Tadeo Borchardt
Winemaker, Neyers Vineyards
Napa Valley, California, North America
Spotlight No. 23
When I came across Neyers Vineyards’ old-vine Carignan, I thought it would be interesting to bring it to the Priorat and taste it with some of my winemaking friends. The Neyers Carignan vines are over 130 years old, thanks to the phylloxera-resistant sandy soils of Evangelho Vineyard in Contra Costa County, California. Old-vine Priorat Carinyena is around 100 years old too. So I imported a few bottles in my suitcase and contacted Neyers’ winemaker, Tadeo Borchardt, to ask for more information on the vineyards. That is how we met.
My curiosity piqued comparison: Both Contra Costa and the Priorat are dry and hot, and their vines are more than a century old, with long, water-seeking roots. But their soils are totally different. The decomposed granite sand of Contra Costa and the schisty rock soils of the Priorat produce small, concentrated fruit with thick skins. The intrinsic character of a Carignan—fragrant, lively and complex with intense dark red fruit and structural balance—was present in both the wines. So the nuanced distinction between the two had to be coming from the soil.
The Priorat Carinyena’s classic mineral and herbs came through with a wildness I continue to be attracted to, even in the form of a perfectly elaborated wine. The Neyers was voluptuous and lively, seductively dancing around our palates with a subtle exotic spice—star anise, maybe. It was impossible to like one more than the other, but the differences were thrilling.
I shared this news with Tadeo, and we made a plan to get together to talk about his relationship with the vineyards and how he managed to coax such grace out of such gnarly old vines. The Neyers winery was a beautiful drive away from the action in Napa Valley. The further I went, the more the landscape returned to its natural state, more flora and fauna than cultivated vines. I was beginning to understand who I was dealing with.
Tadeo found his way to winemaking relatively late in life. He started working as an elementary-school teacher, but after a while he found himself searching for something else and tried working in a fine-dining restaurant. Everyone who makes wine eventually experiences a fateful moment, and the restaurant is where it happened for Tadeo. He met a man who was making wine in California. Tadeo asked if they could use some help during harvest. The answer was yes and Tadeo was off to work with Wells Guthrie at Copain Wines.
After a few years Tadeo wanted to explore a little and went to work in New Zealand. The night he returned to the US, he received an email from Ehren Jordan, winemaker at Neyers, offering him a job as his assistant. Ehren retired in 2004 and turned the helm over to Tadeo. Unencumbered by the methods taught in enology schools, Tadeo was free to follow his instincts, informed by the attentive observation skills of an elementary-school teacher. And he relies on growers whose relationship with the vines is as sensitive as his own, like Chuy Ordaz. But he does try to get to each vineyard at least once a month to know how the vintage is progressing. During harvest he visits them once or twice a week.
Camino (“journey” in Spanish) is Tadeo’s own brand, which he began in 2012 with grapes from some special Chardonnay and Cabernet vineyards. As always, the wines start in the vineyards. The Chardonnay vines are grown in the granitic rock and soil of the Santa Lucia Highlands, and the Cabernet comes from volcanic, iron-rich soils high up in the Mayacamas Mountains. Now he has added beautiful old-vine Grenache and Mourvèdre to his collection.
Tadeo is relaxed, as unflappable as he is content. He has no interest in being famous. He just loves what he does and is grateful he has found his way to doing it. Imagine a job that requires you are outside with nature, feeling it, translating it into something you can actually taste. Who could ask for more?
Thank you to Neyers Vineyards for the use of the circle photo of Tadeo above. The photo below is by Elizabeth Hecker.
