Ru Vango

Ru Vango Winery is formerly known as Kieu Hoang Winery; the name and branding changes were made in early 2022. The name Ru Vango is perhaps a play on words with Ru referring to ‘rue’ in French as meaning road and Vango possibly referring to the artist Van Gogh, a place where art and wine intersect. Since 2021, Ru Vango Winery is owned by Garden Grove (Orange County) based Dr. Michael Dao (wife Linh) of Dao Medical Group, a health care clinic servicing the community of Garden Grove. The first wines bottled under Ru Vango were a 2017 Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon followed by a 2020 Chardonnay and a rosé. And the label has significantly changed since the wines were bottled under Kieu Hoang; it is now an image of bird similar to the look of a phoenix.

Prior to Dao’s ownership, the winery was owned by Kieu Hoang, an immigrant to the United States in the mid 1970s from Vietnam. Based in Los Angeles, he founded and built a successful pharmaceuticals company (focusing on blood plasmas) doing business both in the United States and in China. He became interested in wine – especially as it related to wellness. Kieu Hoang used to own for former Guilliams Winery on Spring Mountain. He later sold that to Bill and Jane Ballentine of William Cole Winery. They have since renamed the property to Abditory Estate.

The Kieu Hoang wine brand was founded in 2012, before Mr. Hoang purchased this property, with wines initially only exported to China. They were making both Napa Valley, California designated and also a wine from Italy. Their packaging and bottle shape was some of the most unique and innovative we have seen; they were available in different colors, creative shapes and sizes. Each bottle was essentially a piece of artwork. Also, of note the hundreds of tiny circles that appeared on the Kieu Hoang wine labels; these were a representation of what plasma looks like under a microscope. And one might also construe them as being images of tiny grapes.

And for several years, Chinese actress Li Bing Bing was a spokesperson for the Kieu Hoang Wines and her image appeared in a number of their promotional materials at the winery and in an advertising campaign they initially ran at several area airports.

Prior to Kieu Hoang’s ownership, this was home to Michael Mondavi Family Estate. And before that it was Mahoney Vineyards, owned by Carneros winemaking pioneer, Francis Mahoney, whose current operation, Carneros Wine Company is based only about 1/2 a mile from Ru Vango Winery. During Kieu Hoang’s ownership, a number of decorations were added inside and outside the hospitality center. The most prominent of these was the large wine bottle artwork which was located outside near the parking lot. This was in the shape of a wine bottle but was made up of many normal size bottles. A massive stump of a Eucalyptus tree used to greet visitors as they entered the tasting room.

The hospitality center houses beautiful art from Vietnam born and Los Angeles based, Daniel Winn through a partnership with Winn Slavin Fine Art gallery in Beverly Hills. Dr. Dao is friends with Winn; walking into this space at times, feels like an art gallery as works of art rotate at times. Dr. Dao owns an impressive collection of Salvador Dali etchings; this collection known as Les Chants de Maldoror, were on display during our latest visit to the winery.

Ru Vango is located about 2 miles from busy Highway 12/121; being caught in traffic is the ideal excuse to take a break and visit the winery as reservations are not required for visitation. This 30-acre site is surrounded by rolling hills planted with vineyards including 10 acres to Pinot Noir, easily seen from the deck behind the hospitality center, and 6 acres of Chardonnay. Their vineyards are California Land Stewardship Institute certified as Fish Friendly Farming and Napa Green Certified Land. This is the quintessential looking Carneros property.

The hospitality center is spacious, elegant and was completely redesigned after Kieu Hoang took over the ownership. Howard Backen, was a prominent Napa wine country architect (died 2024) and was hired to help with the redesign and upgrade of the hospitality center. Too many tasting rooms in the valley are cluttered; this one is refreshingly not setup that way. Weather permitting visitors can relax in the courtyard next to the entrance of the hospitality center or on the deck overlooking their vineyards. One’s heart drops several octaves just by walking onto this property, especially if one has been fighting traffic on the nearby highways prior to arrival.

During a number of visits to this property over the years we have always noticed larger tour groups frequent the tasting room, often from San Francisco based tour operators. Weekends are generally the busiest times to visit Ru Vango. The staff are friendly and highly personable; that goes a long ways towards supporting a fun and enjoyable visit at this tasting room.

And if the weather is nice – take a glass with you and enjoy the wine and views from a comfortable chair on thee wrap around open air porch which overlooks the calming and quiet rolling hills of the Carneros. Unlike many wineries which prohibit guests bringing food onto the grounds, Ru Vango welcomes guests who want to bring food to enjoy with their wines or following a tasting.

Select Wines
Whites/Rosé
The Ru Vango Rosé, Napa Valley Non Vintage is a blend of both 2019 and 2020 harvests. This wine is deep pink in color; the bouquet offers a diversity of aromas including of dried orange peel, dried rose petals, hibiscus tea, wet stones and an assortment of red berry fruits including strawberry, raspberry, red cherry and wild red plums. As the wine evolves it expresses a light note of vanilla. With a combination of five/six years post vintage, its fruit aromas have certainly been softened by aged and are expressed more as dried fruits. On the palate there are flavors of pomegranate, raspberry, red cherry, watermelon and strawberry. The mouth feel is supple and creamy, with a silky texture running its length. Finishes with a light note of warmth from alcohol on the back of the throat. Fully ripe and generously flavored, this wine is a listed 14.3% ABV. For some reason we immediatley thought of pairing this with a miso glazed salmon; the weight and intensity of flavor of this rosé should hold up well with the fattiness of the salmon and flavor profile of the miso.

The 2021 Ru Vango Reserve Chardonnay, Collectors Edition Sta. Rita Hills was a barrel selection whittled down from 200 barrels to only three. This wine is deep gold in color; the highly attractive bouquet offers honeyed aromas of honeycomb and honeysuckle, glazed pineapple, candied orange peel, with a pronounced apple-y character including of golden apples and bruised apples, accompanied by ripe stone fruits including apricot, yellow peach and yellow nectarine. Also a light layer of butterscotch and vanilla. Smells like dessert. This wine is fully ripe both on the bouquet and the palate at its listed 13.5% ABV. The somewhat tangy palate tastes like yellow nectarine, golden kiwi, lemon custard, tangerine, pineapple and Gravenstein apple saddled more toward the bright side of ripeness rather than being over ripe. Shining as brightly as its color, the palate is refreshing, lively and filled with plenty of movement, a result of its vivacious acidity. This wine has aged well, 4 years post vintage. Pair with something creamy, perhaps a pasta alfredo.

Reds
The 2020 Ru Vango Red Wine, Spring Mountain District Napa Valley. In an unusual play for a red wine, this was bottled in flint glass, perhaps a result of glass shortages experienced for several years across the industry. The nose offers loads of fruit, representative of what was going to be a standout vintage in Napa Valley prior to the forest fires. Its aromatics include ripe cherry, boysenberry, fresh blackberry and dark plum. And smoke taint, which one needs an olfactory radar to bypass – an aromatic that most wineries tried to avoid including not bottling red wines from this vintage. Highly pronounced on this wine, it is perceived as camp fire like, touching on the territory of ash-tray. And this is also evident across the palate, but primarily noticed on the finish, lingering with a persistent forest fire/camp fire and ash-tray like flavor, showing stronger on the palate than the bouquet. Brightly lit and somewhat juicy, its flavors are strongly saddled on the side of red fruits. Its aromatics and flavors immediatley brought us back to the week with friends delivering water in plastic totes on two flat bed trucks to numerous properties that needed help north of St. Helena, and the resulting exact smell permeating our clothes at the end of those long-ass days. This wine is a pure reflection of that vintage, raw and unwrapped. It reminds us of our personal value in the valley that week and the community coming together. It does not remind us of all the other bullshit experienced that year, memories perhaps softened with time or purposefully blocked.

The 2017 Ru Vango Phoenix Series Pinot Noir is pale ruby with some brickish color in the glass; the bouquet is a pleasing union of both fruit and funkier characteristics often inherent to this variety. It offers scents of mushroom, a gamey character including grilled meats, old leather, forest floor, white pepper, Tonka bean, raspberry, cooked red plums and some dried berry fruit characters. The palate offers flavors of raspberries, cherry, red currant, strawberries, red plums and coca cola. This bottlings texture is creamy with rounded and supple tannins. It lingers with a light note of white pepper which persists beyond the fruit. For reference, we tasted this wine 6 years post vintage. And for some reason tasting this made us immediately grab a pack of organic roasted Teriyaki flavored seaweed as an accompaniment.

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Ru Vango sells direct and offers a wine club for California residents. The wines are also selectively distributed at a number of wine shops and restaurants in both northern and southern California. For more information, to purchase wine, to schedule a tasting, visit: www.ruvango.com

Hospitality

Exterior

ARCHIVED NOTES
Kieu Hoang Wines
The 2017 Kieu Hoang Chardonnay Carneros was sourced from their estate property. This wine was fermented in three different vessels: stainless steel, concrete and neutral oak barrels. It was allowed to go through partial malolactic fermentation. This is not a California styled oaky and buttery bottling. It is medium gold in color; the bouquet offers light aromatics of honeysuckle, pineapple, and bruised apple. The palate is mineral driven, with some flinty notes and is complemented nicely with a light creamy texture. The focus on this wine is on the fruit rather than cellar manipulation and it is still showing nicely 5 years post vintage date at the time of our tasting.

The 2013 Kieu Hoang Purple Label Cabernet Sauvignon is bottled in an extremely unique bottle; the middle of the bottle contains a prominent indent. This was done on purpose to represent the 6.1 earthquake as this vintage was in barrel when that temblor hit in the early morning of August 24, 2014. This wine is dark ruby in color; the bouquet is extremely aromatic showing scents of dark cherry, black licorice, sweet prune and a darker spice note found deeper in the aromatics. The palate features a pleasing mix of both red and darker fruit flavors weighted towards red fruits including currant and cherry. The silty and dense textured tannins show a firm grip and linger slightly dry with notes of tobacco spice.

The 2013 Kieu Hoang Emperor Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District was bottled in a clear whiskey bottle; to keep the light away from the wine inside, they keep these bottles well wrapped until sold. This bottling is dark ruby in color with some brickish notes. It presents very pretty aromatics with an interplay between primary fruit and secondary aromas from the barrel influence. It shows notes of boysenberry and dark plum along with clove, hints of pepper, cinnamon stick and dried tobacco leaf. The palate offers layers of similar fruits as on the bouquet along with chocolate, and hints of caramel and peanut brittle on the finish. The tannins are densely woven but not course in their textural profile.

The 2014 Kieu Hoang Proprietary Red Blend is 60% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were sourced from Rutherford and this wine was aged for 4 years in French oak. This bottling is medium to dark ruby in color; the aromatics are generous including of bramble, cherry cola, dark licorice, baking spices and as the wine continues to breathe, hints of chocolate. It shows plenty of red fruit tones across the palate including of cherries and various berries. It is flavorful but without any heavy accompanying tannin structure (medium bodied). Finishes savory with bright acidity, red fruits and some light notes of black pepper.

The 2012 Kieu Hoang CALIW Cabernet Sauvignon California Appellation is medium ruby with some brickish colors; at 11 years post vintage at the time of our tasting the bouquet offers plenty of tertiary aromatics including of cooked blackberry, assorted dried berries, tobacco spice, toast, nutmeg and cinnamon. There are also some sweeter influences at play here including chocolate, coffee, butterscotch and espresso. The palate offers primarily red fruits including of cherry, raspberry, plum and cranberry. The finish is bright and lingers with a note of toasted hickory, subtle dried tobacco leaf, old leather and well integrated supple tannins. This is not a complicated or serious Cabernet Sauvignon; it has aged better than expected.

Kieu Hoang, Spring Mountain Estate
Kieu Hoang also owned the former Guilliams Vineyard in the Spring Mountain District (he purchased the site in 2014), before selling it to Dr. Michael Dao in 2021, which then was sold to current owners, William Cole/Predecessor Estate. While Ru Vango no longer owns this property, we keep our notes here for historical reference. Former owners John and Shawn Guilliams moved here in 1978 from the San Francisco Bay Area. Vineyards were originally planted on this site in the 1890s but were completely abandoned during the 1930s and the forest had reclaimed most of the land by the time the Guilliams arrived. As a result, they cleared part of their property to eventually plant vines (7 acres of vineyards).

They wanted a quiet location to build a house and raise a family, but both did not have jobs at the time. Not having a background in the wine industry, John found work at a cooper and started building wine barrels. Soon John was making home wine with his co-workers; eventually he and Shawn decided to bottle their wine commercially and their first vintage was from 1985. A small winery is located on the lower level of the family home on site overlooking the vineyard.

Their driveway is extremely sharp and if one is driving west towards St. Helena on Spring Mountain Road one will have to pass the driveway, turn around in the small dirt pull out, head back in the opposite direction and then enter the driveway. The property is located at an elevation of about 2,000 feet placing this and nearby Spring Mountain vineyards as some of the higher sites in Napa County. And the property does receive a bit of snow here most winters. Remarkably the home and winery survived the devastating Glass Fire which severely burned a large portion of Spring Mountain in 2020.

The space was sometimes used for private events and select tasting for wine club members.

Q Sushi & Kieu Hoang Wine Lounge, Westlake Village
While Q Sushi is no longer associated with the ownership of Ru Vango Winery, we keep our notes here for historical records. In 2016 the Q Sushi & Kieu Hoang Wine Lounge opened in the Shoppes at Westlake Village; this is mere minutes from the 101 and just south of Thousand Oaks. Plenty of parking and plenty of seating both indoor and outdoor on a small terrace. Come for a special Happy Hour menu – available between 4-6pm. Highlights of our meal were the Brussel sprouts, raw oysters, Shishito peppers and various sashimi.

A beautiful bar serves a variety of innovative cocktails. A number of Ru Vango’s own wines are available by the glass or bottle as are select wines from other California producers and a couple from outside of the state. Also, plenty of beer and sake selections.