THE BROTHERS FIRESTONE
Adam and Andrew refine the family legacy at their
Santa Barbara wine estate
Story by Susan Kostrzewa
Photos by Victoria Yee
www.winecountryliving.net Catching a quiet moment with Adam and Andrew Firestone is a lot like glimpsing a solar eclipse. As our camera clicks away and the brothers shift angles for the best shot, one has the feeling that these two fast-moving entities rarely cross physical paths. Indeed, Adam the president and Andrew the sales manager of Firestone Family Estates are on quite different orbits. Adam oversees the wine and beermaking, runs day-to-day operations and puts out fires, and Andrew, a national celebrity since his 2003 role on TV’s The Bachelor, travels the country hawking wares from one of Santa Barbara’s oldest commercial wineries.
Though the duo is down-to-earth, they are more than a little publicity savvy; after all, they’re part of a pedigreed bloodline whose life in the public eye stretches back to great-grandfather Harvey, the tire tycoon, hobnobbing with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In addition to running the winery for 22 years, Adam and Andrew’s father, Brooks, served as a member of the California State Assembly for two terms and was recently elected as Santa Barbara County supervisor. Their mother, Kate, is a former soloist for the British Royal Ballet.
“There’s an implicit pressure in the family to be successful,” says eldest son Adam, a former Marine and Santa Barbara attorney whom Brooks tapped as estate president in 1995. “I think it’s in the genes. There’s a level of creativity and of restlessness, and also a desire to always be growing, on all levels.”
That drive first applied itself to the winery business in 1972, when Brooks and his father, Leonard, began planting Riesling, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines on their 300-acre property in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County. The duo believed that the area, then a cattle and horse-ranching region with no established wine industry, had the kind of soil and climate ideal for growing grapes. It was also a chance for Kate and Brooks to start a very different, slower-paced life.
“Kate and I spent 12 years in the tire business,” says Brooks, who is still chairman of the wine estate. “We wanted something that was rural and qualitative. The idea of living in the country and farming of being involved attracted us. We were living in England (where Brooks was director of the Great Britain branch of Firestone Tire and Rubber) and came over as a family.”
Establishing the San Antonio Ranch on the Santa Ynez land, the clan shifted into a farming and ranching mode by their account, the antithesis of Park Avenue posh. Family photos lining the walls of the current Firestone tasting room chronicle an upbringing of hands-on harvests, cellar work and collaborative family workdays the norm in a region more populated by cattle than humans.
“When the kids were growing up, they rode horses and learned how to move cattle,” says Kate. “That lifestyle is good for children, because they learn to be responsible and can’t live a spoiled life.”
The grit of the area also proved beneficial. “There’s not a lot of formality here,” she explains, describing the valley as perfect for people who like the lifestyle but not the glamour. “You never know who your neighbors are if you found out who they were, your eyes would drop out. But you never know until the eulogy.”
At the prompting of Kate and Brooks, the Firestone children set off to pursue a variety of careers, among them acting (Polly), institutional finance (Andrew), school administration (Hayley), and law (Adam). Though the siblings all worked in various capacities for the winery over the years, Brooks still envisioned a settled working legacy. “Of course I hoped to pass the business on to someone in the family,” he says, “but we encouraged everyone to go out and test themselves, which they have.”
Meanwhile, the Firestone winemaking endeavors flourished. Joined in 1975 by winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff, who consulted on the first vintages, the winery surprised skeptics throughout the 1970s and ’80s who maintained that neither the tire heir nor the land was capable of producing noteworthy wines. Chardonnay and Merlot were especially lauded. “Proving a new area is formidable,” says Brooks. “We were out of the mainstream. I realized it would take time, and it did. I was so lucky to live in a time when the industry came of age.”
After two decades of directing the winery (and establishing Curtis Winery, a limited-production winery specializing in Rhone varietals, as well as Prosperity Wines), Brooks turned to politics. That’s when eldest son Adam, a determined personality whose character-building endeavors included serving in a Desert Storm Marine Corps battalion, stepped in.
“he winery was state-of-the-art in the 1970s,” says Adam, who spent formative summers working in the vineyards and had participated in a number of harvests over the years. “But since then, new wineries had come in and eclipsed us. The biggest challenge was the generational change, which involves all quarters and stretches into the winemaking techniques. Generational families have to make generational changes.”
Among those changes was uprooting some grape varieties cherished by Brooks but not particularly suited to the valley’s climate. Adam laughed as he recalled these activities. “When I tore out the Pinot vines, my Dad was like ‘What are you doing?’ It was like I shot the family dog. But we needed to get the vineyards up-to-date.”
The aggressive approach was furthered by winemaker Kevin Willenborg. Joining the winery in the spring of 2001, Willenborg tackled the project with experience garnered from positions at France’s Chteau Petrus, Napa’s Louis Martini and CedarCreek Winery in British Columbia.
“When I interviewed with Adam, there was clearly a renewed commitment to taking the wine up a notch,” says Willenborg. “The infrastructure was already in place, but we needed to change how we managed the vineyard. I looked at the vineyard and saw there was potential nice, evenly composed mesas, good soil. My style is predicated on physiologically ripened fruit in the vineyard. I saw a goldmine.”
While updates to the canopy systems and irrigation system advanced the endeavor, Willenborg also attributes the vibrancy of the Firestone fruit to the unique east-west orientation of the surrounding mountain ranges and the cooling maritime influence.
“We have a longer, more drawn-out growing season (than Napa and Sonoma) and are in the most southerly latitude of anywhere I have ever worked,” he says. “During the peak days it gets to 100 degrees, but by 6 p.m. we are down to 60 degrees. We’re more impervious to sunburn and can be more liberal with the canopy and sunlight. That results in a more condensed fruit flavor.”
Willenborg’s efforts have paid off with even better, more flavorful and sophisticated wines, like the $18 Firestone Syrah Santa Ynez Valley 2000 that was rated 90 points in
Wine Country Living’s January/February 2004 issue.
As Brooks, Adam and Kevin were focusing on the vineyard and business management, youngest son Andrew formally stepped in in 2001 to market the new face of the estate. A background in business administration, sales and finance, as well as his much publicized television stint, helped shape his unorthodox approach to selling the product. It also attracted a newer, younger breed of wine drinkers to the Firestone product, who may not have known wine until they knew about Andrew.
“I realize my celebrity may be flash-in-the-pan,” he smiles, remaining pragmatic about the star aspect of his business role, “but that’s okay. People will be drinking the wine long after they forget about me.” Even as he says this, sheepish tasting room visitors approach him for a handshake, whether it’s a young woman scoping the room for him with parents in tow, or a middle-aged couple making the valley rounds.
“My goal is to demystify the wine culture,” he adds. “I’ll sit in grocery store aisles promoting the wine, and do wine dinners at restaurants that are not ultra-expensive. Wine goes with things that you eat every day. You don’t need to spend $150 on a meal to have an enjoyable wine and food experience.”
Andrew’s attitude stems from the family’s own no-nonsense approach to the wine experience, as well as their own wine-drinking lifestyle, he explains. “The kinds of wine we make are the kinds of wine we drink. Wine always seems to make dinners and lunches last longer. If we can make people spend more time enjoying life, that’s our contribution.”
The family tradition continues at Firestone-Walker Brewery, where Adam and brother-in-law David Walker have brewed handcrafted ales since 1996. The double oak barrel brew has won gold medals and a number of worldwide awards, including the “Mid-size Brewing Company of the Year” at the widely respected Great American Beer Festival in 2003, and recently, the same award at the 2004 World Beer Cup.
Some still assume the brothers are merely jetsetters coasting on the family name, but their reality as hands-on ranchers and business people is more John Deere than James Bond. “Of course there’s always the potential for being Tommy Boy,” jokes Adam, referring to a comedy about a lame-brained son running his father’s business. “And yes, without question, I got the job because of my father. But the flipside is that now you’re expected to work for less, and work longer and harder. You end up doing stuff and working harder than you did in other positions. The knife cuts both ways.”
Back at the photo shoot in the vineyard, Adam and Andrew are still working, posing for our camera as the sun sets. They walk among vines planted by their father and grandfather when winemaking in the valley was young, Adam even younger, and Andrew still a twinkle in Kate’s eye. Like the vines around them, the Firestone family is now firmly rooted here. But that doesn’t mean Adam and Andrew are standing still; they’re soon off again on separate trajectories, living up to a tradition of innovation that’s synonymous with the Firestone name.
SIDEBAR: A TASTE OF SANTA YNEZ
Firestone Vineyard makes consistently enjoyable, well-balanced wines from Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. Here are our tasting notes on the four current-release reserve wines, made in small quantities, and an excellent, reasonably priced Syrah. J.G.
Firestone Chardonnay Santa Ynez Valley Reserve 2001 ($25)
Well-balanced, not full-blown. It has subtle buttery aromas and bright grapefruit and pineapple flavors.
Firestone Syrah Santa Ynez Valley 2001 ($18)
An appetizing, medium-bodied, well-balanced Syrah that’s not too jammy or too lean, but just right with tasty flavors of berries, smoke and vanilla.
Firestone Merlot Santa Ynez Valley Reserve 2001 ($35)
A crowd-pleaser, but with backbone. The oaky vanilla aromas, pure cherry flavors and firm, velvety texture keep you coming back for more.
Firestone Santa Ynez Valley Reserve 2001 ($35)
A sophisticated, unusual blend of Bordeaux varietals starring Cabernet Franc. It shows concentrated fruit flavors, firm acidity and tannins.
Firestone Santa Ynez Valley The Ambassador 2001 ($60)
Cabernet Sauvignon dominates this grand, firm and tannic wine that honors the estate’s founder, Ambassador Leonard Firestone. Spicy aromas, complex fruit flavors and a rich finish.
