“Drinking and driving” may be a bad thing, but racecar drivers who make wine? Definitely a good thing.
Passion, timing, patience, travel. Oh, and plenty of money. These characteristics find commonality in both the auto racing and wine industries, neither of which attracts the faint of heart or wallet. And while some might not see a correlation between the two undertakings, there are more race car driving winery owners around here than you may think.
“In one respect, amateur racing is an activity that attracts a fairly well-to-do enthusiast, because it’s not an inexpensive avocation. I think there are people who’ve been successful in the wine business who happen to have an interest in this or want to give it a try,” says Steve Page, president and general manager of Infineon Raceway in Sonoma County. “On the other side of it, there are people in the professional racing world who enjoy or have discovered wines and choose to either dabble in it or jump in with both feet.”
“For us, wine, like racing, is something that a lot of people have a lot of passion for. People get so into wine and really have a passion for excellent wine,” says Larry Foyt, son of racing legend A.J. Foyt and co-founder of Foyt Family Wines. “It’s about striving for excellence, kind of like you do on the racetrack.”
Others, like Le Mans driver Pierre Ehret, owner of Ehret Family Winery, see little comparison. “The eye and patience in winemaking is always an important aspect, as it is in racing, but otherwise I don’t see any similarities there,” he says.
Andretti Winery
Mario Andretti took the checkered flag 111 times in his five-decade career, including the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Born and raised in Italy, where wine was always at the table, the motor sports icon had a lifelong exposure to the enjoyment of wine; his successful racing career and world travels only bolstered that appreciation.
“I really started appreciating wines probably in my late twenties and early thirties, when my pace slowed down a bit and I started enjoying the beautiful things in life a little bit more. And traveling worldwide, of course—I raced on five continents—I had the opportunity to sample and enjoy and be curious about international wines,” he says.
Andretti’s interest in Napa Valley began in the mid-1970s, about the time the region began drawing serious interest from wine enthusiasts. While hosting an international table at a Newport Beach luncheon in conjunction with the Long Beach Grand Prix, he ordered a French wine to accompany the meal. “And the Brit says, ‘Mario, we’re in California. Why are you ordering French wine?’ I said, ‘Why don’t you do us the honors?’” Andretti explains. At the end of that season, Andretti made his first visit to Napa Valley and, since then, he’s made a similar visit at the end of almost every season.
Veering off course
Andretti never set out to be a vintner. “I hadn’t even a faint idea to own a winery. The fact that I got involved in this was just a ‘one thing led to another’ type of thing,” he says.
In 1994, during his last year as an active Indy car driver, Louis Martini Winery bottled about 15,000 to 18,000 cases of an Andretti commemorative wine label, which was served at all of Andretti’s races. “It was kind of fun,” Andretti says. But when Martini hesitated to continue the project after the first vintage, Andretti aligned with a small agency that put some investors together and purchased the property that’s now home to Andretti Winery.
“My business manager said, ‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it!’ But I went with my heart rather than my business side and trusted [the agency]. Unfortunately, like anything else, they were totally under-funded. They picked this property up and did a lot of good things. But the bottom line is, they weren’t really that savvy about this business. In this business, you need quite a bit of up-front cash investment before you can even think of the return,” he says.
With his name already on the marquee, Andretti looked to his friend Joe Antonini—former CEO and chairman of Kmart, a major sponsor of the car he was driving—and the two bought the group out. Antonini is chairman of the winery’s small public company and handles the day-to-day operation. “Joe puts his heart and soul into it. It’s amazing the amount of time he spends there,” Andretti says.
Andretti takes on the vice-chairman role. “You know, I want to enjoy this. I want to be the guy that drinks and enjoys it—going to wine tastings and dinners. I don’t want the day-to-day, the hiring and firing and all that kind of thing.”
Making moves for growth
The 53-acre property didn’t house a winery operation when originally purchased. However, it had all the permits grandfathered in, including one for a walk-in tasting room, which was a huge asset. “Once we took over, we controlled our own destiny and we made it the way we wanted it,” says Andretti. The winery (located at 4162 Big Ranch Road in Napa) is modeled after a quaint Italian village. It’s non-pretentious and very manageable, he says. “It’s a nice little place. I just breathe when I go there.”
The winery has produced up to 37,000 cases in the past but scaled back to about 26,000 in the past three or four years, says Andretti. About 45 percent of the wine comes from its own vineyards, but the winery also sources from the Laird family, its neighbor in the Oak Knoll district. An influx of capital in June, from San Francisco-based Bacchus Capital Management, will help fuel production.
“We’ve reached a plateau where I think we need a good financial lender to take it to the next level. And we want to get into the 40,000- to 50,000-case range in the next few years,” says Andretti. “We’ve been looking for a good lender to take us on to the next level and I think Bacchus group seemed like they’ve done enough due diligence. They really liked what we have, and they went in with us and we’re very happy with that.”
Foyt Family Wines
Legendary racer A.J. Foyt was the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Daytona 500 races. He lends his name to Foyt Family Wines, a label developed by his son, Larry Foyt, and his grandson, A.J. (Anthony) Foyt IV.
Foyt Family Wines produces three wines, and all the vintages bear a number with significance to the racer’s legacy. Its No. 67 Chardonnay Sonoma Valley is named for the year A.J. won the 24 hours of Le Mans in France and also his third Indy 500. The No. 72 Meritage Chalk Hill Appellation is named for the year A.J. won the Daytona 500. The No. 77 Collectors Series Reserve Cabernet is named for the year A.J. became the first driver to win a fourth Indy 500.
“I’ve always enjoyed wine, even when I was young,” says Larry Foyt. “I laugh, because I was the kid in college who showed up at the keg party with a bottle of wine.”
Shifting gears
Larry and Anthony both pursued successful auto racing careers themselves, but Anthony now works in the football industry—his father-in-law owns the Indianapolis Colts—while Larry remains in the racing industry as a team director. In 2007, looking for a new venture to pursue, they focused on the wine industry. “At the time, I didn’t realize how many [race] drivers were involved in it,” says Larry.
The Foyts linked up with wine grower Tom Meadowcroft of Meadowcroft Wines, whom they’d met through mutual friends Jim and Jill Brandt of Napa General Store. “We work really closely together on the stylistic approach,” explains Meadowcroft. “They approached me about four years ago with interest in working with me. They had read about and tasted my wines and felt that I closely matched their aspirations for making a world-class wine.”
The Foyts tout Meadowcroft as a perfect match and an excellent mentor. “We didn’t just want to bottle someone else’s wine,” says Larry Foyt. “We wanted someone who would let us be a part of the creative process—grow with us, help us grow—let us be a part of it and have some influence.”
Meadowcroft is just as enthusiastic about the Foyts as they are about him. “With every legend comes a great story,” he says. “I must say, it’s been an honor to work with the Foyts. They’re a great family and very smart about going about their business. And they have a wonderful palate and are discerning with quality wines. It’s a very lucky relationship that I have with them.”
No slowing down
The Foyts are putting all the winery proceeds back into the enterprise. Their first 50-case run was reinvested to make 200 cases of the next wine, they’re now up to 400 cases. However, Larry Foyt hopes for more than just increased production.
“We actually have some investors on board right now,” he says. “It’s wishful thinking, but we’re looking at properties in Napa and Sonoma, and the goal would be to grow some of our own fruit. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.” They’re partnered with Meadowcroft and prepared to move quickly if the right opportunity comes along, he adds.
Anthony Foyt’s connection to the Indianapolis Colts may lead to another venture for the family and Meadowcroft, as they look to develop a wine specifically for the team. “The difficulty is, we want to continue to make a good quality wine. But with the Indianapolis Colts, it would have to be at a very competitive price point,” Meadowcroft says. “It’s going to be fun—it’s a very interesting opportunity—and so over the next few months we should have some more information about that.”
Ehret Family Winery
Pierre Ehret of Ehret Family Winery is in his second year with England’s Team CRS Racing, primarily driving a Ferrari GT. “We’re running right now in what they call the International Le Mans Series,” he says.
Ehret began auto racing in 1996 at age 40. He started his driving career at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School in Laguna Seca and moved with them to Sears Point Raceway (now Infineon). He raced in the Formula Russell Series for three years and then drove in the Star Mazda Series. After a couple of years, he moved into GT racing and began racing Le Mans.
Pierre and his wife, Susan, first planted vineyards on their Knight’s Valley property the same year he got behind the wheel professionally, and backed up their faith in the land’s potential by hiring vineyard manager Alex Vyborny. With Vyborny’s expertise, the Ehrets developed the property in stages, taking four years to reach the current 600 acres of planted vineyards. All the fruit had been long-term committed to premium wineries such as Beringer, Clos du Bois, Sterling Vineyards and others.
“Then, in 2005, because we always got excellent reviews of our grape quality and the wine it produced, my family and I just basically thought, ‘Why don’t we try to make our own wine?’” says Ehret. They began marketing the Ehret Family Winery label, processing grapes at a custom crush facility in Healdsburg.
Ehret’s core business remains supplying grapes for large wineries, taking only a tiny portion, probably less than 1 percent, of its grape yield for its own wine. Production is entirely dictated by sales, which should be bolstered by the recent addition of a full-time salesperson and the wine’s presence in Geyserville’s Locals Tasting Room, an independently owned, collective tasting room that features 10 wineries at a time. The brand also has extended into additional states by working with top-notch distributors, Ehret says. It’s taking the same track in Canada, where it has very good distribution in three or four provinces.
“The wine seems to be very well received,” says Ehret. “With the upswing in our distribution that we’ve experienced, and given the vast amount of grapes I have available, production is simply a question of how many bottles we can sell in the future.”
Depending on the vintage year, Ehret produces between 1,800 and 2,200 cases annually. Under winemaker Nick Goldschmidt, a native New Zealander, the winery produces a Sauvignon Blanc, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Bella’s Blend, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot that’s named for the Ehret’s 7-year-old daughter, Isabella. The winery’s secondary label, Bellarina, also a Bordeaux-style blend, targets the lower-price segment, though “it’s almost identical in quality, I would say, to our primary label,” says Ehret.
Lewis Cellars
Randy Lewis of Lewis Cellars raced professionally for 23 years, including Formula Three in Europe and Formula 5000 and Can Am circuits stateside. He drove Indy cars from 1983 to 1991, including five trips to the Indianapolis 500, where he finished 14th in both 1990 and 1991. He and his wife Debbie established their Napa Valley winery in 1992, following his retirement.
Lewis Cellars controls its grape supply by tending its own vineyard as well as contracting long-term. It produces about 9,000 cases annually, a pace it’s kept for the past dozen years, and Lewis intends to stay at that level.
The Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has been its top-tier wine from the beginning, but not its only focus. The winery also produces Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Lewis’ Alec’s Blend, named for his first grandson, is a “fun” blend of Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet, Lewis says.
“I think we’ve been fortunate to be one of the highest-ranked wines in those categories for quite some time now. We were picked as one of the top 10 Cabernets in the last decade by Wine Spectator, and our Syrah, Chardonnay, Merlots and Alec’s Blend have scored well for pretty much the entire 20 years we’ve been in business,” says Lewis.
Lewis’ love for wine began during a year living in Europe. “It’s kind of hard to live in Europe without falling in love with the whole program over there—the whole lifestyle and wine and so forth,” he says. He finished his education in California and took advantage of his proximity to Napa Valley to further his wine knowledge. And after turning pro, he spent three years racing in Europe, where he learned even more. “I just took it to the next level in France,” he says.
Ironically, Lewis Cellars is located just down the road from Andretti Winery on Big Ranch Road in Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll district. “We were actually custom crushing together over at Laird [Laird Family Estate] just a few miles from here. Then he got that winery and, a few years later, we got this one,” says Lewis. Praising Andretti as one of the greatest racers ever, Lewis admits, “I wasn’t nearly as good in a racecar, but I think we do pretty well on the wine side.”
Bennett Lane Winery
NASCAR team owner Randy Lynch and his wife, Lisa, just planned to enjoy the Calistoga fixer-upper they purchased in 2002 and grow a few acres of grapes on the 12-acre property. “We never for one minute thought about making wine. We wanted to just buy a place up here, grow some grapes, sell them and live the dream,” he says.
However, that changed when the dot-com bust caused the market for their grapes to dry up. Hoping to buy some time, they pursued custom crush opportunities, which led them to a winery down the road from their property. “The winemaker said he could handle our crush. We were about to get back in the car and he said, ‘By the way, it’s for sale.’ That’s how we got into it,” says Lynch. “No thought, just a couple buffoons jumping in with both feet. Luckily, it’s worked out pretty well.”
The Lynchs purchased Bennett Lane Winery and an additional vineyard in 2003, and now production usually averages in the 15,000- to 16,000-case range. Using its own grapes as well as sourced fruit, Bennett Lane produces a Los Carneros Reserve Chardonnay, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a dessert wine, and its Maximus feasting wines. “We’ve had 12 90-plus scores this calendar year from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and Robert Parker,” Lynch says.
Making a Turn 4
Lynch sold his NASCAR West race team in March of this year, but racing still plays a prominent role in his wine endeavors. Although not writing checks for twisted-up racecars anymore, he now writes checks for racetrack advertising.
This fall, he’ll release the Turn 4 wine label. “Turn 4 is where the action happens on the NASCAR track,” says Lynch. “It’s the most exciting part of the track.”
He bottled some 2007 Cabernet as a test and pre-released it in certain parts of the country, where it’s been well received, he says. He’ll officially release it this fall at a Phoenix International Raceway event, where he has the naming rights for the forth turn. “Just like in the Formula One races where they buy the whole turn, you’ll see Turn 4 really reflect a wine brand,” he says. Priced in the $12 to $15 range, Turn 4 isn’t a designated part of Bennett Lane Winery and not a Napa brand, but “If all goes well, it’ll be a national brand,” says Lynch.
Dichotomy of passions
The deafening roar and shaking ground of the racetrack pit, and the peaceful serenity of North Bay Wine Country; the two environments couldn’t be more contradictory. Drivers may not admit to any correlation, but maybe it’s the stark differences in the two endeavors that draw their interest. Perhaps Infineon’s Steve Page says it best: “You have people with appreciation for fine things, and race cars and great wines probably play to the same kinds of ‘enthusiast’ genes in people that are involved in both worlds.”
