Having started: out picking grapes, the master wine maker now beats out Europe's fare - Executive Leader

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Dec, 2003 by Harding Masson

Elias Fernandez Master Winemaker Shafer Vineyards Napa, CA

Elias Fernandez is a long-time Napa Valley winemaker; crafting world-class wines for Shafer Vineyards. The limited-production wines from this small estate in the Stags' Leap District appear in top hotels and restaurants across the US, Europe, and Asia. Each year wine collectors look forward to stocking their cellars with bottles of Shafer Vineyards' signature wine, Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay and other wines, including their newest Relentless Syrah, (so named by winery president Doug Shafer to honor Elias's relentless pursuit of perfection in winemaking). Wine critic Robert Parker calls Shafer Vineyards "... unquestionably the star of the Stags' Leap appellation."

In 2002, Quarterly Review of Wines named Elias "Winemaker of the Year." Shafer Vineyards was recently selected as among the "25 Great Vineyards in the World" by Wine & Spirits magazine. And in April of that year, Fernandez was honored locally when his likeness appeared on a mural unveiled in downtown Napa, alongside Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Cesar Chavez, celebrating Hispanic culture.

On October 2, 2002, he accepted a prestigious "Hall of Fame" award from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in Washington DC and attended a White House reception hosted by President George W. Bush.

The following day, on October 3, at a dinner in San Francisco he accepted another milestone award, that of "Winemaker of the Year" from Food and Wine magazine.

Elias didn't come to his place in the world of fine wine from a background of privilege or ease. This self-effacing, soft-spoken man earned his success because he knows Napa Valley vineyards from the roots up. He knows first-hand what it's like to labor in 100-degree heat among dusty vine rows, as well as the difficulties of pruning vines on a freezing winter morning.

It was here that he learned that grapes have to be selected from the very best fruit, which have the correct intensity of flavor and are chosen from the way the vines are growing. What winemakers look for is full berry development, the right seeds, good potential color extraction, and the color that's already in the skin when the grapes are harvested.

Elias's father came to the US from the state of Michoacan in Mexico and worked in the San Joaquin Valley as a farm laborer. His mother was born in Napa Valley where her father was a laborer who helped build the rail line Oral runs through Yountville and laid brick on additions to Vintage 1870.

Elias's parents met and married in Stockton, California, where Elias was born; they moved to Napa Valley a few days after his birth.

They were a poor, hard-working family. Both parents picked plums and walnuts in the days before wine grapes became the predominant crop in the Valley. Some of Elias's earliest memories are in these orchards. In fact, there is a family photo of him as a child sitting in one of the picking buckets.

In junior high, Elias started working in vineyards with his father, where he learned to drive tractors, train and prune grapevines, and from both parents he learned the value of hard work and self reliance.

"From my dad I learned a lot of commonsense things--working with people, driving a tractor, building trellis systems, and doing the everyday work in the vineyard," Elias says.

"From my morn I learned that I needed an education."

"It wasn't until junior high that I realized we were poor. During school vacations my friends would actually go on vacation, and I would go to work," says Fernandez. "On the other hand, I really liked what I did, and I liked having my own money."

In third grade, with his mother's encouragement, he had started playing the trumpet in the school band. He played all the way through high school and distinguished himself so much he received a Fulbright music scholarship to attend the jazz program at the University, of Nevada, Reno. He was the first person in his family to go to college.

After a year in Reno, Elias says something just clicked, and he began to feel an urge to return to his agricultural roots. "I started to look around Napa Valley and realized what a beautiful place this is," he says. "I began to think, 'What about winemaking?'"

His mother asked around to help Elias get an idea of what kind of prospects such a venture might offer. She came back to him shaking her head. The news wasn't good. "Everyone told her it didn't look like there was a big future in winemaking," he says.

Even so, in 1981 he enrolled at University of California, Davis, to study enology, the science of winemaking.

"I went from studying music to science," he says, recalling the difficulty of the switch.

His first chemistry class was held in an auditorium with 1,000 other students.

"It was overwhelming," he says. "You have to remember where I came from--my graduating class at St. Helena High was just over 100 kids."

He studied hard for that first chemistry test and thought he did pretty well. Then he got his score--he'd earned a D-minus. He was sick at heart.