Gandona Estate

Gandona is a winery built on a property which has a long well-regarded vineyard history in Napa Valley. This is Pritchard Hill, a small hillside part of Napa Valley in the Vaca mountains, characterized by iron rich, rocky and red soils. It was named after Charles Pritchard who homesteaded the top of this knoll and planted vines in the 1880s (where Chappellet’s winery is located). Gandona’s own property was actually homesteaded even earlier than that – in 1862. Chappellet was the first winery on Pritchard Hill – founded in 1968. However, the footprint for what is now Gandona’s vineyard was planted not long after in the early 1970s by Pritchard Hill winery pioneer, Bob Long. When he planted the first grapes on site, this was well before Napa introduced a county ordinance in the late 1990s prohibiting vineyard plantings on steep hillside slopes and or terracing. Some of the steepest vines on Gandona Estate approach slopes of 40%.

We met with Long on this property many years ago. When the Longs moved here in the mid 1960s they found old stills and other wine making evidence buried in piles of debris. From talking to old timers, they discovered that during prohibition, customers from the San Francisco Bay Area used to drive up here to buy black market brandy and illegally produced wine. The first vintage bottled under Long Vineyards was in 1978. Winemaker Sandy Belcher spent 27 years making the wines for Long Vineyards.

Proprietors, Manuel Pires and his wife Cristina are both from Portugal; Manuel is from the Douro region in northern Portugal. He moved to the United States in 1971. In the early to mid 1980s Manuel and his brother Fernando took over Morse Watchmans Inc., (a company that dates back to 1882) and through a number of innovative micro-processing and electronic key control systems, built this into a successful security systems company with primarily casino clients located worldwide but also numerous others including airports, hospitals, universities, museums, sports arenas, transportation, hotels, private residences and prisons.

Fernando was CEO of this Oxford, Connecticut based company until he and Manuel sold Morse Watchmans Inc to Concordville, PA based TouchPoint, Inc., in December 2021. Its headquarters are located on the appropriately named Morse Road in a business park in the middle of the country. The closest landmark is the nearby Waterbury-Oxford Airport. And the company also maintains an office in Notthingham, UK.

Manuel initially visited Napa in 1976. Over time as he describes it, “my visits increased significantly” – he would visit at least once a year in the 1980s and by the 1990s he was visiting every few months from his home in Connecticut. He became more serious about acquiring premium property. He was attracted to the hillsides, perhaps influenced by spending significant time in the hills of northern Portugal.

After searching for hillside locations this property was brought to his attention; he and Cristina purchased it in the spring of 2006. At the time the proeprty was planted to 14 acres of Chardonnay. The property is 120 acres with less than 20 acres planted. It ranges in elevation from about 900 to 1,100 feet and is usually above the fog line.

Morse Watchmans Inc. Oxford, Connecticut

During his childhood, Manuel spent his summers on his grandfather’s farm, located near the village of Maçores in the Douro region, not far from the Spain border; this area is known for its Port wine. This gorgeous part of the country feels ‘old’; it is dotted with small picturesque villages where farming is still a way of life. The family used to have a home next to Preseta Square in the center of Maçores. In 2012 Manuel helped fully restore both the inside and outside of the old church in town. A family member, Antonio Fernandes owns Quinta do Vale da Perdiz, a winery perched on a hill above the small town of Torre de Moncorvo. Quinta do Vale da Perdiz is known for its Cistus bottlings. View our photographs at the end of this review of Maçores, Torre de Moncorvo and Quinta do Vale da Perdiz.

Manuel’s grandfather’s farm was called Quinta Fraga do Arco in tribute to a natural rock formation on the property. It was on this farm that he was introduced to farming including the backbone of Mediterranean crops: grapes, almonds, olives and chestnuts. The name Gandona is an honor to heritage – it was his grandfather’s nickname. It also translates from Portuguese to English as “humble man”.

His grandfather passed away in 1974 and subsequently the property was sold. However, sometimes things come full circle in life. In 2009 Manuel and Cristina purchased the property that held so many memories for him – and they both began restoring it. Their Douro property is approximately 25 acres and contains some vines dating back to the 1920s.

The first Gandona vintage dates from 2007. While there was a winery on site already from the previous owners, the Longs, the first few Gandona vintages were made off site. Manuel oversaw the construction of a state-of-the-art winery and initial 5,000 square feet of caves built on the hillside; now their estate fruit travels merely minutes away to be processed. An additional 5,000 square feet of caves was later drilled bringing the total cave capacity to 10,000 square feet. Winemaker, Philippe Melka made the wines for many years; with a degree in Geology and in wine making, 20 plus years working in Napa and an exceptional palate, his services are much in demand in the valley and beyond.

Philippe has been voted American Winemaker of the year by Robert Parker in Food & Wine Magazine. He is drawn towards working with Napa hillside vineyards. As he mentioned to us several years ago, “hillside vineyards are more of a challenge”. It is always a fine line to craft wines with that special elegance and softness ready to be consumed now (especially from mountain sites), while at the same time ensuring the wine has the acidity, fruit and structure to be aged and not lose its own “personality” – in say 10 years.

Nearby vineyard neighbors include Melanson, Colgin and Chappellet. Cult powerhouse, Bryant Family is on the next ridge over. While only about a 20-minute drive from floor of the Napa Valley, this slice of Napa feels worlds removed. The roads and driveways are not much more than narrow cuts in the steep hillsides surrounded by either vineyards or native vegetation. Both roads, homes, and vineyards are perched on the edges of these rocky steep hillsides.

If views alone were indicative of quality, this vineyard certainly would produce top fruit. It has the quintessential Pritchard Hill vistas overlooking rolling hills, beautiful Lake Hennessey and even glimpses of the Napa Valley floor far in the distance. But views alone cannot be factored in for quality; the soils here are rocky and contain a reddish iron oxide produced hue that is well known on Pritchard Hill.

The majority of their vineyard is in a unique bowl which contains much deeper soils than found on the rocky outcrops and knolls in this part of Napa. As a result, Gandona is able to allow much of their vineyard to either be dry farmed or grow with very little water use. They stress the vines but do not overstress them – part of this ethos is to harvest the grapes earlier in the year to captures a resulting freshness in the wines. The property is 116 acres of which 17 are planted to vines ranging from 900 to 1100 feet in elevation. A number of varieties are planted here including the oldest vines on the property – Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and one acre of Chardonnay.

Instead of using herbicides to control cover crop around the vines, a ‘torch’ is mounted on tractors and burns the weeds growing around each vine trunk. And to mitigate against sunshine, shade clothes are placed on one side of the vine rows starting in early August. Over the years their vineyard has been organized into smaller blocks. And this corresponds to the cellar where tank size has decreased. Today they use 10 2-ton stainless steel tanks as part of their winemaking program, each equipped with an automatic pump-over system used during fermentation.

Select Wines
Whites
Chardonnay
Some of the early well regarded wines from Pritchard Hill where white wines; for example, their Chardonnay and Rieslings of the 1970s became much sought after from the original Long Vineyards on this property. Nearby David Arthur produced award winning Chardonnay. Today it is a different story – the whites on “the hill” have been replaced by reds – primarily Cabernet Sauvignon. However, their small Chardonnay block is inadvertently a historical nod to this variety’s original “roots” on Pritchard Hill – Chardonnay certainly is not an economically viable grape to grow in this region but Manuel enjoys having an estate white wine to complement their primary red wines.

The 2022 Gadona Estate Ritchie Vineyards Chardonnay is deep gold in color; on the bouquet there are aromas of honeysuckle, melon, beeswax, mandarin orange and butterscotch. We love when a bouquet is balanced, such as this bottling. On the palate there are flavors of melon, apricot, peach, golden delicious apples. The texture is a hallmark on this bottling; the mouth feels offers a creamy and waxy texture feel which without the accompanying bright acidity might be perceived as being more viscous. But the lift of acidity keeps the palate lively and refreshing from the entry through the finish. The finish extends for quite some time and is richly flavored. The oak is a complementary character, rather than a dominating one as California Chardonnay is often perceived as. The star of the show here is clearly the vineyard and the variety.

The only wine Gandona produced in 2020 due to the resulting smoke from the regional bush fires was their Chardonnay.

The 2018 Gandona Chardonnay, Ritchie Vineyards Russian River Valley. This wine is medium gold in the glass; offers a bouquet that has a lot of depth with aromas of baking spices, Golden Delicious apple and as the wine evolves in the glass, offers some tropical fruit notes including of passionfruit and papaya. The palate offers some light rounded texture, flavors of red apple and pear, along with an appealing brightness from start to finish. This is a beautiful wine.

Reds
Encosta
Encosta in Portuguese translates into English as sloped or hillside land – prime terroir for vines. Regardless of vintage, this wine always over delivers for the price.

The 2019 Encosta Cabernet Sauvignon is 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; on the bouquet there are scents of blackberry, dark plum, dark cherry, boysenberry and Persian mulberry. And additional notes of dark cocoa powder, tobacco spice, smoked sage and darker baking spices. The palate is darkly fruited with flavors of cherry, blackberry, boysenberry and dark plum. Its acidity keeps the palate nimble and light on its feet despite the serious texture to following on the finish. It lingers with notes of dried herbs, dust, a pink peppercorn spice and toasted cedar. The pixelated, grainy, gritty and firmly gripping tannins fully coat all crack and crevices on the palate; their drying texture persist for quite some time on the finish. This wine has plenty of power and it has loads of life ahead of it with the proper cellaring. Pair with a well marbled Wagyu steak. This bottling is consistently bright regardless of vintage.

The 2017 Encosta is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon; it is dark ruby in color. The bouquet offers aromas of petrichor (the smell produced after a long dry period when the first rain hits the dry and parched earth), dried tobacco and as the wine continues to breathe, it shows aromas of dark plum. This wine offers mouthwatering acidity and finishes with dark and gravelly textured tannins along with a hint of dried tobacco leaf.

The 2010 Encosta was sourced from younger vines in the terracing towards the top of their vineyard. This is the first Encosta vintage. The nose is bright and lively showing more red tone fruit aromas rather than darker fruits and as it continues to evolve notes of mocha are revealed. The initial entry is rounded; the palate maintains a tender balance between acidity, fruit and structure. Based on the pedigree of this wine – it is priced quite reasonably.

Cabernet Franc
The 2019 Gandona Estate Meia (meaning middle in Portuguese) Cabernet Franc is 100% varietal and was sourced from two blocks on the property. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the elegant, dark fruited and spice filled bouquet offers scents of dark raspberry, blackberry, tobacco spice, old cedar box, freshly tilled soil and dried herbs including sage and bay leaf. This wine is remarkably balanced 6 years post vintage. The palate is dark and savory with flavors of blackberry, dark cherry, black plum accompanied by tobacco spice, old cedar, crushed peppercorn, dried tobacco and a lingering dusty character which persists beyond the fruit on the finish. The tannins are resolved and rounded at this age – they fully coat the palate. Pair with a lighter cut of beef, perhaps a top round roast and a BBQ. Savory. This wine is not always Cabernet Franc; in 2017 it was made with Touriga Nacional.

Gandona
Gandona is their flagship wine and is always made from free run juice (as opposed to pressed juice).

The 2019 Gandona Cabernet Sauvignon 100% varietal. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet expresses some of the inherent varietal Cabernet Sauvignon characteristics including a red chili spice, a hint of jalapeno, floral notes including violets and lilacs and petrichor, the resulting aroma from rain on dry earth or rock. These are the aromatic attributes that contribute character rather than more linear fruitiness that is expressed when this variety is bred and harvested for over ripeness. And there are scents of red plum, dark raspberry and blackberry. On the palate there are flavors of blackberry, boysenberry, Santa Rosa plum, and red cherries. The finish lingers with a light herbal and savory character including dried herbs. The tannins exert a moderate and dense feel but not heavy grip paralleling the fruit with a long-lasting drying and chalky character.

The 2018 Gandona is an exceptional wine; it is dark ruby in color with purplish tinges on the rim and very opaque. The bouquet offers aromas of dark plum and blackberry. This wine is filled both brightness and longevity across the palate. The finish lingers with flavors of red cherry and red plum along with chewy gripping tannins and a note of dust. This is a classic example of why people gravitate towards big, but balanced Napa Valley mountainside grown Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

The 2011 Gandona Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 2) is deep ruby and opaque; before we tried this wine 14 years post vintage we already knew that Pritchard Hill produced some of our favorite 2011 red wines. The bouquet is elegant and earth driven with aromas of petrichor, tobacco spice, red chili, dark raspberry, red cherry, red plums and currant. Even all these years later, it still smells like the vintage – or as we like to say the ‘2011 character’. The palate is fresh, bright and vivacious; in a blind tasting we might have a hard time identifying its age, but we could clearly identify its lighter attributes both in terms of flavor and texture. On the palate there are flavors of red cherry, red plum, currant, red chili, smoked sage and dried thyme. The gravelly tannins sport a light to moderate grip. The grapes were picked by the second week of September; they were harvested in between the uncommon early and strong rain storms. Gandona ran the tractors for 18 hours straight including over night in between storms to blow air on the vines, row by row as they did not want the water to accumulate on the grapes in order to prevent Botrytis. This wine has reached its plateau at this age and will probably stay at this plateau for at least 10-15 years more.

The 2010 Gandona Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was the last vintage for their original label design – featuring a simple red ‘G’ on the front label. This wine is medium to deep ruby. We tasted this 15 years post vintage; the nose shows some bottle bouquet with scents of sweet pipe tobacco, suede, dark raspberry, red licorice, dried cherry and blackberry. The first word we used to describe its cadence across the palate was balance. There is plenty of fruit here; this wine is both a savory and bright expression of the vintage. On the palate there are flavors of dark raspberry, dried cherries, currant and a lingering note of dried tobacco leaf. The palate is more red fruited than dark. Lingers red fruited with plenty of dried herbs, a dusty character and grainy and still gritty tannins. Their textural persistent presence dominates after the fruit has dropped off. This wine is incredibly fresh and youthful. This was the last vintage at Gandona that winemaker Julian Fayard worked on.

Frago do Arco
Based on Manuel’s heritage, it makes sense that Gandona would produce a Port styled wine. Almost one half an acre was planted to the Portuguese variety, Touriga Nacional. This is a rare variety indeed in Napa – most likely they are the only winery on Pritchard Hill who has ever grown this variety. It is a notoriously difficult variety to grow but is thriving in the rocky red soil of their vineyard. Compared to Cabernet Sauvignon and other traditional varieties in the valley, it is a leafy variety – dense in foliage with large leaves. This wine is fermented in a wooden open top cask.

During our initial visit the blends had just been put together for the 2010 vintage which has now been released (as of 2015). Aromatically this variety is generous – on the palate it exudes structure and viscosity. Based on the components we tried, this will certainly be a wine worth pursuing. And like the other wines produced from the estate, this will also be very limited. Note: we later tried the finished 2010 vintage, the Fraga do Arco named after a unique natural arch rock on Manuel’s property in the Douro Valley. The wine has an interesting bouquet including wild oregano intermingled with sweet aromas. This wine has a very nice mouth feel along with an underlying chalky velvet feel.

The 2013 Gandona Fraga do Arco is garnet in color with some brickish color on the edges of the rim in the glass; this wine shows an appealing sweetness on the notes with dried herbs, a subtle hint of mint and assorted sweet baking spices. As it opens, reveals toffee and milk cholate. Shows a supple texture across the palate with a richness of flavor. This wine is hard to put down. It is primarily sold direct but may be available at Napa Wine & Cigar in downtown Napa for tastings.

Gandona Coffee
Manuel and Cristina would often visit Hawaii. During their trips to Kona (the ‘big’ island) they discovered property for sale within a short drive from the Kona airport. A 95 acre piece of property located at about 2,500 feet above sea level was already planted to 7 acres of coffee and about 10 acres of large Eucalyptus trees. Their offer was accepted; and as Manuel admits, “we ended up in the coffee business”. Since their acquisition they have significantly increased the coffee plantings; today the property is planted to about 80 acres of coffee plants.

They produce their own coffee, originally as Gandona but have since transitioned the name and look of the packing to Nunulu, a Hawaiian word that refers to a particular specie of bird. The coffee is sold direct to consumer through memberships and also on Amazon. In addition to producing their own coffee, the beans are sent to a private mill for processing and then sold wholesale to other coffee producers.

Their coffee has already been awarded; in 2024 it earned 2nd place in the prestigious Kona Heritage Award at the 52nd Annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival Cupping Competition.

Other Ventures
Manuel is involved with Wing Drive; it was founded in 2021. Both the companies’ CEO and CTO were involved in car accidents caused by fatigued drivers. This software is an AI-powered driver safety solution built for mobile devices. It has been pilot tested with Breezit and also with Uber. It is a stand alone system which alerts drivers for fatigue and other driver distractions. And it is available OEM to various car manufacturers. It is already being used by Paolo Duarte trucking, based in Portugal. For more information visit: www.wingdriver.com

And he is also involved with Meter.me, a data collection and monitoring service for wells and reservoirs or other holding ponds. The system measures total rainfall and uses AI to help determine patterns as they accumulate data. And rather than running on the internet or using the cloud, it runs on their own extranet platform with stations or also called motes that communicate directly with each other using long-range, low-power IoT networks. And they can be powered by wind or solar, great for remote locations where electricity is non existent.

The system provides current photographs of a site, total remaining capacity and is used in a variety of applications ranging from vineyards to farms. One client owns 8,000 acres in Colorado and raises cattle. The system closely monitors all the watering stations for the animals providing real time data on how much water remains. Texas is one of their larger markets. For more information, visit: www.meter.me

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Visits by appointment are for serious wine enthusiasts and collectors. Tours usually include a short walk to a vineyard overlook and a quick walk through the winery. Note the intriguing tile work in the room where the tasting occurs; this is a Portuguese layout referred to as Calçada Portuguesa and was the inspiration for the image that appears on the Gandona wine labels. Often Manuel will stop by to say hi to guests.

Total production of all their wines each year is around 1,500 cases with approximately half of their production the Encosta bottling. Their largest every production to date was in 2012 (2,500 cases between all their wines). Sometimes library wines are released to members. For more information and to join their mailing list, please visit www.gandona.com

Winery

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Maçores, Portugal

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