The Wine Cellar: Adobe Road Wines

Racing inspires series of winning wines

BY WILL HOWARD

As the morning sun was rising over the mountains of California’s Central Coast I caught up with racing legend Kevin Buckler during his morning commute on I-5. He was driving a Porsche, of course. Porsche was an early supporter that got Buckler into Le Mans. As a driver Buckler, took 1st place at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2002. He is now the founder and CEO of The Racers Group (TRG) and Adobe Road Winery.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will have the city buzzing March 13-16. TRG is racing that weekend, but today I am just as interested in Kevin’s other passion, Adobe Road Winery.

Buckler’s interest in the wine business began as a college student working a harvest season in Stellenbosch, South Africa. After some successful business moves in real estate development, he decided to only work in businesses that he was passionate about. That led to racing and wine.

In the beginning Adobe Road Winery was a small wine club operation. Today, Adobe Road is opening a state of the art facility in Petaluma, California, working with an exciting and creative winemaker (Garrett Martin), and utilizing some of the best vineyards in California (Beckstoff er Georges III, Bacigalupi, Bavarian Lion, and Famighetti Vineyards). Buckler’s philosophy in the extremely challenging businesses of motorsports and wine is the “Endurance Racing Mentality.” The endurance racing mentality means not being distracted by the competition and not making any mistakes. The others will “inevitably make a little mistake” and that is when you overtake the competition, according to Buckler.

In 2015, Buckler brought on Garrett Martin as the winemaker for Adobe Road. Martin is the perfect partner because he is smart, high energy, collaborative, and doesn’t back down from Buckler’s challenges. Their latest project is The Racing Series. These are a series of wines that allude to TRG’s racing history.

The wines include: Apex – A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, and Petit Verdot from Dry Creek Valley, Rockpile, and Knights Valley in Sonoma County. This is the premier wine of the Racing Series lineup.

Redline – A Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel based blend sourced primarily from Napa. This is the bottle that introduces you to the power and precision of The Racing Series wines.

Shift – This is a rare red blend containing Zinfandel, Barbera, Grenache, Petite Sirah, and Carignane. The bottle has a stunning presentation with a metal label that looks just like the gated shift plate of a classic Ferrari and a 5-speed shift knob as a cork.

The 24 – A Rhone blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah with the unique addition of Malbec to fi nish the blend. The label pays homage to the winery’s endurance racing success with checkered fl ags set behind a Rolex that times the 24 hour races of Daytona and Le Mans.

Buckler also shared with me that there is one more wine coming soon to the Racing Series. The fi fth wine will be a bold blend of Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, and Malbec called Carbon. I haven’t tried this wine yet, but Buckler and his team are not accustomed to failure. I’m sure Carbon will be another winner in the series.

All of the Adobe Road wines, including the Racing Series, are small lot productions and the best chance of fi nding these wines is directly from the winery at adoberoadwines.com.

Will Howard is Sommelier and Wine Director at Rococo Steak in St. Petersburg.