Abreu Vineyards

Abreu Vineyards. Founder, David Abreu (Vietnam veteran) was raised in Napa Valley and is a third generation resident (St. Helena High graduate). His father James was a rancher and served in World War II and his mother Kathleen is part of the long time Rutherford viticulture family the Del Bondios who for a short while produced wines under the Del Bondio brand at their own winery. His grandfather Manuel owned a ranch in Chiles Valley until selling and purchasing another ranch near Elk Grove (Sacramento County).

As a result of his family involvement in agriculture David grew up around ranching and among friends in Napa Valley who were already growing grapes and or producing wine. After graduating from the University of California Davis with a degree in Viticulture and Enology, David founded David Abreu Vineyard Management, Inc. in 1980 (www.davm.com) and that same year he also developed the Madrona Ranch Vineyard in St. Helena. The first commercial vintage of an Abreu wine was the 1987 Abreu Madrona Ranch; a vintage was produced in 1986 but never released.

Early in his career, Abreu began making a number of trips to wine regions in France, primarily Bordeaux to increase his knowledge of viticulture practices. He spoke to viticulturists, vineyard managers and vineyard workers, taking notes on his observations.

From a viticulture perspective, Abreu has played an instrumental role in improving the quality of wines in Napa Valley, raising the bar to another level beginning in the 1990s. His best work embraces the details of precision farming. He is highly selective of vineyards sites he works with – looking for terroir which inspires him. We get that. His resume in Napa Valley is impressive, working with the likes of Screaming Eagle, Staglin Family Vineyard, Colgin Cellars, Harlan Estate, Bryant Family Vineyard, Araujo Estate (now Eisele Vineyard), Realm Cellars and Grace Family Vineyards.

Vineyards
Grapes for the Abreu wines comes from four spectacular up-valley vineyard sites: two in St. Helena on the valley floor both within less than a mile from each other including Madrona Ranch and Cappella, and two hillside vineyards, Thorevilos Vineyard (just below Howell Mountain) and Las Posadas Howell Mountain. David was the vineyard architect, is the vineyard manager and oversaw the planting of the vines for these four sites.

Madrona Ranch is located near the edge of the Mayacamas mountains west of St. Helena on an alluvial fan that has spread out from these nearby hills. One passes through this property on the way up to the former Newton Winery, but still LVMH owned property. This vineyard is within walking distance of Spottswoode Winery. This is the first vineyard in the Abreu portfolio and was developed by David in 1980 when he removed the diseased vines and replanted. Abreu leased this vineyard until 2021, when he purchased the property from its prior owners, the Meyer family. This property is the headquarters for Abreu’s vineyard management company. Besides the vineyard, the property is also home to an old barn and various farm animals including cattle, goats, pigs and chickens and some honeybee hives. Olive trees also grow here; Abreu Vineyards produced their first very limited production olive oil from these trees. Pleased with the results, they planted additional olive trees at their other vineyard sites.

The property is also home to Madrona Family Farms, open during select times of the years to sell pumpkins, blueberries and other fresh produce.

Madrona Ranch has been under numerous owners over the decades; the earliest references we have found to it being called the Madrona Ranch were in the mid 1930s.

Madrona Ranch Vineyard

Cappella Rico-Matteo Abreu Vineyard is named after David’s two sons, one of which Matteo, works for his father’s vineyard management company. The other son Rico, is an accomplished auto racer. He races dirt track and sprint cars; he won the 2014 USAC National Midget Series championship. Indiana based for much of the year, he has raced at tracks across the country, including Calistoga’s own Calistoga Speedway. And Abreu Vineyards is one of Rico’s sponsors.

This 6-acre site borders the old Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery and the next-door St. Helena Public Cemetery in St. Helena, incidentally home of a number of gravesites of prominent Napa Valley vintners including Charles Krug and André Tchelistcheff. This is a very historical vineyard neighborhood – nearby neighbors include Beckstoffer’s Bourn Vineyard and the CHASE Cellars Zinfandel Hayne Vineyard. Vines at the Cappella Vineyard were first planted in 1869 but when David took over the property he removed 1920s era vines and replanted in 2002.

Cappella Rico-Matteo Abreu Vineyard

Las Posadas Howell Mountain, Lucia Abreu Vineyard. This was David’s first property purchase in 2001; he named it for his daughter. The site is located at 2000 feet above sea level. This is prime Howell Mountain terroir in a beautiful part of the sub-appellation referred to as Las Posadas. The site is 33 acres of which 15 are planted. Nearby vineyards include one owned by Pine Ridge, a vineyard owned by Marc & Janice Mondavi and further down the road, the historic Bancroft Vineyard with grapes being sold to Beringer Vineyards. Rancho La Jota – part of an old land grant is also nearby and dates to 1843.

And one part of this vineyard backs almost up to the edge of a tiny airstrip at Angwin-Parrett Field. Our brother flew into and out of this field a few times over the years. According to an article in the The Napa Valley Register dated September 17, 1997 several celebrities used this airport including William Randolph Hearst, Harrison Ford and Robert Redford. A tragic and 3-person fatal plane crash occurred in this vineyard in 2021; vineyard workers witnessed the crash. This was not the first crash to occur in the vicinity of the airport; in 1969 two Pacific Union College professors died in a crash about 600 feet from the airstrip. And for one of the most bizarre rescues ever in Napa Valley, see our notes on Dick Steltnzer’s plane crash and subsequent rescue story, filled under our now archived review on this site of Steltzner Vineyards.

And Abreu Vineyards is not the only producer that has access to these coveted vineyards; over the years several other Napa Valley producers have purchased grapes or still purchase grapes including Bryant Family and Colgin Cellars.

Las Posadas, Howell Mountain Lucia Abreu Vineyard

Thorevilos Vineyard. This 200-acre property is located a short drive from the original Thorevilos Vineyard and was acquired by Abreu in 2019, the year prior to the 2020 Glass Fire which extensively burned through this property including destroying the old house and winery. The total acreage listed as Real Thorevilos LLC is 385 acres and is a combination of 4 adjacent parcels to each other. This property was previously home to Arns Winery owned by the Arns family (they had 160 acres at the time) including John and his wife Sandi Belcher and John’s brother. Abreu is only the 4th owner of this property dating back to when it was homesteaded in the 1880s. The Arns family farmed 10 acres of grapes; Abreu has since expanded the vineyard footprint to 40 acres. Prior to Abreu’s ownership, grapes from the property had been sold to Martin Ray of Santa Cruz, Burgess Cellars, Ballentine, Dunn Vineyards, Spring Mountain and Merryvale.

While this is not technically in the Howell Mountain Appellation, it might as well be, as soils on the property and vegetation are very similar to Howell Mountain. Howell Mountain appellation starts at 1400 feet. The soils are very rocky; in fact, much of the stones for the large stone building that now houses the Culinary Institute of America in nearby St. Helena came from this property. The quarries that produced the stone for this building now serve as deep ponds on the property, well stocked with fish.

Thorevilos (formerly Arns)

Ecotone Vineyard (previously called Thorevilos Vineyard) is 22 acres and was planted and controlled by David and Ric Forman for until 2019. We keep our notes here for historical reference, since this vineyard was such an integral part of their operations, but Abreu no longer gets grapes from this site. It is now leased to Jack Bittner by the family that owns the several hundred acre property, with the grapes being sold to several premium producers. Ric was the founding winemaker at Sterling Vineyards and today operates Forman Vineyards and assisted in making the early Abreu wines. Nestled among oaks and fir trees among rolling hills with western facing exposures, this was arguably the most picturesque of the four sites. It is located below the 1400 qualifying elevation to be within the Howell Mountain AVA. The soils here are volcanic, white tufa. Nearby neighbors include the Herb Lamb Vineyard and what was Arns Winery, a property we have spent significant amount of time on over the years.

Ecotone Vineyard (formerly Thorevilos)

A visual landmark of all the Abreu owned Vineyards are the prominent hand-cut limestone rock walls and or stone arches on the perimeter of the vines. These are all the work of one man, Jesus Salcedo, originally from Michoacán, Mexico. Each blade cut is then chiseled by hand. We have long admired his work whenever we drive by these select Abreu Vineyards.

Winemaking
Winemaking at Abreu Vineyards is the responsibility of winemaker Brad Grimes. Brad is a former chef from Seattle turned winemaker, although he still often cooks, especially for select charity events in the valley. Brad is a talented perfectionist who has no formal education in winemaking. He has worked with David since 2000, initially in the vineyards and then later transitioned to winemaking.

So attuned to the inner workings of the limited production wines he oversees, at times it feels like Brad is an extension of the wines themselves. He takes his craft extremely seriously and is obsessive about attention to detail. In the world of wine, passion often leads to obsession. In regard to winemaking, being obsessive about details is a highly positive attribute. Brad has worked with interns in the past but over the years he has learned he works best alone, a master craftsman who maintains full cellar control over all wine produced.

Brad describes the winemaking at Abreu Vineyards as circular – each years’ work being well-connected between their four vineyard sites, their vineyard management team and Brad. Some members of the vineyard management team have been working with Abreu for several decades; their attention to detail in the vineyard is meticulous and is carried over to sorting the grapes before they are delivered to Brad.

Brad’s attention to detail is vigilant, both in the vineyard and in the winery, picking only specific parts of the vineyard as they ripen, even sometimes down to selecting fruit from parts of rows. He uses small sized tanks and keeps fruit from each vineyard separate from the other during the winemaking. And rather than fermenting the varieties separately, they are co-fermented. Each vintage typically starts out with around 100 barrels (equivalent to about 2,400 cases) but there is a rigorous selection process for the final wines, only choosing the best of the best. By the time the final selections have been made, they have eliminated more than 1/2 of the barrels resulting in a typical vintage of around 1,000 cases.

Along with the Abreu wines, Brad has the flexibility to work on select other projects. During our visit he was fermenting in barrel a small quantity of a rare Howell Mountain Pinot Noir planting, a vineyard selection of this variety originally from a premium vineyard in Burgundy.

Select Wines
While Abreu Vineyards produces vineyard designate wines from their four sites, the Rothwell Hyde bottling is a blend of grapes from all four sites.

The 2015 Abreu Vineyards Rothwell Hyde Napa Valley Red Wine is dark mahogany in color; it is elegant with mature fruit aromatics including blackberry along with notes of black licorice, crème de cassis and additional appealing desert spice aromatics including brown chocolate and vanilla. Plush and opulent across the palate, this bottling shows many layers of darker fruit flavors including blackberry and spicy plum. It lingers with density and power of muscular grippy tannins complemented by darker spice characteristics including cedar box and dried tobacco leaf. The finish is lengthy and persists with both structure and fruit. This is an impressive and fairly approachable showing now but has all the hallmarks of being able to age for many years.

Rothwell Hyde was the name of a gentleman who used to live on Howell Mountain; his parents were Oliver and Harriet. The family originally moved to Napa Valley in the late 1800s to help alleviate her terrible symptoms of asthma, seeking Howell Mountain in particular for its elevation and fresh air. Rothwell Hyde later owned 80 acres in Conn Valley as noted in the real estate transaction section listed in the Napa Journal dated February 18, 1898; the sale price was $10.

In the Napa Weekly Journal dated March 1, 1907 an article describes the owner of Glendale Ranch in Conn Valley, a sizable piece of property at one point owned by the Tubbs family, founders of Chateau Montelena, receiving a favorable ‘forage plant’ from the Rothwell Hyde property on Howell Mountain. He was so impressed by its character he planted some on his own property and distributed seeds to other cattle farmers in the area. Through the assistance of the agricultural department at U.C. Berkely, this plant was identified as a variety of potentilla elata.

So as you can see, there is a lot more to this name than just the name of a wine.

NOTE: this section of the review has been identified as needing an update with tasting notes for current release Abreu wines.

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The labels are a work of art featuring illustrations by self-taught Master Engraver Robert (Bob) Swartley, originally illustrated by Bob and then printed on 150+ year old printing presses. Bob moved to Napa Valley in his youth and spent a career engraving a variety of objects including antique guns (for a period of time he was a gunsmith). He studied with Austrian engraver Josef Fugger and was one of the founders of the American Engravers guild. Some of his works were featured in American Engravers (1980) and American Engravers-the 21st Century. Bob passed away in the city of Napa in 2016.

When deciding on the type of bottle to use for his wines, Abreu reviewed numerous antique hand-blown glass bottles. Ultimately he chose an 1896 bottle from a first-growth winery in Bordeaux. A special mold had to be created just for this bottle. And the labels are printed in small batches on a manually operated Cronite intaglio press. The resulting work creates finely detailed images.

The wines are sold primarily through an allocation list to members although some wines can be found at select restaurants around the country and limited selection is available through certain online retail websites and overseas. For example, we have seen some of their wines for sale in premium wine shops in Bangkok. One retail space locally that selectively sells wines both through visits and online from Abreu Vineyards is the K.Laz Collection based in Yountville. Backroom Wines in the city of Napa may also sometimes carry select wines.

The wines of Abreu Vineyards are rarely showcased in public settings by the winery. Several coveted tastings in which Abreu Vineyards will pour their wines include two prestigious events held in Napa Valley. One is Inspire Napa Valley, a wine and food event founded by Kerrin Laz focusing on raising money and awareness for fighting Alzheimer’s (her mother suffered from this for many years) and the Music Festival for Brain Health held every year at Staglin Winery.

The wines are distributed and are available through a surprisingly diverse group of online and brick and mortar retailers both domestically and internationally. With such limited production and a fully committed membership list, those interested in purchasing the wines from the winery may sign up for the membership wait list. For more information, visit: www.abreuvineyards.com