiere, a member of the Oakville Winegrowers Association, president of the Yountville Appellation Association and board member of the American Vineyard Foundation. He’s also a founding board member of Napa Community Bank.
“Hoxsey was recognized this year for not stepping away from an opportunity to lead,” says Putnam. “We hope his acceptance of the award shows people the true Napa grower—that there really is somebody who cares deeply about the conservation and preservation of agriculture, the quality of the fruit and the health of their neighbors and the river.”
In addition to serving his 11th year on the board of the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), he’s currently chairman of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, hoping to help others improve the way they farm their own land.
“Andy, first and foremost, is committed to the land and developing, implementing and sharing practices that enhance farmers’ stewardship of the natural resource base agriculture depends upon,” says Karen Ross, president of CAWG. “He’s graciously hosted visiting delegations of state and federal regulators and policy makers for vineyard visits to help them better understand winegrowing and all the measures winegrowers take to maintain high-quality grape production while at the same time using practices that are environmentally friendly and respect our surrounding communities.”
Hoxsey says it’s not the organization’s goal to make every grower go organic, but rather to inspire and assist all growers to do what they do more sustainably. “In a fashion that’s not only economically viable and environmentally sustainable, but socially just,” he adds. “We’ve tried to define ‘sustainable’ so the consumer knows what it means. I want process, I want continual improvement. I want to move us all to the next level, not create product differentiation. The issue is, how can we be better as an industry?”
Hoxsey and other like-minded growers have joined with CAWG and the Wine Institute to help the wine industry find ways to reduce its footprint in the state of California while still making a quality product. To start, they’re getting as many growers and wineries as they can to voluntarily assess their practices and find ways to improve.
“There’s a complexity to organically grown fruit; it has nuances,” Hoxsey offers. “It’s taken us almost 20 years to figure this out. For example, [my family] started making Pinot Noir three or four years ago. Early on, Pinot Noir grown in California [had flavors of] raspberry and strawberry and that’s all you got—one dimension. With our Pinot Noir, I get the raspberry/strawberry, but I also get forest floor, mushroom; it’s not overpowering, but nuanced. I love it.”
Hoxsey admits he’s able to reduce his own environmental footprint through sheer geography. His vineyards are contiguous, which better allows him to reduce energy use when it comes to trucking equipment, managing resources during crush, hauling compost and more.
“It’s not more than five miles from our northern to southern boundaries,” he explains. “There are guys who’ll swear up and down it’s more expensive to farm organically. I don’t believe that, but I also don’t have to go more than five miles.”
These days, some of Hoxsey’s grapes now also go into wines made for the family: Ghost Block Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc; Oakville Winery Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon; and Yountville-grown Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and a Syrah Rosé under the Elizabeth Rose name. The wines are made at the Napa Wine Company, a custom-crush facility Hoxsey also manages, and are available at local wine shops or online at www.bondedwinery9.com.
Hoxsey and the Pelissa family bought Napa Wine Company in 1993; it was the last project he and his grandfather undertook together. He operates the historic winemaking facility (it dates back to 1877 as the ninth bonded winery in the state) as an incubator for small wineries. The leftover pumice, stems, seeds and such provide Hoxsey fodder to make his own compost, some 2,000 tons a year.
“From 1993 to 1997, we had no intention of coming out with a label,” he adds. “In 1997, Wine Spectator came out with its list of the top 100 wines, and Napa Wine Company had made, on behalf of somebody else, three of them. As a family, we thought we really have to try this out.”
Rob Lawson is winemaker for Napa Wine Company and the Pelissa family. The Ghost Block name came from a block of grapes the family tends right next to the Yountville cemetery, which Andrew Pelissa used to always refer to as the cemetery block. Hoxsey didn’t think the word ‘cemetery’ would go over well on a wine bottle, so he decided to call it Ghost Block, because locals used to tell him about seeing George Yount’s ghost spiriting to the top of the hill through that particular vineyard.
But being a wine producer clearly comes second in his heart to being a grower. “We crush 7,000 tons and put less than 200 tons into our own [wines],” he explains. “I don’t want the tail to wag the dog. I don’t want the trade or consumers to tell me where I need to be. We’re around 10,000 cases. I like that.”
Whether it’s the development of his own wines, the bettering of his vineyards, his multilayered efforts to encourage sustainable farming, preservation of Napa Valley agriculture or protection of the Napa name, Andrew Hoxsey is driven to help the greater good, to leave the world—his 1,000-some acres of it and beyond—a better place.
“I have two daughters and a cousin (Jennifer Harris Jakoby) who has two sons,” he says. “My goal is to pass it on to the next generation in better condition than it was passed to me.”
