Alex Eisele, a second generation grapegrower, stood on a gently rising path and surveyed an old block of
vines that are part of his family’s historic estate in Chiles Valley.
“You know, you can look at each section of a vineyard, and it’s unique,” he said. “You ask yourself, ‘Is
somebody going to be buying those grapes long-term?’ Well, that’s the case with Miner, so we take a
unique approach. Every section of the vineyard is evaluated a little differently.”
Leading us on an August morning walk around the property that his father, the pioneering grower
Volker Eisele, purchased in the mid-70s with his mother, Liesel, Alex stopped several times to reflect on
the relationship of viticulture to winemaking. And circling back to a time before any of their grapes
made it from Lower Chiles Road to Miner’s crushpad in Oakville, he and his wife, Catherine, recalled how
ties eventually formed between Miner and Volker Eisele Family Estate.
When Dave Miner brought a group of his friends to the Eiseles’ vineyard almost twenty ago, Volker’s
name was already established in Napa Valley and beyond. He and Liesel, German students who met at
UC Berkeley in the 1960s, fell in love with the 400-acre property that had been part of a 19th century
Mexican land grant and, subsequently, become one of Napa County’s early wine estates.
Today, the entire vineyard is replanted, as Catherine went over that morning. “This was a vineyard and a
gravity-flow winery building in the 1800s. It was called Lomitas Vineyard and Winery and coincidentally
owned by another German immigrant named Francis Sievers. Alex’s parents came here in ’74 and
replanted to the original footprint when they first began the whole project.”
A little over 1000 acres of grapevines comprise the Chiles Valley District, a sub-region of Napa Valley in
the Vaca Mountains, east of St. Helena and Rutherford, that Volker led the way to establish as an
American Viticultural Area in 1999. The 60 acres of vines he farmed, helped by the multi-generational
Nevarez family and, eventually, with Alex at his side, represent a small fraction of that total acreage. But
the Volker Eisele influence is decidedly outsized to this day.
Alex paused again and motioned toward the mountains on each side of the property. “This place has
always been the Chiles Valley. But my dad worked hard to get it established as a sub-AVA. So to him, one of the biggest, most important aspects here was that we simply replant what was first planted in the
1800s, and not clear any land or cut down any trees. That’s number one.”
“And number two,” he emphasized, “is that the vineyard has always been farmed organically. Never any
other way.”
When Volker passed away in early 2015, Congressman Mike Thompson honored his memory, telling a
local newspaper that he was largely responsible for the county’s foresight to protect its agricultural
land—and the community dependent upon it—through Measure J, passed in Napa County in 1990.
Thompson also said that he “made great wine and was an even better friend who will be missed.” For
this combination of commitment and traits, Dave took notice, which, in turn, brought Miner to Volker’s
attention.
As Catherine pointed out, it wasn’t exactly an overnight process—though it shed some light on how, in
certain circumstances, grapegrowers and vintners can forge a relationship.
“Volker’s been gone for ten years,” she said. “So when he hosted Dave and his friends, it was a while
ago. And then over those years, I’d run into Dave at the market in St. Helena. We would chit-chat and
catch up a little bit. I always had it in the back of my head how Volker talked about what a nice man he
was.”
“I thought, ‘Maybe I should just reach out to him and tell him we’ve got some fruit available.’ So this is
how it started.”
Alex added that the turnaround to Miner’s involvement with the 2019 harvest happened quickly:
coinciding with Catherine’s lightbulb moment, he was motivated to bring on a new grape client. Since
then, two sections of the vineyard—the Hill Block and the Old Block—have contributed cabernet
sauvignon to Michelle Shafrir’s winemaking program.
We followed the Eiseles across a part of the sloping property that afforded close-up looks at each. “Of
those two sections, the Old Block was planted in 1991,” Alex explained. “It was an old planting when we
got here in 1974, and the name just stuck, even when it was newly planted in 1991.”
After a 45-minute walk, we headed back to the property’s historic barn, where Catherine and Alex have
created a beautifully preserved space to host visitors. We sat down in a glass-enclosed kitchen and
lounge while Alex opened a bottle of one of their own estate wines, a 2023 sauvignon blanc that their
winemaker, Molly Lippitt, blends with a little semillon—an unsurprisingly delicious white. (During the walk, Alex told us that they only grow Bordeaux varieties: these two white grapes and cabernet
sauvignon, along with merlot and cabernet franc.)
Then he pulled the cork on the bottle of Miner Family’s 2019 Volker Eisele Vineyard cabernet we’d
brought along. It wasn’t the first time they tasted it—that happened six months after the harvest,
sampled out of barrel at Miner—but it had been at least a couple of years since they’d had the
opportunity to see how it was developing.
“I can get a sense of the vineyard here immediately. It has this savory characteristic,” Catherine noted,
swirling the wine in her glass. “Smelling this wine reminds me of what it’s like at the vineyard the day
after it rains: it’s up in the trees. It’s that oak, and some wet bay leaf. I’m nearly certain that’s what is
contributing to this savory aroma and flavor.”
Alex concurred that it was tasting great and showing a lot of complexity at nearly five years of age.
Though, in contrast to his wife’s savvy palate, his comments on the Miner wine were those of a grower.
“I think it’s interesting. I’m tasting this wine, and I remember every detail about 2019 very clearly: when
we picked, and how the grapes looked. You know, all of it.”
He described a growing season and harvest during which “everything aligned,” with plenty of rain the
previous winter and spring resulting in a heavy crop. As the fruit ripened throughout the vineyard, Alex,
Pedro Nevarez, and their vineyard crew watched it happen at an ideal pace.
“Sometimes,” he observed, “when you get close to harvest, you taste some berries after a heatwave and
they’re quite sweet, but they might be lacking flavor. I can remember specifically that there was this
gradual and very even development. The color was developing evenly, and the flavors were, too. So it
was great from a growing perspective and from a winemaking perspective. I think you had it all.”
For her part, Michelle let us know how happy she is to be working with Volker Eisele Vineyard.
“We get amazing fruit from Alex,” she said a couple days before the first grapes from the ’24 harvest
were scheduled to arrive at Miner.
“When it comes to growing the fruit in the vineyard, he’s just really good at what he does. He knows the
vineyard very well, of course, so I don’t have to chase him to do things. Even if I have to ask him about
something, it’s like he’s already done it.”
Earlier, out in the vineyard, Alex acknowledged that he plans for the Volker Eisele-Miner Family
relationship to be long-term. He said he wants Michelle and Dave “to always be happy with the fruit
they get from us.” In the barn, sharing tastes of his wine and Miner’s, he paid Michelle what we felt was
a well-earned compliment. “Collaborating with her, she’s so kind and easy to work with, I just love that.”
“It’s just super important to us that what we deliver is top notch and that the winemakers are happy,”
Alex continued. He had a smile on his face to match Catherine’s. They, too, seemed genuinely happy: to
them, the vines planted over three decades ago by Volker spoke through this Miner cabernet.
“The more you work with great people, the more pride you take in really achieving that for them,” he
said. “I mean, we’re not just selling grapes to sell grapes. We want the winemaker to be thrilled with
what she’s getting.”