WINEMAKING CHEMISTRY
Doctor-turned-vintner shares the challenges of the boutique industry and how his vineyard weathered the pandemic
Just off Napa’s Silverado Trail at the foot of the Vaca Mountains lies the Tuscan-inspired Krupp Brothers winery, a small vineyard and lake in a setting as bucolic as one could imagine. About 10 miles to the north perched on a remote rocky hillside rising 1,500 feet above sea level are more vineyards, which provide some of the best grapes for this winery and many dozens of other winery customers in Napa Valley.
At the heart of both is 75-year-old Dr. Jan Krupp, a longtime winemaking hobbyist, who together with his younger brother Bart in 1995 developed 500 acres of the once-rock-riddled hillside property that would become the iconic Stagecoach Vineyard. The two later would go on to add 100 more acres of vineyards and found Krupp Brothers Winery some 20 minutes down the road from those same vineyards.
The road to winemaking, though, was far from easy for Jan Krupp, a New Jersey native, who became intrigued by the then-nascent California wine scene while going to medical school and doing his residency at Stanford where one of his professors became his wine mentor.
For 17 years it was “a wonderful hobby, getting together with friends and my oldest son to make wine in my garage and cellar,” he said.
By 1991, the internist planted his first vineyard after moving to Napa while still commuting to the East Bay for his medical practice. He loved growing edible fruits and vegetables and found the vineyards “beautiful.” By the mid-1990s, he and his brother took a leap of faith, buying the hilly property with the help of investors, and removing a million tons of rocks, hiring a water witch to find water deep below the ground and building a road to access their new vineyards.
In 2017, more than 20 years later, the brothers sold the vineyards, which had become the biggest contiguous vineyards in the region, to E&J Gallo. They retained, however, some of the best grapes there — about 25 acres — to use in handcrafted wines at their Krupp Brothers boutique winery bought that same year. Today they produce some 5,000 cases a year.
We talked to Krupp about the challenges of the boutique winery business, something that became even more difficult during the pandemic.
Q
Why did you want to own a winery and make wine? Has it always been your passion?
A
Once I realized that I could make better wine with my grapes and also receive credit for the wonderful fruit that I grew, I began to dream of and search for a winery.
Q
How did you make the transition from an internist to co-owning a winery?
A
The transition began with the creation of vineyards and doing both professions for seven years. I took viticultural classes at UC Davis and learned from my grape customers, including viticulturists and winemakers. How to think about grapevine nutrition, grapevine disease and also winemaking chemistry was not dramatically different than the thought process around human nutrition and disease.
Q
What aspects of the business are you most involved with now and why?
A
I am involved with the care of the grapes we make wine from, the blending of the wine, the selection of grapes and barrels for our wine, and selecting and being a cheerleader for our sales and winemaking teams. My role also includes approving all purchases, contracts and hires as well as signing all checks. I am also the final decisionmaker and problem-solver.
Q
As a wine producer, do you respond to customers’ tastes or are you seeking to influence tastes?
A
I create wines to bring out the magnificence of our grapes. Naturally, I respond to how much my customers like the wines we produce by adjusting production goals and in some cases abandon certain wines.
Q
How did the pandemic impact the boutique wine industry, both in production and sales? What impact did the fires have?
A
The pandemic pushed many wineries, ours included, to do more online events and sales. We often included or reduced the cost of shipping as well as had real online sales. Distributor sales were markedly decreased for most boutique wines.
The pandemic also accelerated our push to economize on shipping as we needed to offer free and discounted shipping to incentivize sales. We changed fulfillment companies twice to find a costeffective and efficient shipping company.
The fires meanwhile caused many weeks with absent or diminished visitation and sales. COVID caused the same
problems for in-person and restaurant sales. The fires caused us to reject many grapes and cut our production in half.
Q
How long were your tasting rooms closed? Did you reopen outside?
A
The tasting rooms were closed for many weeks. They operated at reduced capacity due to regulations for months. We were able to do more tastings outside at our winery and at our downtown tasting room. We will continue to do outdoor tastings.
Q
Was there a “quarantine binge” with more people drinking wine or were people simply buying it from different venues?
A
People both increased their consumption and bought from different venues.
Q
Did sales decrease in 2020 for you? Do you think your sales pattern was typical for other boutique wineries?
A
Our total sales decreased due to fewer in-person, distributor and restaurant sales. I do believe this was typical for boutique but not larger wineries.
Q
What did you specifically do to try to keep customers?
A
We did virtual tasting through Zoom and established Zoom tasting groups. We developed a large following on Facebook and Instagram doing many Facebook Live tastings. We will continue, staff time permitting. We are so busy with guests visiting all of our tasting rooms now, though, that we have postponed further virtual tasting until late fall.
Q
Did the pandemic reshape the boutique wine industry?
A
I believe the pandemic and distributor consolidation have pushed the boutique wineries to continue to reinforce their direct sales and wine club membership.
Q
What does the future look like for you and other boutique wineries in a post-pandemic world?
A
The future is bright for boutique wineries that are building their direct sales. Continued fires and/or continued drought would darken their horizon.