Building a winery from the ground up can try your patience…or inspire greatness.
Never underestimate the power of Independence Day to spark a business venture. Just ask Duffy Keys and Jim Borsack, co-owners of B Cellars, a 10-year-old winery whose beginnings can be traced to a chance meeting at a Fourth of July barbecue hosted by mutual friends.
That was in 2002. The following year, they embarked on their joint venture. Today, the duo is well on their way to realizing their ultimate goal of building their own destination winery from the ground up.
Currently residing in a mixed-use setting on the Silverado Trail in Calistoga, B Cellars is targeted for a June 2014 opening in Oakville. The historic, 11.5-acre property is being custom built to include nearly 30,000 square feet of original caves for barrel storage, with the core of the winery featuring a 5,000-square-foot hospitality building that will overlook the vineyards. There will be multiple tasting rooms, an interactive demonstration kitchen, outdoor dining terraces, an herb garden and, well, that’s just scratching the surface.
Hospitality and retail: A perfect blend
Call it fate, karma, serendipity or just plain good fortune, but when Keys and Borsack met at that barbecue, it quickly became apparent they had a mutual love of wine—both had already dipped their toes in the industry—and the combined expertise to make something special happen. Keys had spent more than a decade in the hospitality industry; Borsack was the product of a family of retailers.
“We have some similarities in our background, in that we’ve both had a chance to be in a consumer business whose customer base was affluent and experience-minded,” Keys says. “And if you look at what we’re doing at B Cellars, many of the same principles are being applied. It’s a focus on product development and on the customer.”
Keys, who retired from Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts after two decades as a senior-level executive, was on the verge of making a deal when he met Borsack. “I’d already put in an offer to buy a winery in Russian River Valley,” he says. The property, Hartman Lane—a Pinot Noir winery that wasn’t a known brand—had been in foreclosure. “I was working with a fiduciary, three lenders and the seller in an attempt to buy the property, which was owned by Cecil DeLoach.”
Meanwhile, Borsack, who in 2000 sold his ownership in El Portal—his family’s high-end luggage and travel accessories business—was studying winemaking at UC Davis. He’d also planted 20 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon on his property near Temecula.
In early 2003, Keys’ deal with DeLoach fell through. But “Jim and I had stayed in touch,” he says. “So we put our heads together and came to the conclusion that we should each scrap our respective projects and join forces. And so we did.”
The twosome launched their Cabernet Sauvignon business in a region rooted in success: Napa Valley.
For the love of wine
To those who know him well, it came as no surprise when Borsack dove head first into the wine industry. “I think that probably stems from my being a passionate cook,” he says. “This is going to sound strange, but I’ve prepared way north of 8,000 different recipes.”
Strange or not, Borsack enjoys hosting wine dinners, so he was up to the task when the search began to secure a master winemaker for B Cellars. At one point during the process, a friend brought Borsack a bottle of Merlot, which had a unique label featuring old vines. After tasting it, he tracked down the winemaker and hired him.
That winemaker is Kirk Venge, whose family roots in winemaking date back to the early 1900s. Venge’s grandfather was a Danish importer of Western European wine and spirits, and his father, Nils, has been a well-respected Napa Valley winemaker for nearly half a century.
“This is all I’ve known and what I love to do,” says Venge, who holds a bachelor’s degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis. “I’m very happy around grapes and wines, and [harvest] is a great time of year. I always get that new, fresh feeling about starting over and getting to see a new vintage.”
He collaborates easily with Borsack and Keys, and works closely with the numerous vineyards that B Cellars employs. Already known for its Cabernet, B Cellars is branching out into Chardonnay, Venge says, and this year’s vintage marks the winery’s first Pinot Noir production. All the while, he remains true to his hands-off winemaking philosophy as he creates distinctive blends from mutually complementary varietals.
(Almost) full speed ahead
Being savvy businessmen, Keys and Borsack understood from day one that they’d need to harness their winery expertise in a measured fashion, learning the business and cultivating different experiences as they moved along. As such, when B Cellars made its first vintage in 2003, it was produced at Napa Wine Company, a facility they stayed with for the first several years.
“By 2006, it was time to bring the 2003 wine to market,” Keys says. “It was easy, because we both had such a network of connectivity that we literally sold to friends and family first. So, it was very romantic and fulfilling.”
Confident that they had the capability to go bigger, in 2007, Keys and Borsack moved to a co-op facility, with a tasting room on the premises, that included about 10 boutique wineries of varying sizes. "The co-op worked OK until we started realizing that, while we worked well together making wine, we were also competitive when it came to selling our [individual] wines,” he says. “So we made rules, and it was fine. But to really be in control of your own destiny, you need to be in full control of your own environment.
It was during this period that Wine Spectator, Food and Wine magazine and numerous other publications took notice of B Cellars. And Robert Parker’s Wine Enthusiast began delivering consistently high ratings for B Cellars’ wines. “It had become crystal clear that we were making great wines,” Keys says. “So we said, ‘We can do better.’”
A different destiny
In summer 2010, Keys and Borsack relocated B Cellars to its current location in Calistoga. “We chose [this place] because we had high expectations that we’d be able to increase production levels,” Keys says. When the Calistoga site later went up for sale, a group of investors acquired it with plans to build a mixed-use development that would consist of a luxury hotel, a winery and some residences. B Cellars was slated to be the winery component, but in the middle of 2011, the process came to a screeching halt.
“It became questionable whether the property was ever going to be given the entitlements it needed to complete the vision,” Keys says. “It became highly politicized and was to be left in the hands of the Calistoga voters in a November 2012 referendum vote. Jim and I decided that we couldn’t wait another year to see if it was thumbs up or thumbs down.”
Instead, they decided to look for a destination winery they could call their own. As it turns out, the events in Calistoga timed out well, as B Cellars has, coincidentally, reached its capacity for the number of cases per year that it’s permitted for—about 5,000. The new site will let the winery expand to between 18,000 and 20,000 cases per year, Keys says.
A new beginning on historic land
For some, the 701 Oakville Cross Road address may ring familiar. The site boasts a rich agricultural history that dates back to the late 1800s. For the last two decades, the Miller family has owned the land, where it bred and raised horses. The property also had a destination winery permit that had never been used. Despite its merits, Keys and Borsack hardly made an impulsive decision in choosing to call it home.
“We looked at [more than] 50 pieces of property, and we kept coming back to this one,” Keys says. Its location places them right in the heart of the Oakville district, which boasts impressive Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Neighboring wineries include Silver Oak Cellars, PlumpJack and Rudd.
The property was acquired in a partnership between Keys, Borsack and Bill Cameron, a longtime B Cellars investor who serves as chairman and CEO of Oklahoma–based American Fidelity Group. Once the sale was finalized, the team was required to go through a complete permit refiling process before major modifications could be made. “The county of Napa couldn’t have been more accommodating or more helpful,” says Keys. “It steered us through the process.”
The partners closed on the property in August 2012, and all approvals were in place by this past spring. Santa Rosa-based Facility Development Corp. was brought on board to do the construction, and they broke ground in July.
A vision takes shape
It was, literally, by design that Keys and Borsack hired San Francisco-based architectural firm Hart Howerton to bring their vision for B Cellars to life. Keys had known David Howerton from his days at the Four Seasons, and the two share the same philosophical approach to developing land. “I always credit [his firm] for its sensitivity to the environment,” Keys says. “It’s a very capable architectural firm staffed with very thoughtful people.”
Design plans for the new winery were mindfully laid out with respect to the land’s rich agricultural history, says Craig Roberts, Hart Howerton partner and design principal on the B Cellars project. The team explored a number of options, many of which had already been done in Napa Valley. “We stepped back and said, ‘No, the wine is the important thing here,’” Roberts says. “The architecture needs to be subordinate to the big landscape. It needs to recede into what’s there already in the hills and trees.”
They proceeded with a more authentic approach, selecting an agrarian style and using simple materials, including concrete and corrugated metals. “We then chose to go with a rusted color to give us that terracotta look, which is really a complement to all the ground around it,” he says.
At press time, the project was moving along swiftly, with plans to go vertical in November.
“I think we’ve broken all sorts of records on this project,” Roberts says. “When we started off, everybody was aghast at the schedule in terms of timing and budget, but we’ve all surprised ourselves. It’s been good.”
The big production
The idea of making wine in a large, innovative production facility has Venge over the moon.
“Our process, our equipment, everything we’ve put together so far has been spot on,” he says. “We’re not going to have to compromise any of our practices because we don’t have the space or what have you. The [Oakville] facility is going to be really well laid out.”
Borsack agrees, adding that he’s excited about the caves, not only because they’re “the coolest thing in the world,” but also because they’re cost-effective. “As an owner, some decisions are financially driven, and to have the ability to cut down evaporation from 7 or 8 percent to probably 3 percent in a given year, well, that’s a huge number.”
A taste of the future
The words “tasting room” are about to become an understatement in the world of B Cellars. And that’s just fine with Chef Christina Machamer, who serves as full-time wine educator and chef for the winery. Come June, she’ll be running an interactive kitchen.
“In lieu of a tasting bar when you walk in, you’ll be greeted by a demonstration kitchen, which has a counter height of 36 inches,” Machamer says. “There will be no windows, walls, doors or any barriers separating you from it.”
There also will be a 500-square-foot prep kitchen, with a center island where guests can gather around and participate in hands-on cooking demonstrations. And because wine is in the mix, the kitchen will be completely flameless—using induction burners, combitherm ovens and immersion circulators. “So it’s really kind of fun and modern,” Machamer says. “I don’t know of a whole lot of kitchens that are flameless, so that will be a really incredible feature.” Other features included within that area are a garden, a bocce ball court and an outdoor patio that can seat about 50 people, providing more of a clubhouse atmosphere, she says.
When Machamer joined B Cellars nearly three years ago, the young chef had already made her mark in a few kitchens. Most notably, she overcame Chef Gordon Ramsay’s rather intense working style on Fox TV’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” taking the top prize in Season 4. She went on to become sous chef at Ramsay’s restaurant in West Hollywood and later acquired additional culinary experiences. Machamer holds a degree from the Culinary Institute of America and is a certified sommelier.
Machamer is eager to get up and running in Oakville and feels especially excited about one of the changes in store. “At our new property, we’re permitted for a limited number of people per day, and it has to be by appointment,” she says. “Because of that, we’re not focused on volume business. We’re focused on really creating some incredible experiences for folks so that this is their destination.”
The fruits of their labor
From the vines to wine production to cooking and everything in between, Borsack says the notion of taking full control of B Cellars’ future is the driving force behind this venture. “Everything that Kirk, Duffy and I have learned and talked about for 11 years is in this space,” he says. “We can raise our hands and say, ‘This is what we are,’ because we now have built it from scratch.”
Keys and Borsack expect B Cellars to be operating out of its new home by the first weekend of June. “That would be an important date for us to make if we can,” Keys says, “because that’s Auction Napa Valley week, so it would be nice for us to have some presence next year.”
