Former AI exec investing big in Napa wine
The name Juan Pablo Torres Padilla isn't yet familiar to most Napa Valley wine drinkers. But this new vintner's recent acquisition activity indicates that he is determined to become a major player in the local industry.
In the past three years, Torres Padilla has bought a historic winery, Sullivan Rutherford Estate; an undeveloped property in Napa's Soda Canyon area on which he's planting a new vineyard; and, as of late August, another vineyard that's been the source of critically acclaimed wines for decades. In total, Torres Padilla now owns about 40 acres of grapevines throughout Napa Valley.
Buying vineyards and wineries in Napa is a common pastime of the ultra-rich. Like many of these newcomers, Torres Padilla, a former CEO of an artificial intelligence company, claims he wants to build a business that can produce one of the greatest wines of the world. He's eyeing highend, Bordeaux-inspired wines at luxury prices, with a special emphasis on Merlot. The current lineup of Sullivan wines sell for up to $310 per bottle. Tastings at the Sullivan tasting room come with a fee of $125 to $150.
Unlike some other newcomers, though — like, say, Gaylon Lawrence Jr., the Arkansas mogul who has bought up famous estates like Heitz, Stony Hill and Burgess — Torres Padilla appears interested in lesser-known entities, properties that don't yet have widespread brand recognition. That was the case with Sullivan, a winery that's been around since 1972 yet remains largely unknown, and also with Torres Padilla's latest investment, the Criscione Vineyard.
“I wanted to be able to add value,” Torres Padilla said when asked why he's gravitated toward lower-profile sites — specifically the value of name recognition, bringing these sleepy estates onto a wider stage. It may have helped, too, that Sullivan Estate was in bankruptcy when Torres Padilla bought it in 2018.
His newest addition, the 18-acre Criscione Vineyard, is tucked away in the hillsides above St. Helena, invisible from any main road, and its name has rarely graced the front label of a wine bottle. Yet Criscione grapes have long been a quiet, unnamed component of some of Napa's most sought-after wines, from producers like Harlan, Araujo, Ovid, Arrow & Branch and Drinkward Peschon, many of which sell for over $300 per bottle. Most of those wineries would blend Criscione grapes with fruit from other Napa Valley sites to make a multivineyard cuvee.
“It's not a vineyard that most people know, but people in the local industry know about it,” said Sullivan Rutherford Estate general manager Joshua Lowell. Among its distinctive attributes is its soil, composed of chunky volcanic rocks. “The whole ground glimmers from obsidian,” Lowell said. Torres Padilla would not disclose a purchase price, but said that he paid “above the Napa Valley average” for the Criscione land. That average can vary based on several factors, including the prestige of a particular growing area, but for prime vineyard land it's generally around $300,000 to $400,000 per acre, which for 18 acres would translate to $5.4 to $7.2 million.
The premium was worth it, he said, because he believes the Criscione grapes are of such a high quality, and the vineyard is “turnkey,” meaning he won't have to do any replanting. Former owners Joe and Ashley Criscione, who planted the grapes here 20 years ago, were looking to retire, Torres Padilla added.
Grapes from Criscione, the Sullivan estate vineyard and the still-unnamed Soda Canyon vineyard will all go into wines under the Sullivan Rutherford Estate brand, which will produce about 3,000 to 5,000 cases per year, a standard volume for a luxury Napa producer.
By the time Torres Padilla bought Sullivan in 2018, he had been looking for a winery to purchase for 12 years. He liked the fact that the 26-acre estate already had a sense of history, and he thought that the location in the middle of the valley floor in Rutherford, one of Napa's most acclaimed subregions, was ideal for wine growing — especially Merlot. The Sullivan wines' low profile — and, maybe, the winery's financial troubles — wasn't for lack of quality, Torres Padilla believed. Rather, it was due to the fact that “Jim was basically just producing wine for family and friends,” he said. “Back then, in the '70s, they didn't need to be known for the business to be sustainable.” (The Sullivan Estate assets were estimated at $17 million to $20 million in bankruptcy court.)
A significant portion of the vineyards at the Rutherford estate are currently being replanted, partly to update some of the viticultural elements and partly to add a greater share of Merlot, a grape variety that Torres Padilla believes will be a star here. While Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa's most widely planted grape variety, will still represent a large portion of the company's overall vineyard makeup, Torres Padilla hopes that Merlot will ultimately account for about onethird to one-half of the total plantings.
He kept the name Sullivan, rather than renaming it.
“To me, changing the name doesn't have a lot of substance,” Torres Padilla said. “I don't believe in building something overnight.”
Maybe not overnight, but Torres Padilla sure is building. He's obtained permits to construct a new winery and tasting room at the Rutherford property and hopes to break ground in the spring. With his 40 acres now secured, Torres Padilla said he doesn't have immediate plans to buy any more land in Napa. At least for now, he added.