When the owner of Adobe Road Winery, Kevin Buckler, was 20 years old in 1979 and traveling the wine regions of South Africa, he became fascinated by wine. After returning and building a large real estate firm, he became increasingly passionate about wine. By 1995, Buckler and three wine-loving friends decided it was time to actually make some wine.
After couple years of making a barrel or two with his partners, Buckler wanted more. He sold his real estate firm and bought out two of the three partners in 1998. By 2002, he was the sole owner.
“If you added it all up, we had about $600,000 in [capital] stuff for winemaking,” Buckler said during his swing through town in late September. “We took a mortgage on the house and I promised my wife that everything would be fine.”
Charming and charismatic, Buckler makes friends easily. One of these friends, a well-placed executive at Silver Oak Winery who remains anonymous at Buckler’s request, told Buckler to quietly bring his pickup truck to the west gate of Silver Oak’s Alexander Valley vineyards. Buckler was given the OK to fill the back of his truck with these highly prized grapes just before the pickers came to harvest the ripe fruit.
From 2003 to 2005, Buckler was buying amazing grapes and making about 1,000 cases of respectable wine. As his fortunes in the business improved, Buckler realized he would need to build a winery.
Buckler wondered out loud one day in 2006 how he would ever get the funds to expand. Fortunately, he was standing quite close to a couple of gentlemen who were instrumental in the great achievements in his other career.
“We don’t want to own a winery,” as Buckler recalled the discussion with the soon-to-be investors. “But we would like to help you out.”
Buckler’s other career?
Buckler is one of the most successful race car drivers and team owners in the United States. If you’re not familiar with his name, it’s because you don’t follow Grand Am racing. That’s where highly modified sports cars race in places like Le Mans, France, where Buckler himself has won. His company, The Racer’s Group, operates out of the other side of his “modest” tasting room. More recently, TRG has fielded teams in a number of racing categories, including ARCA, NASCAR Truck Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Buckler was in Atlanta for the 10-hour Le Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. His No. 63 Porche 911 beat the Porche factory team by five seconds in the GT Challenge.
But back to the wine business. Several million dollars of investment money later, Buckler had his 8,000-square-foot winery filled with shiny, refrigerated fermentation tanks and all the other trappings required to make quality wine. He now produces 5,000 cases of well-regarded cabernet sauvignon, syrah, zinfandel and sauvignon blanc. His fame and fortune mostly comes from motor sports, but he knew he had finally made it in the wine business when several tourists showed up at his tasting room one day and asked: “What are all these sports cars doing here?”
Gil Kulers is a certified wine educator with the Society of Wine Educators. You can reach him at gil.kulers@winekulers.com.
2006 Adobe Road, Bacigalupi Vineyard, Petite Sirah, Russian River Valley, Calif.
$40
Golden Thumb Award
This wine has everything, aromas of violets, dark chocolate, plum and dark berry fruits. Despite its full-body, it has a smoothness to it with intriguing flavors of blackberry, black cherry, tart raspberry and blueberry with distinct mineral notes. It finishes with a playful touch of jalapeño.
2006 Adobe Road Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Calif.
$35
Two Thumbs Way Up
Quite aromatic with earthy scents of leather, black cherry and violets. Nicely balanced with flavors of ripe black cherry, notes of cinnamon, a touch of toffee and fresh acidic tartness.
Note: Wines are rated on a scale ranging up from Thumbs Down, One Thumb Mostly Up, One Thumb Up, Two Thumbs Up, Two Thumbs Way Up and Golden Thumb Award. Prices are suggested retail prices as provided by the winery, one of its agents, a local distributor or retailer.
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