At first pass, cultivating the delicate fruit of grapevines into a world-class Cabernet Sauvignon might seem to have little in common with flying. But that's only if you've never talked to Bo Barrett.
Barrett is the winemaker at the Chateau Montelena Winery in Calistoga, California, which has been owned and run by his family since 1972. Barrett's father used a series of small single- and twin-engine airplanes to commute between his law practice in Los Angeles and the winery before taking on the wine business full-time, and Barrett often flew with him. "I used to love going anywhere in the airplane with my dad," Barrett recalls. "So I always knew I wanted to be a pilot. The surprise was that I ended up a farmer, as well."
Barrett learned to fly while attending the University of Utah, where he officially majored in general edu-cation but admits that he "really majored in skiing." He joined ROTC with the idea of becoming an Air Force pilot, but he turned out to have a color vision deficiency that barred him from a military flying career. Barrett then decided to pursue a career in law, but he kept working at the family vineyard several months a year to support his skiing and flying habits.
In the course of those summers at the vineyard, however, Barrett discovered that winemaking required a lot of the same qualities and offered some of the same rewards as flying. "Winemaking is a passion-oriented business that requires 100 percent focus, just like flying," he explains. "And both of them are a blend of art, science, hard work, and cranial exercise. You can be a sloppy winemaker, just like you can be a sloppy pilot — but if you want to create quality wine, it's like trying to be a really good pilot. You have to know where you want to go, preplan all your moves, and be ready to adjust, because things change constantly."
Barrett soon decided to forego law and set about learning the wine business. Even that was like flying, according to Barrett, because "for the first 10 years, it's like earning your ratings and building time as a flight instructor. You don't make any money."
But when more money became available, Barrett and a partner bought a Beechcraft Debonair, which he uses for both business and pleasure. "Sales in the wine business have always been driven by individual personalities, especially in California," he says. Getting his products on the wine lists of restaurants usually requires personal sales calls, and wine collectors often request his presence at wine tasting events. "Without an airplane, it would take a lot more hours to get to the places we need to go," he explains. Some of the bigger wineries use large corporate aircraft, but the smaller winemakers rely on small airplanes.
The Debonair is more than just a sales tool. "The wine business demands a lot of attention and long days, so to get away from it, I need to have something equally absorbing and passionate," he says. "When I get too stressed out, I get in the Debonair and fly over the coast, the vineyards, and the valley for an hour or so, and then I'm ready to go at it again."
Indeed, Barrett says it's no coincidence that many of the Napa Valley winery owners are pilots, as well. "Both the flying community and the wine business are made up of independent thinkers who value freedom and want to be in sole control of their success and life," he explains. "Winemaking is not for the weak of heart. If you're going to plant a crop that isn't going to pay for 12 years, you'd better have a certain spirit of adventure. So flying appeals to a lot of us."
Like flying, winemaking also seems to attract people who are driven by a love for what they do rather than by pure material success. When Barrett talks about his work, it is with the passion of an artist. "Making wine is a powerful process," he says. "We take the flavors of a specific piece of earth in a single growing season and draw them out through the vines into a bottle. Each bottle reflects the unique soil and season that produced it. In the case of a Chardonnay, it's like painting a watercolor, because we add and blend things together to create it. Making a Cabernet, on the other hand, is like creating a sculpture. You carefully carve away at it to create the final product."
Barrett clearly gets a kick out of the competitive element of the business, as well. An impish grin comes across his face as he tells of creating one of the first California wines to beat the French in an international competition. "When you win something like that," he says, "it's the same feeling you get when you break out of the clouds at minimums at Monterey and you're right over the numbers. You go, 'Yeah! I love this!'"
Although the future is uncertain in both farming and aviation, Barrett hopes that his family will continue its involvement in both. His wife Heidi has soloed, and he thinks that both of his daughters may become pilots one day. Meanwhile, Barrett seems pretty content. "I've been flying and making wine for 22 years, and I love it," he says. "My goal isn't to make as much as possible. It's to make handcrafted wines and have a good time in life."
