Crafting Excellence
Winemaker Joe Harden's Journey from Courtside to Countryside
By W Peter Hoyne
I have interviewed many fascinating producers and winemakers through the years, yet a recent interview with winemaker Joe Harden of Nickel & Nickel Winery left me awe-struck. His dedication, enthusiasm toward winemaking and steadfast work ethic seem to transcend others who view this profession as an arduous task. He has remarkable calmness and demeanor with a competitive approach to continually excel in all that he does, which was a gift given to him through his athletic abilities. He has become a beacon of success in a Napa Valley environment that has left many behind.
Joe Harden had the perfect surroundings, growing up on his family’s 30-acre vineyards in the town of Acampo, just north of Lodi, California. His family grew older vine Cabernet Sauvignon and some Sauvignon Blanc which they sold to Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley. His father was on the wine sales side of the business working for a wholesaler and wine was always part of their family meals.
Joe had an affinity for basketball and was well gifted in playing the sport. Attending St Mary’s High School in Stockton he pursued basketball earning many titles and honors including MVP before accepting a scholarship to play guard in basketball at the University of Notre Dame. The chilly Midwest weather and distance from his family lured him back to California. At this point Joe admits “ I didn’t know which way that I wanted to go in the wine business, but knew that it was in my blood. Not a great salesman, I'd much rather be walking vineyards or pulling hoses in the cellars than trying to sell wine. So I went to Davis and did the whole viticulture and enology program and really fell in love with the whole process, like being in the vineyards and working with the team.” After transferring to the University of California, Davis Joe continued his studies while also playing basketball. He tried to make the NBA after graduating and was drafted by the California State Warrior G-League. Later, he played for a pro team in Melbourne, Australia, but after being overseas for years he had an itch to return home and “get into the wine game.” Through his father’s relationships in the wine business, he was able to secure an internship at Robert Mondavi Winery. What he thought would be a three month harvest internship turned into an extended apprenticeship under the tutelage of Genevieve Janssens, an accomplished French trained enologist and Director of Winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery.
Soon Joe was scouting the Tokalon Vineyards, operating the lab and diligently working alongside Genevieve during harvest. According to Joe, “she really took me under her wing. She has been my mentor since the minute I stepped foot in Napa. She is incredibly talented and taught me everything I know. I still talk to her to this day.” He advanced to become an enologist at the winery before Genevieve offered him an esteemed position as winemaker for Mondavi’s Bordeaux-styled wines. As Joe recalls, “so it was a fast track and a right into the fire situation. So being an athlete and being in the basketball world, it was sink or swim. I was just a sponge and to this day, still am a sponge. She really set me up. I spent seven harvests at Mondavi.” He also got to see outside ToKalon working with accomplished winemakers Thomas Rivers Brown and Andy Erickson.
“Then the Far Niente Family called me, kind of through Genvieve. She said you know you have learned so much here, but you might want to work for a smaller family and kind of shrink production, which is where my passion was.” The Far Niente Family offered him a position as winemaker of the Nickel and Nickel brand, since their current winemaker was retiring. Conveniently, it was located right across the street from Robert Mondavi.
Joe recalls, “I had a huge appreciation and respect for Nickel & Nickel, for the single vineyard approach. It is a totally different mindset in terms of viticulture and making the wines. I knew it was going to be hard, but when I first stepped foot here it really was kind of again jumping right into the fire. It was a whole different beast.
It is in the level of attention to detail and intensity that I love. With bigger wineries, you can pick a vineyard a little early or you can pick a vineyard a little late and the blend will be fantastic. But here with single vineyards, everything from pruning, to leafing, to dropping fruit, every vineyard needs to get done exactly at the right time and harvesting at just the right time, because these wines stand alone. There is an intensity to it that I love. We have a great team. It’s been a blast trying to figure these vineyards out in top years and amazing years, seeing these vineyards to fruition.”
I asked Joe what motivates him each day, considering he has a lot of responsibilities as a winemaker and there are many moving parts at the winery. “ I think the ever evolving business of wine and understanding vineyards. This is my seventh harvest and I am still really learning these vineyards and so I think trying to make the best wine possible, lead a team and have fun with your team and have everybody love going to work, that motivates me. My family motivates me. A little bit of everything. I am a competitive person. I like trying to make the company and the people around me happy and proud of what we are doing, so it’s a complicated question. I really like what I do, I think it’s a lot of fun. My work with my team here is amazing. It takes a team to make these wines. It’s a very difficult task in great vintages let alone challenging vintages. Surrounding myself with great people trying to make fun wine. That is my goal.”
At this early stage of his career, I was curious if he had yet achieved his great accomplishment. “I don’t think so. I don’t know if I ever will. I have made wines that I am really proud of and some get high accolades and some don’t. That does not really move the ship for me.
It’s more about, you know, the beautiful thing about wine is at the end of the day, opening it up with family and friends and a lot of sweat and tears go into each bottle, so that is the beauty of wine."
Joe crafts 20 single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons and three single-vineyard Chardonnays and as he sees it “I like the small lot stuff.” With so many unique vineyard sites is it really possible to identify distinct characteristics within each of them? “I think each vineyard has its own personality and then they get either polished or malleted down by the vintage. We are trying to make wines that have a specific place, but also represent the vintage. So if you taste the 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Sullinger Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, you are going to see a constant theme, but you are also going to see a little bit of nuance in the vintage. Some years are warmer, some are a little cooler and so there are going to be little nuances that kind of shape that vineyard in that particular year. And then if you taste all of the different vineyards in the same vintage you are going to really see the different personalities of the vineyard shine.
When you really look at the minutiae of Sullinger, you are going to see a touch of vintage variation every year, but the base is always going to be black olive, black pepper, a mix of red and black fruit, nice strong bold tannins, good weight and intensity. Our Oak Knoll Vaca Vista, is a little cooler, and is going to be a little more perfumed and spicy, a little bit more red fruited. You will see that year in and year out.
I think CC Ranch Vineyard is one of the prettiest wines we make and it’s one of my favorite wines we make. I love them all, but I think it’s very distinct aromatically, there is always like this dried herb aromatic and this pretty red fruit, really soft and silky. Not a big structured mountain wine, it is really elegant, it’s kind of pretty. It’s got a little more acid. I think it is very distinct, distinctively different than Sullinger.
State Ranch Vineyard on the other hand, moving a little bit south into Yountville, I think that is a powerful wine. The soil there is insanely rocky, so we get great drainage. The berries are small and tiny so that they’re really kind of focused dark fruited, dense, structured, powerful wine.”
As with some wineries there is a house style that is easy to identify, so I asked if there was a Joe Harden signature style. “I don’t think so. I have a general idea of wines that I like, that I can fit into a style. I don’t like getting the vineyard too ripe. I think you lose a sense of place if you let them get too ripe, they’ll start tasting like a big, jammy Napa Cab. I like Napa Cabernet that has freshness, fresh fruit and vibrance. I like vibrant wines. I think I have an idea of what we like, but every vineyard is different. We don’t have a house style. We don’t have a reserve and then a Napa. We have each individual vineyard. What’s beautiful, I was pouring in New York last week, I could be pouring six different vineyards and every sixth person that comes up, they like a different wine for a different reason. We kind of have a wine that fits different palates and different people's expression of what they think Napa Cab is versus a reserve.
Every year we are trying to make the best wine possible. You can come to Nickel & Nickel and really take a walk through Napa Valley and really see, ok this is Northern Napa it’s warmer, darker fruit, softer and silkier. Going into Oak Knoll, a little colder, I could smell that and I could feel that. It is a great learning experience, whether you’re crazy advanced or you have never been. I think there are not a lot of wineries that have that map that you can walk, where you can really see the different AVA’s and why we keep them separate, because they are so different. We like the purest approach. I never chase trends. We are going to make wines that we are really proud of. We are not going to chase trends or fads. We are just trying to give our best shot at each individual vineyard. It’s our best effort.”
Given his background and relationships in basketball, Joe takes pleasure in crafting wine for NBA players and professional athletes. He has worked on a project with NBA champion Klay Thompson and MLB player Nolan Arenado called Diamond & Key. He urges them only to make the kind of wine that they would drink themselves.
He is also involved with a project with his assistant winemaker Phil Holbrok, who has been working with Joe for the last 10 years. “He and I have our own project together where we’re making Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and we’re making a Howell Cab called Salty Goat. That scratches a big curiosity itch for me. Getting to try new things and open up my eyes to outside of Napa Valley.”
In the end, how does Joe reflect on his legacy? “A lot of ego in the wine business. Wine can be pretentious. For me, I want to lead a team of people that come to work happy, we can joke around and work really hard together, we can grind and sweat together, but everyone is having fun. I would like to be remembered as a guy who worked really hard, but had a lot of fun. Let’s show up to work with a smile on our face and really be excited about the wines we are making and be proud of what we are doing. It’s a lot of work, but don’t forget how much fun we are having.”
As Joe reflects on his career, “there are a lot of similarities with sports and winemaking. They kind of like mesh. Once I was done playing professionally, it was really an awesome transition from basketball shoes to work boots. It’s been a fun ride so far.”
