NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — When Texans Joe and Margaret Valenzuela first visited Napa Valley as young honeymooners, they never imagined they would own a winery here some 30 years later.
Margaret sometimes pinches herself that she's really a winemaker.
"From the very beginning, we wanted to make something we would want to drink," Margaret says.
Although the couple's dream of becoming vintners became a reality when they started Rubia Wine Cellars in 2012, the boutique winery has taken flight in the last two years. The name Rubia refers to Margaret's childhood nickname of "blondie" when her family lived in Mexico for four years.
The Valenzuelas, who split their time between Dallas and Yountville in Napa Valley, are among a new breed of vintners making wine but owning no vineyards, no production facilities and no employees but themselves.
Not their first rodeo
The winery is the Valenzuelas' latest entrepreneurial venture.
Joe and Margaret, who are both 52, grew up in Alpine, married after high school and moved to El Paso, where they raised two sons and built careers. Margaret, a court reporter, started a legal e-discovery company, and Joe, who was in insurance, founded a firm to provide contract lawyers.
They didn't return to Napa Valley until a 2009 visit, when they fell in love with the area. Two years later, California winemaker friends and fellow Texans, Vance and Kelly Rose, invited them to harvest.
"For me, it was totally life-changing," Margaret says. "That was the spark."
The Valenzuelas began plotting how to start a winery and committed to learning the business from top to bottom. Back in Texas, Margaret enrolled in an online winemaking certification program through the University of California, Davis. Joe interned during harvest at B Cellars in Napa.
"It's a good way to understand how wine is made, every aspect of it," says Derek Taylor, associate winemaker at B Cellars. "He proved to be one of my best hires."
A new life for the Valenzuelas began to take shape. They bought their Yountville home in 2017, and last year moved their Texas base from El Paso to Dallas to be closer to family and a large airport.
The Valenzuelas sold their companies in 2017, providing the time and money to design an aggressive five-year plan and hire notable winemaker Julien Fayard last year. Joe met Fayard, who was featured in the 2016 film Decanted, during his internship.
Forging a new path
Rubia buys and rents everything, from grapes to production space to bottling. Grapes are picked at the source and shipped to Fayard's property for processing and barreling.
"We grew our businesses that way, wearing any hat at any moment," says Margaret, who increasingly is spending more time on sales and marketing. "It's cost-prohibitive for most people to come here, buy land and hire staff."
It's not unusual for new vintners to forgo a bricks-and-mortar winery and sell direct to consumers like Rubia.
"Setting up a winery is very capital intensive, and it can take at least five years between growing grapes and getting the wine to market," says Gladys Horiuchi, a spokeswoman for the Wine Institute. And with some 9,000 U.S. wineries, it's difficult getting attention in the marketplace, she adds.
The good news is that more Americans are drinking wine and visiting wineries. Consumers also like the exclusivity around limited-production wines like Rubia.
The Valenzuelas bottled their first Rubia vintage in 2014 from a barrel of sauvignon blanc (25 cases) bought from Vance Rose. This year, Rubia will produce about 500 cases and hopes to reach 1,500 by 2022.
Finding an identity
Rubia has produced pinot noir and sauvignon blanc, but its sweet spot is what made Napa famous — cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. The winery still is developing its personality, testing grape varieties and blends from different areas to find the right balance and flavor consistency.
"They're fairly new to the wine business," says Fayard, who also is the winemaker of other Napa wineries as well as his own label. "We're on a search of identity for them."
This year, Rubia began offering tastings by appointment at Fayard's property in Napa for $20 (waived with a purchase).
But Rubia sells wine only through its website. Its 2016 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a velvety, peppery red, costs $130, and its 2017 Russian River Chardonnay, a light and bright white, costs $45. In early November, Rubia will release a 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2017 red blend.
The Valenzuelas have big plans for 2020, including launching a wine club and perhaps starting distribution in Texas. Rubia recently rebranded itself, with a new label featuring an image of a woman resembling Margaret wearing one of her signature scarves.
"We're living our dream," Joe says.