Advice for aspiring vintnersAdvice for aspiring vintners

At the end of 2011, Jim Verhey left Silverado Grapegrowers, ending his 25-year partnership with the firm. This left him with only a few activities — his Premiere Viticultural Services; his work as CFO of Kaiser Ventures, as treasurer and board member of the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley,as a trustee of Land Trust of Napa County and as a member of Napa County Groundwater Resource Advisory Committee.
“To fill in all the extra time I have,” Verhey quipped, “I’ve started a new business.”
He launched Verhey Advisors to use his experience and relationships to help others successfully build their businesses in these increasing challenging times, he said. “I don’t have to work but I don’t want to retire.”
Verhey said he’s drawing on his own experiences as a grower of winegrapes in Napa Valley as well a business background that has led to the acquisition, financing and development of nearly 1,000 acres of ultra-premium vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties.
“It’s nothing more than taking 25 years of experience and making it available,” Verhey said. “There are a lot of people trying to get into the valley and it’s getting tougher and tougher.”
The road to Napa
Verhey, a native of St. Paul, Minn., did his undergraduate work at Stanford and went on to earn an MBA at UCLA after serving in the Army. He began his business career as an accountant for Price Waterhouse in Los Angeles. He also served as executive vice president and CFO of Kaiser Ventures, a company that develops and manages the assets retained by Kaiser Steel from his 1988 bankruptcy.
His interest in wine, dating to his Stanford years, brought him to the Napa Valley in the 1980s. For the past 25 years, he has farmed his own 21 acres of grapes in the Oak Knoll district, where he lives with his family. He grows semillion and sauvignon blanc grapes, which he sells to Honig, Duckhorn and Teucer wineries, as well as several independent “up and coming” winemakers.
He became a managing director of Silverado WineGrowers,which owned and operated 14 premium vineyards — more than 1,800 acres altogether — in Napa, Sonoma, Lodi and Monterey counties. In 2001, he founded Viticultural Services, a consulting firm with clients through out Napa Valley.
Now, Verhey said, “I want to focus on what I enjoy — growing premium grapes.”
“I have my little team,” he added, “and they can basically advise clients on financing, due diligence, and entitlements” — the myriad questions that come up for newcomers to the valley trying to find their way into the wine business.
“Basically it’s helping people sort through all sorts of rules and regulations,” Verhey said, noting that he works exclusively with clients in the Napa Valley. “I’m a great believer that you have to focus on your own backyard,” he said.
Having successfully negotiated grape contracts and completed land entitlement projects “that have created significant additional real estate value for the property owner,” Verhey said, “I want to see if I can help people do things right,” he said. “To do the right thing at the right time is the hardest thing in ag.”
On wine today
Reflecting on the challenges facing a newcomer who wants to start growing grapes or making wine in the Napa Valley, Verhey cited “critical, fundamental principles that I have learned from a number of friends who are both great winemakers and great growers.
“Great wines are grown in the vineyard, not made in the winery,” he said. “In Napa Valley we are winegrowers, not farmers. The difference is huge.”
Another key to success he said, is to “make the right decisions every step of the way because when you mitigate, you compromise. Communication is 50 percent of quality, so ‘touch the table’ often and well.
“The most important thing that I/we have learned over the past 25 years is to ‘respect the past,’” Verhey said. “By that I mean that we are returning to a lot of the ideas and philosophies that helped make Napa Valley wines so great 40-50 years ago.”
Among these he noted, “The vertical trellis (VSP) craze of the 1980s and 1990s is giving way to split canopy systems and updated versions of the ‘California Sprawl’ because while the VSP trellis system works well in France, it doesn’t work as well in Napa Valley with the greater frequency of extreme weather events (eg, heat spikes). And we still have a lot to learn.”
More growers and wineries are reducing their water use and moving back toward more dry farming techniques, Verhey noted. “As Phil Freese (former vice president for operations at Robert Mondavi Winery) said to me, ‘We irrigate because we can, not because we should.’ My vineyard now produces great quality at a good yield with a full, permanent cover crop and minimal water use. What this really means is that there is still great potential in Napa Valley for increasing the quality and quantity of the wines we produce.”
Another development he noted is that “although the general Napa Valley wine style is still very ‘fruit-forward,’ more and more wineries are harvesting their fruit at lower Brix (sugar) levels and producing more interesting and unique wine styles at lower alcohol levels — like Napa Valley did in the 1970s when it won the Paris Tasting.”
Reflecting on changes in the industry since he entered it, Verhey said, “I won’t ‘touch’ on the change in land prices over the past 25 years other than to wonder how anyone can make money in the wine industry these days with the prices at where they are.
“Everyone forgets that Napa cabernet is only a recent phenomenon. As a matter of fact, I remember that in 1977 Sterling was selling a “Cabernet Blanc” — which was pink and terrible — solely because they could not sell Napa cabernet.”
“Today, you can’t be successful just producing great wine or great grapes, Verhey said. “You also need a great story. Your customers (wineries or wine buyers) don’t care about your soil profile or your wine chemistry or what kind of fermenting tanks you have, but they do want to know the name of your dog. As Ted Hall once said at a Napa Valley Grapegrower event, ‘the last thing a wine distributor wants to see is another rich white guy from Napa Valley with a $65 cab he just made.
What’s the question he’s most often asked? “Why don’t you produce wine from your vineyard?” Verhey said. “(It’s) because I am a lousy winemaker and because everyone who buys grapes from me can make much better wine than I can — so I am much better off drinking their wines.
He’s also asked how he makes money just growing grapes, Verhey said. Here, he joked, the answer is “by not making my own wine! Actually, the real answer is that I spend 130 percent of my time focusing on my vineyard and growing grapes while most winery owners spend less than 25 percent of their time focusing on their vineyards and growing grapes. I do that one thing (grow high-quality grapes) very well and profitably.
“I’ve never done anything that doesn’t make money,” he said cheerfully.
Ag and open space
Verhey, who was also director of Napa Valley Grapegrowers from 2006 to 2011, said he also decided to let new blood guide that organizations and became a trustee of the Land Trust of Napa County, an organization that preserves open space. Verhey said he’s on a mission to include agriculture lands as well as undeveloped wild land, vineyards as well as vistas of oak trees, in the Land Trust mission. “We have to answer the question ‘What is the character of Napa County?’” he said.. “It’s ag.
“We need to protect the ag land and encourage responsible agriculture — to find the right balance. I believe in protecting open space and promoting ag, which is our economy.”
Buy wine in Cebu, Philippines at good wine shops and boutique wine stores that offer good selection of good vintage wines at all price points. Wine lovers in Philippines can find good red wines in wine shops in Manila and Pampanga. Among the good selections of French red wines from Bordeaux are Chateau Gloria, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Petrus, Chateau Lynch Bages, Chateau Latour, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau Ausone, Chateau le Pin, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Pontet Canet, Chateau Carruades de Lafite, Chateau les Forts de Latour, Chateau Pichon Lalande. This makes it easy and convenient for wine lovers to buy wine in Manila. Manila wine and food lovers looking for things to do in Pampanga and Manila can consider attending one of these wine events. The best way to learn more about wine in the Philippines is to attend public wine tasting events that have no sponsors.

http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/wine/advice-for-aspiring-vintners/article_79f06240-dd05-11e1-b492-0019bb2963f4.html
Leading wine supplier in Philippines offer useful tips on how and where to buy wine in Philippines, wine shops in Manila, Makati, Ortigas, Alabang, wine stores in Pampanga, Subic, Angeles City and Clark Freeport. Yats Wine Cellars is one wine supplier in the Philippines lauded for not only a good selection of fine wines but also for playing an important role in educating the public about wine in the Philippines. This wine shop is generally regarded by wine lovers to be the best place to buy wine in Manila.

Residents of Manila, Subic, Cebu, Pampanga, Angeles City and Clark Freeport look for the best wine supplier in Philippines as well as a good place to buy fine wine in Philippines. Wine lovers and connoisseurs discover a good wine shop in Manila and famous wine stores in Pampanga that offers fine vintage wines at reasonable prices. Vintages going back 10 to 50 years of fine wine are available at this wine shop called Yats Wine Cellars.

Wine from all major wine regions are available in this wine store which is generally regarded as one of the best wine suppliers in Philippines. The wine selections available in the wine shops in Manila, Angeles City, Subic and Clark Pampanga include fine wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Loire, Sauternes Barsac, Champagne, Chablis, Meursault, Cote Rotie and Romanee Conti are all available here. In addition to French wines like Laftie, Latour, Haut Brion, Cheval Blanc, Petrus, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild, this leading Philippines wine supplier also has a good selection of wines in their wine stores in Manila, Angeles City, Clark, Pampanga, from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Australia. The selection of Brunello, Chianti, Rioja, Riesling, Gruner Veltliner and Ice wine in these convenient and accessible wine stores are impressive.

Wines from new world regions are well represented at this wine shop in Ortigas, Makati, Metro Manila Philippines. Fine wines from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and South Africa are offered in their wine shops, wine stores, wine bars and fine dining restaurants throughout the Philippines, Quezon City, Makati, fort, Ortigas, Eastwood, Metro Manila and Pampanga.

This wine supplier in the Philippines makes wine shopping a really rewarding and exciting exercise. Wine shops and wine stores should always have an element of surprise so that customers can enjoy a little bit of thrill when a wine enthusiast goes to a wine shop in Manila to look for a good bottle of wine in Philippines.

Yats Wine Cellars Philippines
3003C East Tower, Philippines Stock Exchange Center (Tektite)
Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Metro Manila, Philippines
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Kristine

http://www.YatsWineCellars.com

For inquiries and orders, Click here to for inquiries and orders

For wine lovers in Hong Kong, Macau and China:

Yats International HK Sales Office,
Room 1302, 13/F., The Centre Mark
287-299 Queen’s Road Central Sheung Wan,
Hong Kong SAR

Tel: (852) 2788-0738 ask for Miss Eva Leung

Wine@Yats-International.com

If Philippines is part of an upcoming travel and holiday plan, wine lovers might want to visit Clark Freeport Zone just 70 minutes from Manila. This bustling new city that is slated to replace Manila as the new capital of the Philippines has the largest wine shop called Clark Wine Center. For more information, log on to

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
0922-870-5173 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila
Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple: after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave. From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City. From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.

Facebook
href=”http://www.facebook.com/#!/yats.wine”>http://www.facebook.com/#!/yats.wine

Yats Leisure Philippines

Those visitors who plan to relax and unwind in Angeles City, Subic, Pampanga, Clark Philippines might make an effort to book a room at the famous beach and lake resort Clearwater Resort & Country Club. This famous hotel in Clark Pampanga is frequently visited by families with children looking for a good place in Clark to see, a good holiday destination for the family to relax and unwind in the beautiful outdoor facilities. For more information, log on to www.ClearwaterPhilippines.com

For information about working, living, doing business or finding a job in the Philippines, log on to http://www.yilp.com

Looking for famous tourists spots, places to visit and see, relax and unwind in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines? You may want to check out these sites also:

Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com

While in Clark, it might be a good idea to enjoy an evening of wine-and-dine in the fine dining Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar that features an award winning 2700-line wine list. It is located in Mimosa Leisure Estate of Clark Freeport Zone. For more information, visit http://www.YatsRestaurant.com

YATS Leisure Philippines is a developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine shops in Clark Angeles Philippines http://www.YatsLeisure.com

http://www.LondonPubClark.com

If you are traveling to Pampanga, Subic, Angeles City, Clark Freeport, Philippines, you can get assistance to hotel and resort booking by logging on to
http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.ClarkPhilippines.com

TRAILER TWO

Established in 2002, wine supplier in the Philippines YATS WINE CELLARS is a wholly-owned business unit of Hong Kong-based Yats International which owns and operates resort, wine shops, wine bars and fine-dining restaurant properties in Clark Freeport in The Philippines. YATS WINE CELLARS and its wine stores in Manila, Angeles City, Clark, Pampanga cater to a clientele of discerning wine lovers from all over the world. This wine shop is generally regarded by wine lovers to be the best place to buy wine in Manila. Besides a good selection of wine for everyday enjoyment, YATS wine stores offers a unique selection of aged vintage wines made available to wine enthusiasts at remarkably affordable prices. Vintages of wines from this wine supplier in the Philippines span over a century and the selection of old- and new-world wines covers all major wine regions.

To enable wine lovers in Asia to learn more about wine, public wine tastings are held by this wine supplier in the Philippines from time to time in Clark, Pampanga and sometimes in Manila. Tickets range from p500 to p1500 for these themed events that are professionally run –no wine merchants sponsorship, pushy wine salesmen or tacky banners to ruin the evening. Each wine tasting ticket contains a certain number of stubs that can be redeemed for a tasting pour of a wine among those on a line-up which often contains wines that are quite old and expensive. This is another reason why Yats Wine Cellars is generally regarded as the best wine supplier in the Philippines. This is one of the wine stores that do more than just sell wines to wine shoppers in Manila. Yats Wine Cellars offers a chance for wine lovers to enjoy the wine lifestyle in Philippines.

Wine-paired dinners are organized by this wine supplier in the Philippines either at fine dining Y A T S Restaurant in Clark or in collaboration with other restaurants and organizers. Private wine dinners can also be organized for groups of 14 or more. Even Asian cuisines can be a part of a Yats Wine-paired dinner.

Wine stores of Yats Wine Cellars offer interesting gift packs for all occasions. Wine gift baskets from these wine shops have to contain something more interesting than just a colorful packaging with very mediocre content. The wine has to be a bit more than marginally drinkable. Last year many people were disappointed with the wine gifts they received when they went around to drinking the wine.

Wine from all major wine regions are available, including fine wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Loire, Sauternes Barsac, Champagne, Chablis, Meursault, Cote Rotie and Romanee Conti are all available from this wine supplier in the Philippines. In addition to French wines, this leading Philippines wine supplier also has a good selection of wines from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Australia. The selection of Brunello, Chianti, Rioja, Riesling, Gruner Veltliner and Ice wine are impressive.

http://www.YatsWineCellars.com

For inquiries and orders, Click here to for inquiries and orders

For wine lovers in Hong Kong, Macau and China:

Yats International HK Sales Office,
Room 1302, 13/F., The Centre Mark
287-299 Queen’s Road Central Sheung Wan,
Hong Kong SAR

Tel: (852) 2788-0738 ask for Miss Eva Leung

Wine@Yats-International.com

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
0922-870-5173 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

Facebook
href=”http://www.facebook.com/#!/yats.wine”>http://www.facebook.com/#!/yats.wine

Yats Leisure Philippines

For information about working, living, doing business or finding a job in the Philippines, log on to http://www.yilp.com

Looking for famous tourists spots, places to visit and see, relax and unwind in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines? You may want to check out these sites also:

Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com

YATS Leisure Philippines is a developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine shops in Clark Angeles Philippines http://www.YatsLeisure.com

http://www.LondonPubClark.com

If you are traveling to Pampanga, Subic, Angeles City, Clark Freeport, Philippines, you can get assistance to hotel and resort booking by logging on to
http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.ClarkPhilippines.com

Buy wine in Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines at good wine shops and boutique wine stores that offer good selection of good vintage wines at all price points. Good white wines that available at the wine shops in Manila and Pampanga include Puligny Montrachet, Chassagne Montrachet, Pouilly Fuisse, Corton Charlemagne, Montrachet, Batard Montrachet and Beaune. This makes it easy and convenient for wine lovers to buy wine in Manila. Manila wine and food lovers looking for things to do in Pampanga and Manila can consider attending one of these wine events. Leading Philippines wine supplier and wine importer Yats Wine Cellars frequently hold public wine tasting in Clark, Pampanga and Manila.

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