Stuart Smith was just 22 when he bought a rugged piece of Napa Valley on Spring Mountain land in 1971, planting the seed for Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery. The name honors both the pioneering Smith brothers and the madrone trees dotting the wild hillside terrain.
A Santa Monica native and former beach lifeguard, Stuart studied economics at UC Berkeley and viticulture at UC Davis, where he was the first teaching assistant to wine legends Maynard Amerine and Vernon Singleton. He discovered that his future vineyard had once been planted in the 1880s—a ghost of Napa’s past that sparked a bold dream.
While pursuing his master’s at UC Davis, Stuart was the first teaching assistant for wine industry pioneers Maynard Amerine and Vernon Singleton in 1970-1971. He taught enology at Santa Rosa Junior College; he chaired the 1986 Napa Valley Wine Auction and co-chaired the 2006 Napa Valley Wine Auction.
Over the years, Stuart became a leading voice for mountain vineyardists, chaired the Napa Valley Wine Auction (twice), and served on local environmental and planning boards. He’s also a Scout leader, canoe enthusiast, G.O.N.A.D.S. member (ask him), and proud father of five. From the rescue boat in Santa Monica to the ridges of Spring Mountain, Stuart’s journey blends grit, vision, and a little bit of old-school Napa magic.
Media Inquiries: stu@smithmadrone.com | https://www.smithmadrone.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
I founded Smith-Madrone Winery at the top of Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley AVA in 1971. From the beginning, I wanted to be located on the Mayacamas Mountains surrounding the Napa Valley, but not in the Napa Valley. I had a vision, a dream if you will, of creating a world-class vineyard on the steep eastern-facing slopes of those mountains.
To make great wine, I knew that I had to grow great grapes, and the best way to do that was for the vines to be grown on the mountains. As Virgil said in 43 BC “Bacchus amat colles,” which translates into “Bacchus loves the hills.” I believed then, as I do now, that the best grapes come from the mountains, and that grapes must struggle to create the best flavors and character.
In 1973 my brother Charlie Smith joined me in this adventure, and starting in 1974 we started building our winery. We were at first going to use the rocks we were picking up from the newly planted vineyard, but after months of that hard work we never wanted to touch those rocks again. So, we used 12”X16”X8” split face concrete blocks, but only after we used our hammers and concrete chisels to chip off chunks of concrete around the edges to give the block even more relief.
One of our most important convictions is that all of our wines are produced only from grapes grown from our estate vineyards surrounding the winery building. Another primary conviction is that once our vineyards become mature, our goal is to dry-farm those vineyards, or at the very least, we should give the vineyards as little water as is possible.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Charlie and I built the winery ourselves fifty years ago and it needs to be renovated and expanded. By expanding it, I would add a tasting room on to the flat roof of the winery. This would require adding an elevator to comply with ADA regulations. Additionally, I would love to build a cut and cover concrete cellar that would be used for both storage of barrels and bottled inventory. Stainless steel tanks would also be located in this totally concrete cellar so that we could park the mobile bottler just outside the cellar and move the finished pallets directly into storage. It would also be totally cool to have a cave attached to the back wall of this structure that would curve around and have a portal that opens up onto what we call our “Wedding Grove” which is a 4,500 square foot lawn that looks out over the entire upper Napa Valley and east toward Howell Mountain and Berryessa Peak at the top of the Vaca Mountain Range.
I’m constrained not only by cost but by Napa County’s draconian anti-winery regulations.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Riesling. My brother Charlie and I love Riesling. We love it because we can grow Riesling next to Cabernet Sauvignon and blow people’s minds with that reality. I believe that Riesling can be produced so that it is produced in the purest manner possible and that you get the purest expression of the grape in the bottle. If there is such a thing as “terroir,” then it must exist in the way we produce our Riesling. We pick into small one-ton gondolas and within 15 minutes of filling the gondolas the grapes are being de-stemmed, crushed and pumped into our press. The juice is then pumped into one of our stainless-steel tanks where it is settled for three days at very cool temperature. We then get a very clean racking of the must into another stainless-steel tank where it is inoculated with yeast. The wine frequently ferments into the first of the next year. Next the Riesling is stopped fermenting when it reaches about 0.65% residual sugar, it is then fined, filtered and bottled. There is no ML, there is no bâtonnage, no stirring of the lees, there is no French or American oak aging. There are no toast flavors since there is no oak aging. I firmly believe we get the purest expression of the grape this way.
Riesling is a varietal which thrives on steep rocky hillsides—look at Alsace, Germany, etc. We’ve become known not just for the quality of our Riesling, but for its unique character—dry, full of flavor, mineral and fruit and even petrol nuances. It’s a wine that really and truly goes with everything. It’s also a wine that surprises people for how delicious it is, how versatile it is, and even how long-lived it can be. While it may not happen in my life time, I believe that Riesling will become recognized as the greatest and most versatile variety of all grape varieties. It’s all about Riesling for winemaker Stu. Read my review here.
Bonus Question: What’s the one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
I’ve been both an avid white water and lake canoeist. I’ve canoed the Trinity, Klamath and Sacramento Rivers many, many times. I’ve also canoed the Rogue and the Grande Ronde in Oregon and the lower Canyons of the Rio Grande. I’ve made a least a dozen trips into the Quetico Provincial Park, Canada, which is just north of Ely, Minnesota and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I’ve even canoed around Santa Catalina Island in Southern California. I love playing backgammon on the trips.