Convivial, ironic, iconoclastic, provocative, and, above all, delicious—Hertelendy is a full-on amplified departure from the Napa status quo.

Heavy Metal

Six years ago, I first came across Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon. It was during one of the largescale tastings hosted by Napa Valley Vintners. As I tasted a long line of Napa Cabernets in rapid succession, my brain slid each wine into its style category, which was at one end of the spectrum modern-styled elegant, edgy, and fresh, or at the other a serious, rich, old-school blockbuster. Either style can be great if the grapes are neither under nor overripe and the wine is made well. The 2015 Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon stopped me in my tracks. First, it was great. Big and intense, for sure, yet also bright and playful. With a tongue-in-cheek family coat of arms on the label—not taking oneself too seriously yet comfortable in one’s sense of history—this bold newcomer dismantled my Napa preconceptions.

“With our wines, we’re not trying to emulate other wineries,” said owner Ralph Hertelendy. “Rather, we’re pushing the envelope of power, opulence, and bold volcanic terroir while taming that beast with silky tannins and elegant finesse. To us, that’s the holy grail of mind-bending wines. When wineries try to make their wine as elegant as possible, it often lacks character.”

No one could accuse Ralph or his wines of lacking character.

Born in Berkeley and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, in the summer of 1996, when he was 15 years old, Ralph and his older brother got Eurorail passes and traveled around Western Europe. His time in Munich inspired him to return home and make beer in his parent’s basement.

“It resulted in one of the worst beers I had ever tasted,” remembers Ralph. “And although I loved the fermentation process of brewing, I knew making beer was probably not my calling. Fast forward a decade to 2006, I began making wines, once again, in my parent’s basement. I bought all the supplies from a local Berkeley store called The Oak Barrel, read all the winemaking books I could get a hold of at the time, and then leaned on my UC Davis oenologist friends who recently graduated. I made Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec, and what started out as a side hobby turned into a dream filled with an obsessive passion. I was hooked.”

"I continued fermenting grapes in my parent’s basement."

Ralph went on to study at the Court of Master Sommeliers, then worked a number of jobs in Napa, including as a winemaker’s assistant for Casey Flat Ranch and a sales representative for Del Dotto in St. Helena.

“All throughout this time, I continued fermenting grapes in my parent’s basement and improving my winemaking skills. In 2013, I was offered a harvest internship at Domaine de la Grave winery in Bordeaux. Up to that point, I had talked about starting my own label, and I never did. It was always the unattainable dream. I realized that in order to do it, I would need to either talk about it or be about it, so that summer, I turned down the internship opportunity in France to double down in Napa. That’s when I got the bank loan to get my vision off the ground and began interviewing potential consulting winemakers to help ensure that there were no gaps within the process. When I met Phillip Corallo-Titus (a consultant as well as the winemaker at Chappellet), he was like my sage Yoda and gave me the confidence and resources that I needed to take the plunge. As the old Jedi adage goes: ‘Do or do not, there is no try!’”

'Do or do not, there is no try!'

In 2015, Robert M. Parker, Jr. reviewed Ralph’s first 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon in the December Issue of The Wine Advocate, awarding it an impressive 95 points. For Ralph, there was no going back after this.

In March this year, I sat down with Ralph at the custom crush facility he works out of on Soda Canyon Road to taste his vinous life’s work thus far—thirty wines spread across nine vintages and six different labels. The purchased fruit sources for the 550 cases of that first vintage of 2013 Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon included Atlas Peak, Coombsville, and Silverado Bench. Then in 2014, Ralph went all-in and bought some vines.

“In 2014, I bought this vineyard lower down on Howell Mountain,” he said. “It’s in Napa Valley AVA, but only 35 feet from the Howell Mountain AVA border. The vineyard was planted in 1993 at an elevation of 1365 feet and is so steep it would be illegal to plant today. It’s been grandfathered in. I was so nervous about buying this vineyard. Then, as I stood there overlooking the site, wondering if I should do it, a hummingbird hovered in front of my face. I took this as an omen that I should buy this vineyard.”

Since then, the vineyard, named Rockwell Ridge, has been included in the flagship blend and has become the backbone of a new Merlot-based label called Signature Mountain Blend. A Chardonnay and three additional red wine labels have since joined the portfolio.

“Audere is the entry-level program,” said Ralph. “It retails for $75. Legend is the cream of the crop, just 2–4-barrel annual productions. This is predominately free-run juice. It’s the silkiest wines from the best blocks. 2016 was the first vintage made of this label.

Hertelendy has also started producing a small-lot Cabernet Franc, which has to be one of the coolest label designs out there.

“I met the president of Heavy Metal magazine when I was pouring my wine at the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival,” said Ralph. “So, we teamed up for the label design!”

With Ralph working tirelessly to refine, expand, and promote what he does, Hertelendy has come a long way in a very short space of time.

“We are constantly finding new ways to innovate, and through that, we lean on technology as much as possible,” commented Ralph. “Besides winemaking technology and new equipment, such as our optical sorter, one way that we make this evident is through our social media channels. We are also well-known for our artistically themed labels. We utilize modern-day technology to create a better experience for Hertelendy enthusiasts. Several of our labels feature hidden ‘Easter eggs’ that can advise on the proper serving temperatures of our wines using thermochromic ink, glow in the dark, or even entertain guests with augmented reality on their smartphones, where the label comes to life in the palm of your hands! In an industry that is sometimes considered to be lacking personality, we remind ourselves to have fun along the way and bring a down-to-earth approach to our wines.”