Wine Dude Online

This is a new segment where I will occasionally interview people from some of the places that I have visited or wineries that I would like to know more about. For the inaugural segment I interviewed Brian Lamborn who manages the marketing and sales aspects for his family’s vineyard, Lamborn Family Vineyards. I came upon Lamborn Family Vineyards by chance last December while planning our annual trip to Napa Valley and have to say that now consider their Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel as two of my favorites. So here is what Brian had to say:

WinedudeOnline (WDO): Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: I was born and raised in the San Francisco East Bay and spent all of my weekends growing up at “the Farm.” I was born in 1975 and we developed our vineyard in ’79, so I really grew up amongst the dirt and vines, and I absolutely loved it. I never viewed it as work (at that point in time it was a lot of work, but more a hobby than an occupation, and that quickly turned to passion). From an early age I knew I loved the wine industry so it’s no surprise I find myself in it now. Prior to starting work for the family business full-time (finally on the payroll – no more free child labor!) in 1999, I lived and worked in Australia for a while where I expanded my wine knowledge, particularly of Southern Hemisphere wines. I am married with an amazing daughter and two fantastic sons. They are young (5, 4, and 2) but, as my parents allowed me, I want them to do whatever makes them happy in life. It would be gratifying to see them involved in the family business in some capacity in the future, but only if that’s what they really wanted to do. I work a lot and when I’m not working I am with my kids. However, when time allows, I am a fanatical fly fisherman, sports enthusiast, and music lover.

WDO: Seeing that you manage the marketing and sales for Lamborn Family Vinyards, what is your take on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Bloggers etc…) with regards to promoting your brand?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: I believe that social media is an invaluable tool for both emerging and established brands, regardless of the industry. Sites like Twitter and Facebook allow us to interact with customers and business associates alike on a much more personal level than previously allowed. Like CDs and the home phone, email seems to be on its way to oblivion. I think that those individuals who get involved with social media in hopes of increasing sales are misguided. Social media is more about relationship building and networking – and most of all, allowing the user to control his/her message. Wine bloggers have quite a bit of power and that is increasing every day. Social media is fantastic in that it distributes the “power” – the power and influence is redistributed from the few to the many, and that’s an amazing thing. There’s nothing more powerful than word of mouth marketing (which has always played a key role for Lamborn Family Vineyards) and social media provides that platform. Consumers no longer have to trust what they read in a major magazine, as social media allows us all a voice. For those who haven’t gotten involved yet, I believe they are missing the boat.

WDO: How did you and your family come to be involved in the wine/farming business? I say farming because I’ve heard Mike (your father) call it something along those lines. Is the entire family involved in the day to day operations?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: To make a long story only slightly shorter, my (paternal) grandfather bought a large parcel of land up on Howell Mountain (with some of the original Zinfandel vines from the late 1800’s planted by Italian immigrants still fruit-bearing) in 1970. A few years later a neighboring parcel became available, and “Papa” convinced my parents to get a loan and purchase the property, which they did. My grandfather was a private investigator who worked for both the FBI and CIA, and my dad was in sales for a freight company. All weekends were spent at the vineyard(s) tending to the vines and making wine. They worked hard during the week and it’s quite possible that they worked harder on the weekends, but they both loved it. Papa ultimately sold his vineyard in the late 90’s (we couldn’t afford to buy it), and unfortunately he passed on several years after that. The entire family is definitely still involved. My dad, Mike, does that vast majority of the farming himself as well as lots of the “exciting” paperwork that is involved with operating a winery. Fortunately he has the help of my mom, Terry, with customer relations aspects. My brother, Matt, is involved with vineyard management.

WDO: How large is the vineyards and what varietals are planted?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: We’ve got about 30 acres up on the mountain, but of that only eight are planted. Being mountaintop the terrain is quite rugged, and as you’ve seen firsthand, we’ve basically cultivated all that is plantable. We have just two varietals planted and four acres of each: zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon. The zin was planted in ’79 and, more recently, the cab was planted in ’01 (with a few years of age to the vines).

WDO: Do you purchase grapes from other vineyards or is everything estate grown?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: We do not purchase grapes from anyone else. By doing so we would not have control over the quality and standards employed in farming which obviously drastically affects the fruit. We take extreme pride in doing everything ourselves (except winemaking) as great wines are made in the vineyard. We come from the school “If you want something done right you have to do it yourself. We absolutely love having complete control over our vineyard and fruit, and I’m confident that it shines through in each bottle.

WDO: How did you come to produce only zinfandel and cabernet? I mean it seems like most wineries are putting out everything under the sun these days.

Lamborn Family Vineyards: We had been a zin only producer for literally two decades, up until 2001 when we planted cabernet. Being that Heidi Barrett was making our wine and her specialty is cab, the addition was a logical and natural one. Howell Mountain is most notable for its red varietals (though some have had success with a few whites), and right now we’re exactly where we want to be with production (around 1,600 cases annually). We’re growing two varietals that we know, love, and believe in.

WDO: Now I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the vineyard and have to say that it is absolutely gorgeous up there (even if it was raining the entire time). If I’m not mistaken, I didn’t see a winery up there. So how/where do you make and store everything?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: When Papa sold his property we also lost the very modest crush pad and winery; building one on ours was not logistically or monetarily possible, so we turned to the Napa Wine Company in Oakville. At the time Heidi already had some clients there too, so it made a lot of sense. We continue to make our wine there, and the bottled product is stored in a warehouse at the Napa Valley Wine Warehouse.

WDO: How did Heidi Barrett come to be the winemaker for Lamborn and how long has she been with you guys?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: When we were looking for a new winemaker in the mid-90’s (around the time my grandfather sold his property), our philosophy was to start at the top and work our way down. The first one to agree would be the best one we could get. So we started at the top and went straight to, in our estimation, the best in the Valley in Heidi Barrett. We invited her up to the vineyard, showed her our property, and talked about our whole philosophy behind growing the best grapes we possibly can. As my dad says, he proposed and she said “Yes,” not that my mom appreciates that joke…! That was the end of 1996, so she has been with us for nearly a decade and a half.

WDO: How would you present Lamborn Family vineyards to someone who has not heard of the Lamborn label before?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: Well, I come across this a lot as most people have not heard of Lamborn. We’ve been around for over three decades but still sort of “fly under the radar.” Unlike many of our neighbors, we are not independently wealthy. We got involved in the business for the love of dirt. We are farmers and thoroughly enjoy every aspect of it, and that passion, I truly hope, shows in each bottle we put out. We make wines that appeal to us, in a style we love to enjoy. We don’t make them to appeal to specific critics, palates, or people. We make them because we love them and hope that others do too. It certainly helps that, just because someone hasn’t heard of us, chances are they have heard of Heidi Barrett as former winemaker for cult wines such as Screaming Eagle. If our dedication to the vineyard doesn’t convey a message of quality wine, her name usually will.

WDO: Where can people find/purchase your wines? Do you host any wine events around California or maybe ARIZONA (Hint Hint)?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: Because of our low production level, the vast majority of our wine is sold direct to the consumer. We are absolutely blessed to have a loyal contingent of customers who support our wines vintage in, vintage out. Not being one of the “big guys,” we don’t have fancy club packages or logo golf balls, but one of the benefits we can offer our customers is a price break off of retail on both wines. We also sell a portion of our wine at the restaurant level, and a handful of retail establishments. Excluding the state of Texas, all distribution is here in California. It’s not that we wouldn’t love to be in many of the great wine markets throughout the country, it’s just that we don’t have a ton of wine to go around. In this day and age that’s not a bad thing, but we do reserve most of our wine for sales directly at www.lamborn.com. It’s the best way to get our wine as we don’t have any distribution outside of CA and TX, and even in those markets it’s hard to find. We participate in several wine events throughout the state (and country); they’re fun, a great way to meet new people, and bottom line is we love talking about what we do! Excessive talking perhaps – that’s a Lamborn trait. I haven’t participated in a wine event in AZ for several years, but perhaps we should put something together…!

WDO: I know that this is supposed to be 10 questions, but one more. If you couldn’t drink Lamborn wines, what would you drink and why?

Lamborn Family Vineyards: Depends: who’s buying, me or you?? Kidding, of course – sort of. I’ve got a wife in her first year of vet school, three young money vacuums I call my children, and a few pets. So what I’m basically trying to say is we can’t afford to drink the wines we would necessarily like to, but we do have occasions. Personally I’m one of “those Americans” who likes the over-oaked, buttery Chardonnays and seek those out. Because of my time in Australia I really love a lot of the wines they are putting out (save those un-oaked, non-ML Chardonnays!), unfortunately many of them are not exported to the States. I love a great malbec and barbera. Zinfandel, however, will always be my first love and go to wine, regardless of season or cuisine! To name a few wine labels that I really enjoy across the board, I would say Hunnicutt, Charles Melton, and Meyer Family. But really, if I couldn’t drink Lamborn wines I wouldn’t drink at all….

I would like to thank Brian for taking the time to answer some of our questions and say that i look forward to visiting the vineyard anagin soon.

P.S. Brian, I’m available if you need me to help during harvest. I work cheap, just a couple of bottles of “The Juice”!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:48 PM and is filed under Getting to Know:, Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.