Tonight, Slow Living Radio explores another iconic Napa Valley wine family - Viader Vineyard and Winery.
DELIA VIADER
Owner / Winemaker
Born in Argentina, proprietor
Delia Viader spent much
of her 
After MIT, she moved
to California and
continued business school
at the University of California Berkeley.
During her studies, she realized
the opportunities in the United
States for both starting
a career and raising children in a healthy environment.
Recognizing the
potential of the up and
coming
wine region nearby, Delia soon
set
her sights on purchasing land
in the Napa
Valley and subsequently plunged into the wine business in
the early 1980s. With
an initial loan from her father, Engr. Walter Viader,
she acquired their Howell
Mountain property
and
set out to create a world
class wine estate.
Delia continued
learning about winemaking through programs in
Enology
and Viticulture offered
at University of California,
Davis to better learn the practical
theory behind making fine wine.
All while raising four
children on her own,
Delia forged the vision and
design for this unique estate vineyard property,
wine blend and brand. Delia’s story illustrates the
importance of
education and
understanding coupled with
following one’s instincts. The VIADER estate
and Delia’s wines have consistently reflected these strengths.
As a leader within
the
local wine community, Delia
contributes her
perspective and industry experience to the
Napa Valley Vintners and
California Wine Institute where she currently
serves on the Board for both
organizations. Her
history with the
Napa Valley Vintners dates as
far back as 1990 where she and
a select group of local vintner
leaders helped frame the
organization’s strategic plan.
Since then, Delia has helped spearhead Premiere Napa
Valley – an
annual grand tasting and futures trade auction that
consistently raises more
than $4 million each year, and
has also contributed to Auction Napa
Valley in various roles, spending a decade as part of
the beneficiary vetting
committee
and helping to set the focus
and
parameters that would
determine adjudication of funds.
ALAN VIADER
Director of Operations
/ Winemaker
Alan spent
his
childhood on his family's vineyard estate on
Howell Mountain. His early
education in wine and formal schooling helped shape
his respect for terroir-driven wines, organic farming, and
diverse viticultural
practices from
around the world.
He started
working in the family vineyards at the age of nine
and continued to help throughout his
childhood, including working as cellarhand in the caves at VIADER. After high school, he
pursued his passion for
grape growing with
a hands-on program in Sonoma where he received
a degree in Viticulture
Management. In
2002, Alan officially stepped in as Vineyard Manager for VIADER in 2002, while simultaneously continuing his education at UC Davis,
where he learned
the fundamentals in winemaking. In 2005, Alan worked a harvest at Achavel-Ferrer
winery in Mendoza, Argentina, which convinced him
that winemaking was his calling.
Alan
officially stepped
in as lead winemaker
for VIADER in 2006.
Today, he continues to
oversee vineyard management operations while working
in all areas of wine production together with his mother, Delia at
VIADER.
An avid adventurer
and
seasoned
traveler, Alan
continues to
visit the world’s best wine producers and
wine growing regions throughout Argentina,
Portugal, Spain,
Italy, Germany and France.
In 2013, he went to
the University of Sciences Agro to study viticulture
in Bordeaux, France.
A hands-on experimentalist and
eternal student of the vine,
Alan
has been at the forefront of trialing and
adopting the right combination
of organic,
biodynamic and
sustainable practices, not to
mention new technology integrations that optimally benefit the quality of VIADER wines. In the
cellar, Alan has been
equally fervent about
delivering better quality results,
experimenting
with
different blends, yeasts, fermentations, barreling,
etc., always open to new ideas, trials and
opportunities to responsibly deliver
improved quality wines.
Alan is married to Mariela, his
Guatemalan sweetheart
and dedicated mother to their
three children. He loves
grilling, hiking, camping
and riding Enduro motorcycles throughout the beautiful
Sierra Nevada Mountains,
but can sometime be found exploring dirt tracks in
Baja California, Mexico. Alan is also
a member of the Napa County
Sheriff’s Volunteer Search
& Rescue team.
As the right-hand to his mother
& founder, Delia Viader, Alan oversees VIADER production from start to finish. Having inherited
his
mother’s passion for winemaking
and expressing VIADER’s unique terroir, Alan is looking forward to continuing
the family business for many exciting vintages and
generations to come.
JANET VIADER
Director of Sales &
Marketing
Janet Viader grew
up in the Napa
Valley on
the vineyards of her
amily’s winery, VIADER. Janet has been involved in the family
business since a very early
age and has witnessed firsthand the growth of the business and brand.
Janet studied
Political Science at both the University of California
at Berkeley and
Sciences Po University in Paris, France. She
loves wine and has traveled
to the wine regions of Western Europe, Argentina, and
the Pacific Northwest improving her
wine
education,
language skills and palate.
She officially joined the family business in
2007 after working in Buenos Aires, and assisting the immigration counsel at
Napa Legal Aid.
Following
in the footsteps of her
mother’s passion for their family,
wines and
business, Janet,
who celebrates 10 years working
in the family business this year, offers a genuinely compelling and
deeply personal perspective
growing up on and literally with the
vineyard since the
very first vines went in the
ground.
And as passionate as she is about her family’s winery, she is
equally
passionate about advocating for
the
Napa and California wine communities, which VIADER has become such
an ingrained part
of over the past
three decades. Janet
is
currently a member of the board
for the Napa Ag Preserve and
previously served on
the board of the Napa Valley Vintners for five years where,
among
many responsibilities, she traveled to
Washington and helped preserve the agricultural integrity of Napa by
helping to thwart the possibility
of a Napa Valley casino.
With her brother Alan, Janet is
part of “NG: The Next Generation in Wine,” a collaborative marketing group of second generation family vintners. Outside of wine, you
can find Janet performing
at the local community
theater, brushing up on her swing
dancing skills
and
training for her next triathlon.
About Viader
Built on the foundations of family,
perseverance and
determination,
VIADER (pronounced Veeya
Dare)
thrives today as a
multigenerational, internationally-recognized boutique Napa Valley
first growth estate specializing
in limited-production, mountain- grown Bordeaux-style blends.
Planted with
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec,
Syrah
and Petit Verdot at a
steep, 32 % slope, the 1300-ft
elevation VIADER
estate is a one-of-a-kind 92-acre vineyard parcel delivering low-yield,
exceptional
fruit
reflective
of VIADER’s unique Howell Mountain terroir. Favoring
a softer,
finesse-driven style focused on terroir,
elegance
A trailblazer
among the Napa Valley winemaking
community, VIADER has been forging new frontiers since the
winery’s inaugural
Howell Mountain
vineyard planting in 1986, which entailed a couple
of sticks of dynamite,
an unconventional vision
and a nontraditional visionary:
Delia Viader. As one of the
first female winemakers in the
Napa Valley, Delia Viader was also
one of the first vintners in
the region to plant her vines vertically up and
down the hillside, as opposed to California’s
typical horizontal terracing and
one
of the first in Napa
to tackle and successfully showcase Cabernet
Franc as a deserving
blending companion with Napa’s King,
Cabernet Sauvignon.
For more than
30 years, Delia Viader’s
pioneering spirit has lived
up to the colloquial “dare” in
VIADER – a spirit that continues to permeate
throughout all facets of the family business. Born in Argentina and
raised in Europe, with much of her time in France,
Delia’s ambitions to pursue post-graduate education
in California as a single
mother of four resulted in an
entrepreneurial venture that not even Delia could
have predicted. Enamored
by the quiet, yet up
and coming energy of
the
Napa Valley in
the 80’s, it was along the
steep, rocky volcanic slopes of Howell Mountain
that Delia entertained
the radical idea of
pursuing her
own vineyard. It was a small
site hindered by large,
almost impenetrable rocks
that likely would have been
passed over
as
too difficult to
plant for years and
even
decades to come, if
it weren’t for
the foresight and determination of a young, driven
woman from Europe
who
saw something
special and her father who furnished the initial loan
to lay down roots on
this
otherwise untouched
Napa Valley mountainside.
While it
did require several rounds of dynamite to handle some of
the larger rocks, Delia’s
vision, inspired by the
Old World vineyards of Bordeaux that
she
remembered fondly from
her travels in France, soon
took shape with the groundbreaking
release of the
winery’s inaugural 1989 vintage of VIADER (“Liquid Cashmere”): a non-traditional Napa
Valley Cabernet
Franc / Cabernet Sauvignon blend that
would set the stage for
future award-winning vintages to come.
Today’s
operation is a genuine family affair,
with
active first and second
generation leadership
on the
frontlines. Inspired by Delia’s
passion
and the land that has ultimately become the figurative
and literal rock of the Viader family,
Delia’s daughter (Director of Sales &
Marketing) and son
(Winemaker
and Director of Operations) are wholly invested
in carrying on
the VIADER legacy for future generations,
while also contributing
their own unique passions and personalities.
The Viader
family’s roots run deep;
from
the live, working
vineyard
on that steep rocky slope that Delia
envisioned all those years ago, to
the multigenerational family legacy that
continues to evolve and
strengthen with
each
and every vintage.
VIADER’s reputation for
crafting
consistently
superior wines also
continues to
flourish, achieving national and
international recognition from
the industry’s most
well-respected sommeliers, reviewers,
influencers and even world-renowned producers. Drawing inspiration
from
all over the world, and
never
content to settle,
VIADER Vineyards &
Winery is a true force majeure that continues
to move mountains, one
bottle of wine at a time.
~ Cheers to the next 30
years! ~
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