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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 38 WINES&VINES June 2017 W hen Barry Waitte was a student studying finance at California Polytechnic State University, he worked at a local wine shop. One day his boss opened a Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour that sparked a passion "and literally changed my life." Many years later, after a successful career in tech, Waitte checked out the niche sport of endurance horseback riding at the invitation of a friend. Waitte, who at the time competed in triathlons, was quickly hooked on the sport that pushes horse and rider to their respective limits. Those two defining moments, arrived at almost by chance, would lead to Waitte not just buying two vineyards in Napa Valley but later an equestrian center that in 2013 he converted to a modern winery with the capacity to host 19 custom-crush clients and still produce more than 10,000 cases of Waitte's own brand, Tamber Bey. Many wineries in Napa Valley are a temple to their owners' passions, but Waitte didn't build an equestrian center to make wine; he just lucked out in finding one that had languished on the market until he was ready to buy a winery. The brand had been somewhat unplanned too, as Waitte had purchased a 60-acre vineyard in Yountville and a prop- erty near Oakville in 1999, after retiring, with the goal of just being a grapegrower. A native of San Francisco, Waitte had grown up spending summers with his parents in Napa Valley. Later, as an executive with Apple (where he helped launch the Macintosh), AOL and venture capital firms, he began to collect wine during regular wine-tasting trips. When he was planning his exit from the tech industry, he wanted to join the wine world. "I decided to get into the wine busi- ness in some fashion, and what I decided to do was be a grower." he said. Around the same time, he also purchased his first horses to begin competing in endurance riding. A former colleague of his from Apple had competed in the sport and, curious, Waitte attended a race and was soon hooked. "Truth is I didn't ride a horse until I was 38 years old," he says. "When I saw this level of endurance and this partnership with the horse, I said, 'I have to do this.' I have to at least try." The larger vineyard property already supplied several established Napa Valley wineries, and Waitte thought when he planted the Oakville site he might start his own brand. Shortly after buying the properties, he met winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown, who was with Schrader Cellars and consulted for a few other clients making wine at Nicholson Ranch in Sonoma, Calif. Brown signed on to consult for Waitte and suggested they use some grapes from the larger Yountville property to get a wine program started. "He en- couraged me. He said, 'Let's take a little fruit out of that and see what we can do,'" Waitte recalled. An inaugural vintage of 150 cases was followed by 300 cases and 600 cases the next year, all sold through a wine club and under the Tamber Bey label. Waitte conceived the name from the names of his first two horses: Tamberena and Bayamo. He changed "Bay" to "Bey" because he didn't want consumers thinking the winery took its name from someplace Tamber Bey Vineyards Converted horse arena in Napa Valley provides custom-crush space and winemaking for all varieties By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT