by Angus Wurtele
Terra Valentine is a young Spring Mountain winery whose number one goal is making the finest Cabernet Sauvignon. To do this, we concentrate on finding and keeping the best people in the industry with the highest standards of integrity, and provide them with exceptional vineyards and state of the art equipment to make the wines.
I grew up in Minnesota of Scottish-German and Quaker ancestry. After graduating from Stanford Business School, I was asked, at age 27, to take charge of my family’s business, Minnesota Paints, Inc. Over the years our concern grew prodigiously and acquired a number of other companies. By the time I retired, the company, now called Valspar Corporation, had become the fifth largest paints and coatings manufacturer in North America.
My wife Margaret and I had often visited and enjoyed the Napa Valley over the years. In 1995 we bought a small hillside vineyard on Spring Mountain that had been planted in Cabernet Sauvignon several years before by the Raymond family. Now known as Wurtele Vineyard, its average elevation is around 1,000 feet. The 35-acre vineyard site is unusual in that it surrounds a mountain knoll, a formation that provides a variety of orientations and intensities of tannin.
In 1999 we also purchased the former Yverdon winery, a well-hidden gem of Spring Mountain history constructed in the 1960’s. It was built by self-taught winemaker and artisan Fred J. Aves, who not only planted vineyards here but constructed most of the beautiful stone winery himself, incorporating artistic features such as carved wooden doors and many beautiful stained glass windows.
We immediately began to refurbish the winery’s treasures and made extensive additions and improvements to the winemaking equipment. Our first production in the facility was in 1999. A second vineyard, the Yverdon Vineyard, is located in front of Villa Valentine, a guesthouse to the east of the winery. Replanting began here in 2001, with rootstocks and clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot specifically chosen for these particular soil types and elevation (around 2,000 feet).
Having taken charge of a company myself at a young age, I appreciate the energy and vitality of our staff at Terra Valentine and enjoy my role as mentor for a company dedicated to quality management in every aspect. With the latest technical education, business knowledge and experienced advisors, our team is dedicated to creating exceptional estate Cabernet Sauvignon in this mountain vineyard.
