Randle Johnson - A modern day “Renaissance Man”

I first met Randle Johnson in 1985 at a tasting in Los Angeles where he was introducing The Hess Collection’s inaugural release of their 1983 Cabernet Sauvignon from Mt. Veeder. After the tasting, I spoke at length with him regarding the wines, The Hess Collection philosophy and the future of Mt. Veeder as a world-class growing area. This was followed by the first of many visits to the winery and marked the beginning of a four-decade friendship augmented by the depth of Randle’s talents, passion, knowledge and commitment to fine wine production.

By definition and connotation, a “Renaissance Man” is one who is well educated and displays a sense of talent, proficiency and innovation in his chosen field and beyond. Randle checks all the boxes while he also takes great pride and satisfaction in unselfishly sharing his knowledge and experience with others.

Randle began his college career with hopes of going to med-school when, through a professor’s encouragement, he was suddenly bitten by the “wine bug.” He graduated UC Davis in 1974 and worked his first harvest with Alex Vyborny, founder of Vyborny Vineyard Management, still one of Napa Valley’s premier caretakers of many highly respected vineyards.

His winemaking journey began the following year when Randle joined Souverain as assistant winemaker under the tutelage of legendary winemaker Phil Baxter and evolved over several engagements with each adding to his deep reservoir of knowledge, practical application and expertise. In 1977 he became cellarmaster at Mayacamas where owner, founder and winemaker Bob Travers helped Randle launch his Mt. Veeder career.

After five years working in the vineyards and wineries for others, Randle wanted to create his own project, so in 1979 (with Travers’ okay) he began purchasing Mt. Veeder fruit for his Calafia brand. The initial 1979 Calafia was made at Carl Doumani’s Stags’ Leap Winery as the facilities at Mayacamas could not house the new brand.

In 1980 Randle joined Doumani full-time while also establishing Calafia with a focus on a Bordeaux-style blend. A big proponent of Merlot, Randle chose Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc to complete the blend.

Randle’s winemaking career experienced a life-changing moment in 1983 when he joined Donald Hess as the founding winemaker for The Hess Collection in the Mt. Veeder region of Napa Valley. Donald, a Swiss national, was known as the “mineral water king” when his brand led the world in popularity and distribution. In 1978 Hess purchased 500 acres – including 30 planted – surrounding the Christian Brothers Novitiate high on the slopes of Mt. Veeder.

The vineyard was quickly expanded to over 100 acres and the facility was later converted to The Hess Collection’s hospitality center, tasting room, winery and massive art gallery exhibiting Hess’ impressive collection of paintings and sculptures.

Originally, Hess had no intention of making wine and only looked at the property through the eyes of an absentee owner while becoming successful in selling his grapes to a cadre of aspiring and established wineries. However, his friend and fellow Swiss national – Margarit Beaver (wife of Robert Mondavi) – had different thoughts she shared with Mondavi. So, whenever Hess visited his estate, Margarit was always quick to schedule a dinner.

Mondavi was known as a passionate advocate for Napa Valley and forceful proponent for its quality expansion. During each of these occasions, Mondavi would voice his observation and strong opinion on the vineyard’s excellence as evidenced by the success of those producing world-class wines from its fruit. This, according to Mondavi dictated the need for Hess to begin producing wine. Mondavi’s arguments were ultimately successful and in 1983 Hess hired Randle (on the recommendation of Domaine Chandon President John Wright) to lead the project and The Hess Collection was born.

From that time until his retirement in December 2020, Randle’s fortunes and expertise were closely tied to Hess’ international view of the wine market. In 1996, Randle accompanied Hess on a trip to Argentina to explore the possibility of importing Bodega Norton (one of Argentina’s most proclaimed wines) in the U.S. The exploration proved successful, and with his renaissance nature, Randle took on the additional roles of winemaker and vineyard consultant for Norton through constant contact and regular trips to Argentina.

The Hess team built the brand to 100,000 cases in the U.S. market when the parties decided to pursue other opportunities. In 2001, Hess purchased Colomé – another noteworthy high-altitude grower and producer in the Andean hills above Mendoza. This decision proved noteworthy though not necessarily at the most opportune moment.

On December 10, 2001 Argentina faced a final economic melt-down and the launch of an ultimately failed coup attempt resulting in seven presidents in six weeks. But in January 2002, Renaissance Randle continued on his mission to source equipment, build the winery and proceed with harvest just a few months away.

Adding to Randle’s January 2002 Argentinian challenges, Hess also decided to launch the Artezin brand back home. Randle commented on the flurry of events and challenges of the time, “As if my January 2002 arrival in Argentina in the midst of an economic meltdown and attempted coup wasn’t enough, we launched Artezin as a product of heirloom varieties and blends from heritage vineyards across northern California winegrowing areas.”

Despite the challenges, Randle was able to corral his resources and expertise to manage the external forces, and both Colomé and Artezin became successful brands under The Hess Collection umbrella.

Randle will celebrate his 49th Napa harvest this year and 65th overall that includes sixteen with Colomé in the southern hemisphere. His overall winemaking direction and goals were firmly established during his time at UC Davis where his studies with the iconic and trailblazing Professor Maynard Amarine forged his career-long path.

As Randle recalled, “Amarine was tough and structured while stressing varietal character in winegrowing and winemaking. We spent a week on each of the noble varieties and examined its varietal character despite any given winemaker’s stylistic impressions. This established my path to ensure from vineyard to glass each wine I produce conveys these qualities coupled with a strong ‘sense-of-place’ to truly express the vineyard’s personality while also exhibiting elegance, balance and finesse.”

Calafia is now entering its 45th vintage and the basic tenets of varietal character, sense-of-place and Bordeaux-style blends remain the cornerstone of the brand. Since the mid-1990s, Randle has refined the blends to consist of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot. This profile is found in their Napa Valley Cabernet that emphasizes Mt. Veeder fruit; as well as the flagship estate grown La Reina sourced from the Johnsons’ St. Helena home property with tightly spaced (meter-by-meter) planting.

Given Randle’s history with heirloom varieties and blends from heritage vineyards he has expanded Calafia’s scope with the inclusion of Verdelho (an eclectic white with roots in Portugal and Madeira), Zinfandel from Rockpile Vineyard in Sonoma and the once popular, then ignored and now re-born Charbono (aka Bonarda in Argentina) where he has joined a small group of “crusaders” who are fighting a valiant effort in the grape’s rebirth.

Throughout our four decades of friendship, I’ve been fortunate to taste extensively with Randle on countless occasions both individually and in group settings. While each experience has been unique, the common theme always remained the same. Rather than a lexicon of descriptors often depicting the contents of a fruit salad (so common in today’s critical world), Randle portrays each wine with a sense of history and purpose along with a clear-cut recognition of its varietal character and sense-of-place.

His ultimate message is each wine is different. Yet while standing on its own, it is also part of a complex web of vinous diversity. Randle approaches each vintage and tasting with a wealth of knowledge and personal experience that he humbly presents as only a “Renaissance Man” can, with a sense of pride and humility.