#CulinaryKingsandQueens #MoverandShaker #StuSmith #Founder #Owner #GeneralManager #VineyardManager #Enologist #SmithMadrone
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Mover and Shaker Stuart Smith walked through a forest on top of a mountain in the Napa Valley in the fall of 1970 and the next year founded Smith-Madrone Winery, which has been one of the best performers in Champagne Wishes. Today, he is the General Manager of the winery, acting as vineyard manager and enologist; his brother Charles is the winemaker and they are co-owners. The family lineage includes the Fetherolf family, German farmers from the Palatinate region, who came to America on The Thistle of Glasgow in 1730. We are absolutely thrilled to present Mover and Shaker Stu Smith as our newest Culinary King and he is only the fifth person ever featured in seventeen years and 30,000 posts in this column exclusively for Movers and Shakers in interviews beyond that column in cuisine and alcohol endeavors. Previously, Charlie (Scotland), Rufino (Spain), Kelly (California) and Sal (New York) have been featured. Stu Smith and Smith Madrone have earned rave reviews from us dating back to 2010 and they were among the first to understand the power of the internet in food and wine. This interview evidences a legendary career of a true Mover and Shaker whom we have met and dined with in person and along with his amazing wife Julie has been dominant in our column, Champagne Wishes.
Smith was born and raised in Santa Monica, where during college he worked as a lifeguard on the beach. He received his undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley in economics and went on to do his master's work in enology and viticulture at U.C. Davis.
Every summer during college, from 1966 – 1970, he worked as a lifeguard on the beaches in Santa Monica. He started at Tower #1 just north of POP Pier, spent some time at the tower just south of the Santa Monica Pier (Muscle Beach) and later spent most of his lifeguarding time north of the Santa Monica Pier. One summer Stu worked on the rescue boat and became friendly with the boat’s operator, Lt. Tommy Zahn. Tommy was a legend in the surfing world and also famous for winning the Honolulu-Molokai paddle board race twice, first at age 20 and then again at age 40. Tommy was also famous as Marilyn Monroe’s true love. In 1971 the Santa Monica Lifeguards were folded into LA County’s lifeguard program.
He was the first teaching assistant for famed professors Maynard Amerine and Vernon Singleton. He has taught enology and viticulture at Santa Rosa Junior College and Napa Valley Community College. He chaired the Napa Valley Wine Auction in 1986 and co-chaired in 2005. He is an active member of the G.O.N.A.D.S. (the Gastronomical Order for Nonsensical and Dissipatory Society), founded in the early 1980s by a group of Napa vintners who meet for lively monthly lunches.
Smith is often quoted and sought out for his leadership and expertise as a mountain vineyardist—whether it’s by The New York Times or National Public Radio or The Napa Valley Register. He was appointed to the General Plan Steering Committee (2005-2007) by the Napa County Board of Supervisors and to the Napa River Watershed Task Force in 1998. In 1998 he co-founded Farmers For Napa Valley, a group whose mission was to educate the public about hillside vineyard farming.
Stuart is a veteran winegrower of fifty-five years. Stuart was profiled in James Conaway’s book Napa – The Far Side of Eden because of his long-standing involvement in Napa County’s land use issues.
In the fall of 1970 he first walked 200 acres of forested land on the top of Spring Mountain, located just west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. There were old grape stakes, evidence of the original 1880s vineyard, interspersed among the towering Douglas firs, oaks and Madrones which had reclaimed the long abandoned vineyard. With a small partnership of family and friends he was able to purchase the land in early 1971 and start Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery. His brother Charles joined him and they planted the vineyard and built the winery, and today continue to grow the grapes and make the wine.
The Glass Fire of 2020 (see photography here) was the most significant event for Stu and his business since his last Whom You Know interview. Stu slept out on the crush pad at the winery for seven days: September 27 through October 3, 2020. Among other impacts, respecting the enormous damage all over Spring Mountain and the northern Napa Valley, the winery lost telephone service for the next 100-plus days.
Stuart is an avid outdoorsman with a passion for canoeing, hiking, hunting and shooting. Stuart is an Eagle Scout and today is the Emeritus Chair of St. Helena’s Troop 1. Stuart is married to Julie Ann Kodmur and the father of five children, daughters Meg, Katherine, Charlotte and sons Sam and Tom. He is a dedicated canoeist, having canoed through the Quetico Wilderness in Canada and the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in California. He enjoys barbecuing for guests at the winery: favorites are the (Smith-Madrone) Cabernet-marinated barbecued lamb and (Smith-Madrone) Cabernet Risotto.
We are absolutely thrilled to present Stu Smith as our newest interview in his first encore appearance. Peachy Deegan interviewed Stu Smith for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: Please tell us more about The Glass Fire of 2020, the most significant event for you since your last interview with Whom You Know in 2010.
Stu Smith: Sunday September 27 was a relatively normal day at the winery. I went home about 7:00 p.m. About 7:30 p.m. a good friend on Silverado Trail (just west of the Trail so he wasn’t evacuated) called me and said our property was on fire. I called Sam (my son) and Charlie (my brother and the winery co-founder) and then zoomed back up to the winery, which was not on fire. Sam and I were able to get to the winery before Spring Mountain Road was shut down. Charlie, just behind us, was prohibited from passing.
As I turned off Spring Mountain Road to the winery to the southwest there was an enormously scary bright red glow. Sam and I worked through the night preparing our fire defense, staging buckets and micro bins filled with water and setting up sprinklers to be the most effective. The biggest problem was that PG&E had cut our power and we had no lights, no AC and no power at our pumps for more water. Sam and I slept in our cars and wondered what the very loud booms were that kept happening in the night. We got little sleep between the NIXLE alerts and the screeching of the emergency alerts that seemed to come every ten minutes.
We knew there were at least four fires to worry about. There was the fire southwest of us, there was a fire on Spring Mountain Road that Sam drove through at the double redwood trees, and there were two fires to the northeast of us at Bothe Napa Valley State Park and another coming up from the Brasswood estate complex that we hoped was just one fire and another west of us at Tarwater Road in Sonoma.
With the help of Sam, my son Tom and Tom’s friend Carlos and the two Barnett sons-in-law and Barnett’s winemaker, we stopped the fire at the water tanks and prevented it going uphill to Barnett. It was quite a battle.
The bottom line is that miraculously the pump area didn’t burn, the water tanks didn’t burn and the winery was never threatened. It may be several weeks before power is restored to the winery and I have no idea when we can expect to get our water system operational.
Peachy: What happened next?
Stu: The next turning point was Saturday, October 3. In our little community three neighboring wineries had been lost: Behrens, Sherwin and Ritchie Creek. Cain, Marston, Sarocka and Flying Lady were also lost and at least double that number of homes on Spring Mountain were also lost. We are just beginning the huge work of becoming operational again at this stage.
An interesting aside is the number of trees that continually fall in the forest. It is mostly very large and very old trees that were weakened by the fire and then fall to the forest floor with a thunderous crash. It’s dangerous to be in these forests now and it’s what’s continually closing our mountain roads.
Wildfire does not discriminate; it’s an equal opportunity operative, and California is a pyrogenic landscape, one prone to fire, with plants that co-evolved with fire, a fact that I understand well since Charlie and I grew up in Southern California where it burns every damn year! That’s what we grew up with! The importance of being prepared and to having and using the fire protocols is something we all should have been expecting- in regards to the most recent catastrophe. I believe that the Glass Fire found access by roaring through dry creek beds to burn down historic buildings, wineries, businesses, vineyards, and more. Fires love dry river beds, draws: it’s like an artery for a fire. It goes up from tributaries and crosses the valley. These things can get going and burn. Humbling. The word humble is an important word. When it comes to fires, if you’re not careful, it will humble you in a bad way.
In the mountains you have to protect your buildings. You have to have the mindset that it’s up to you and only you. The fire department’s job is to protect lives. As a property owner you have to know it’s up to you. You have to be able to protect your property. If I leave, they can prevent me from getting back. We were pretty anxious, but we fared so much better than so many of our friends. It’s hard to think about. We were fortunate to be here.
But it was a close one. They were in the midst of harvest, with just about everything in except the Cabernet Franc and a little Cabernet Sauvignon, with plenty of work behind and ahead. In what I thought was an overabundance of caution, we followed the protocols before driving home on the evening of Sunday September 27.
Peachy: Do you know about the history of anything like this happening before?
Stu: It’s been over a hundred years since the region burned like this. 1870 was the last large fire that went through these mountains. A lot of us were trying to get the word out we were overdue.
While some may assume that the land should just be left alone, the Native Americans performed controlled burns which increased ecosystem diversity including food and other resources. Natural wildfires were also widespread and regularly roamed where they willed. The Padres of the California Mission system fought the fires to preserve and protect the landscape for cattle and agriculture. The forest grew denser but then the construction needs of the Gold Rush and then rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake depleted the forests of timber– which also reduced the risk of the type of conflagration we’ve seen in the past few years in northern California.
Climate change plays a part, but the bigger part we can do something about is the amount of fuel left in the forest. Following these fires, Napa has a unique opportunity to manage the lands. Hopefully we can create private and government coalitions that work together. As people begin to rebuild, better locations and building materials are necessary.
So what’s to become of the 2020 vintage?
We could detect smoke taint in the wines, so we did not have a commercial release of any 2020 vintage wines.
Have you had to address the challenge of smoke prior to 2020?
In 2008 my brother Charlie complained about the quality of the red grapes. We decided to sell the entire red crop and not make or release any reds from that vintage. We’re not interested in selling wine we’re not happy with.
Your Riesling has earned multiple honors; please tell us about your dominance in quality Riesling.
I’ve believed in Riesling as a variety since we first planted it in 1972. When well-made, dry Rieslings age and improve for many years; they also complement more dishes than any other varietal. We simply love this varietal and I am proud to champion it.
Smith-Madrone is one of Napa Valley’s authentically artisanal wineries, founded in 1971 by Stuart Smith. Winemaking and grape-growing are handled entirely by the two brother-proprietors, Stuart and Charles Smith, iconoclasts known for their staunch adherence to dry farming on their mountain vineyard. All of Smith-Madrone’s wines come from the 38 acres of estate vineyards surrounding the winery, at elevations between 1,300 and 1,900 feet, on slopes angling up to 34%. When the Smiths planted their vineyards in 1971 they chose Riesling because of that grape’s excellence in mountain/hillside terroirs.
Smith-Madrone’s stature as a pre-eminent Riesling producer began when the 1977 vintage was chosen as the winner of the Riesling category in the Gault-Millau Wine Olympics judging in Paris in 1979. This wine made headlines internationally and validated the quality of the wine and its terroir.
Smith-Madrone believes in Riesling as a very long-lived grape and the winery often sells library releases; currently on offer is a vertical set of 2018, 2019 and 2021 vintages.
What do you know about wine, wine production and owning a vineyard that you wish you knew in the 1970’s when you started?
Start out with more money!
What defines a successful vineyard owner?
Producing grapes that are planted in the right location, in the right soils, with the right clones, with the right rootstocks, that produce good wine for the winery that the vineyard owner sells to (if that’s the case and you don’t make wine from grapes you grow).
What do you love about working with your brother and how do you divide your responsibilities?
When he’s gone he can trust me to do the right thing to keep the winery going and when I’m gone I can trust him to keep the winery and vineyard going properly.
What should everyone know about your brother?
He’s an extremely good croquet player
Please tell us more about G.O.N.A.D.S.
It’s a group of guys who get together once a month for lunch. It started when Carl Doumani dropped out of the Napa Valley Vintners Association and Justin Meyer decided that Carl needed some guys to have lunch with once a month. And that all started at least 40 years ago.
We imagine that many people both envy and admire your profession of being a wine professor; we also imagine that it is a lot harder than they imagine to earn the qualifications to be such a great one. What makes a great wine professor and how would one become a wine professor?
If your goal was to be a Professor of viticulture and enology….you need to get educated in it. You’ve got to go to school and be taught. For me I was lucky to be able to attend UC Davis and do my master’s work there under Doctors Amerine and Singleton. I think what probably is not well understood is that teaching viticulture & enology was for me a way to truly learn those subjects because you can’t fake teaching to students. While prepping for the class you renew your intellect and curiosity about viticulture and enology. Your students will challenge you with questions, as they should. I don’t think of myself as a great wine professor. I would cringe when Andre Tchelistcheff would call me ‘professor’ because I felt I didn’t qualify. He called me that when I was hired to teach at the Napa and Sonoma junior colleges. I’ve always shied away from the term “Professor.” The only time that I ever really took pride in it was when Andre referred to me that way; it was very high praise for a very young man. I cherish that memory to this day.
How does one qualify to be a wine student in college?
You apply for the classes in viticulture or enology, whether at UC Davis, Fresno State, Washington State University, etc.
What makes a great wine student and what makes them great to teach?
Curiosity and a thirst for learning
What would a dream wine harvest be like?
Happens every year at Smith-Madrone
Do you have any favorite wine tools like Coravin?
Actually I don’t go to work without my Swiss Army knife in my pocket. It’s the one with the corkscrew on it.
Are American winemakers still unrestrained by the US government and do you see this staying that way?
American winemakers have a freedom both in the vineyard and the winery that Europeans don’t have. I don’t see any reason that this would change.
Please tell us your thoughts on tariffs and how ultimately (we believe) they will help USA manufacturing, and specifically, wine production in California. If you don’t think it will help, please tell us why.
The tariffs will not help us despite what Donald Trump says because it just creates barriers for the wine industry to get their corks, bottles, foils, labels and the tariffs will also increase our cost of doing business because the tariffs will raise the price of imports. I do have a degree in Economics from UC Berkeley.
If you owned a vineyard in Europe, what would you do to market to the USA? Although we love the USA the most we also love our winemaking friends in France and Italy.
I wouldn’t because I’m tied up exclusively with my vineyard in Napa Valley. It takes 100% of my time. It’s nice to visit vineyards in other countries but I don’t know their situations so it would be imprudent of me to offer them any advice.
What makes your mountains special and how would you compare and contrast your mountains with mountain ranges in other areas of the USA or world where wine is grown successfully and how they achieve success?
There are many mountain vineyards located throughout the world that are hundreds if not thousands of years old which is why some have been selected as world heritage sites. Maybe in a couple of hundred years Spring Mountain will also be recognized as a world heritage site. The beauty of Spring Mountain will eventually shine through.
What do you credit your maverick independent thinking to?
I think it’s a combo of several things: one is that my degree in Economics (actually, Macro Economics); that gave me the ability and training to look down onto an industry, an idea from 35,000 feet up. The second was that when I was at UC Davis in a graduate seminar we were asked to take a research paper and review and critique it. That taught me critical thinking. The third thing is that in starting a business I was terrified and I had to learn to defend myself from those people in the Valley at that time who were criticizing hillside vineyards that were being developed. And as a young person without any mentor it shaped my attitude and it gave me a very strong backbone.
What should the world know about the California surf culture and do you still surf?
I started surfing in the late 1950s and my first board was a used Greg Noll with a tiki god painted on it; my buddy and I would surf Little Dune, Malibu, Snnset (where Sunset Blvd met the ocean) and Rincon. I don’t surf any longer because the winery is a very demanding master. As far as CA surf culture, Gidget and The Beach Boys, what more do you need?
What should everyone know about Tommy Zahn?
I looked up to him. He was one of the great watermen of the 20th century California/Hawaii culture. One summer I worked the boat with him and the one thing people don’t know about him is that Marilyn Monroe was in love with him and they were an item for a long time and as I remember when he was in his 20s he won the Honolulu-Molokai race but then he went back when he was 40 and won it again. If someone could have what an ideal surfer should look like, it was Tommy Zahn. He just oozed the looks of a surfer---handsome as all get out.
Do you still surf and where are the best places to surf near Napa Valley?
No and none
What would you like to do professionally that you have not yet had the opportunity to do?
When I was much younger I wanted to be a naval architect.
What one word best describes you and why?
Tenacious; because that’s who I’ve become.
What do you take your sense of identity from?
Hard work
What is your favorite place to be in Manhattan?
Discretion dictates that I keep my favorites to myself
And California?
Smith-Madrone on Spring Mountain just west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley
What is your favorite shop in Manhattan?
JJ Hat Center on Fifth Avenue
And California?
Brown’s Auto Parts Store on Main Street in St. Helena
If you could hire anybody who would it be and why?
Chuck Carpy and Lori Wood, pioneers of the Napa Valley wine industry
What is the best advice you’ve received in your career and what mentors influenced you the most?
Louis Martini; Andre Tchelistcheff; Koerner Rombauer ; Chuck Carpy, Lori Wood
What is your favorite wine to drink that you didn’t make?
Pol Roger Champagne Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill; next to that would be Schramsberg
What is your favorite wine to drink that you did make?
That’s like asking me which of my children I love most
If you could have dinner with any person living or passed, who would it be and why?
Ernest Hemingway after a day of hunting in Africa
What is your favorite restaurant in Manhattan?
Gramercy Tavern
Are there wine bars that are exclusively American wine
I don’t know
and if not would you start one?
No my only wine ‘bar’ is my winery
What kinds of restaurants in Manhattan and anywhere for that matter would you like for your wines to be offered at?
I would like all restaurants regardless of style or theme to carry our wines
What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a cocktail party?
I’m not a ‘funny’ guy and I don’t go to cocktail parties
What is your favorite Manhattan book or favorite character in Manhattan literature?
Ernest Hemingway’s The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
or
President Teddy Roosevelt, as described in Douglas Brinkley’s biography, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America: I’ve always admired Teddy Roosevelt, our ‘naturalist’ president, who saved millions of acres of wilderness and pioneered conservation
And California?
A real life character, “Emperor Norton,” one of San Francisco’s first world-class characters
Or
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., who wrote Two Years Before The Mast
What is your favorite tv show and why?
Berlin Station
What is your favorite movie and why?
Master & Commander
What’s one thing you wish the world better understood about you and why?
That when I push back on Napa County regulations and land use issues I do so not only for myself but for so many small wineries like mine that don’t have the courage to step forward and speak out
Who would you like to be for a day and why?
A canoeist in the Quetico Provincial Park just over the American border in Canada because canoeing in the North Woods of Canada is one of my favorite things to do when I have some time to myself
If you could have anything in Manhattan named after you what would it be and why? And California?
My ego would not allow that
What has been your best Manhattan athletic experience?
Going into a good bar or restaurant and having a perfect Manhattan
And California?
White water canoeing on the Trinity River
What is your favorite thing to do in Manhattan that you can do nowhere else?
Eating at The Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station
And California?
Doing a trans-Sierra hike going from Crescent Meadows across the Sierra Nevada Mountains and summiting Mt. Whitney
What has been your best Manhattan art or music experience?
I’m not there often enough
And California?
I wish I’d been able to see Hamilton in San Francisco
What do you personally do or what have you done to give back to the world?
I just retired from being a leader in the local St. Helena Boy Scout Troop 1 as both an adult leader, a Scout Master and Committee Chair. I believe Scouting today is more important than ever because it teaches young men integrity, honesty and develops character
What do you think is most underrated and overrated in Manhattan?
I don’t go there enough to know
And California?
Underrated: seeing the giant sequoias in Sequoia National Park
Overrated: Hollywood
Other than Movers and Shakers of course, what is your favorite WhomYouKnow.com column and what do you like about it?
Read This! I love the Ernest Hemingway features especially.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
I cherish having read C.S. Forester’s books about Horatio Hornblower
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
Call, email or write the winery 707/963-2283, 4022 Spring Mountain Road, St. Helena CA 94574, info@smithmadrone.com
