To know the history of Delectus Winery is to look back through a couple centuries of winemaking in Austria. Owner and winemaker Gerhard Reisacher has wine and viticulture in his blood - he's an eighth-generation winemaker who grew up in a small wine village south of Vienna. He first got his fingers dirty by working alongside his father in the vineyards as a boy, and subsequently attended Austria's premier winemaking college, graduating with four degrees, including winemaking and viticulture.

NAPA VALLEY

Gerhard was first captivated by Napa Valley after tasting numerous wines from the region, which a college housemate had "liberated" from the family's cellar. For him, they were entirely unlike anything he'd tasted before in European wines. He sensed a raw, unlimited potential in these Napa Valley wines and soon thereafter, packed all his belongings, including twenty-nine bottles of self made wine, and began his journey to Napa Valley. He has not looked back since.

At first, Gerhard worked in the trenches at local and highly regarded Monticello Cellars, Far Niente, and Pine Ridge Winery. There, he spent long days in the cellar learning American production techniques and enhanced his winemaking skills. At night he honed his English speaking skills by watching reruns of Magnum P.I. As his English and winemaking skills progressed, he found himself working at Clos Du Val, where he was assistant winemaker and later viticulturist. During this time Linda Reisacher, who would later be introduced to Gerhard and soon after become his wife, was involved with the wine business in her own career.

DELECTUS WINERY

When a group of friends started Audesirk Vineyards (AH-du-serk), they set out to achieve one major goal: to create premium Napa Valley wines at an affordable price.

How do they do it? Taking a unique approach to the wine business, the team at Audesirk sources fruit from a number of high end growers in Napa Valley, eliminating the expense of maintaining a vineyard, and then collaborates with the best winemakers in the Napa Valley to create Audesirk’s portfolio of wines.

For Winery partner Eric Danninger it all started on a beach in Maui, drinking a 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon that his good friend had created. Lee and Eric met through their wives, Kristen and Jennifer, who had known each other since they were knee-high. It was on that fateful vacation, Lee and Kris shared their dream of building a winery and producing an even better Cabernet than what Eric and Jen had in their glass.

It was then that Lee remembered an important lesson that his Father had taught him. For one to be successful, one needs to be surrounded by talented and successful people. After sharing the idea of building a winery, Lee asked Eric to bring his sales talent into the project to help get the winery going. Eric took all of two seconds to accept the awesome challenge. Although working at his job at GTE Wireless had been rewarding, the excitement and adventure of Lee’s dream was too appealing to say no to. Eric was in.

Lee and Eric came back from the islands and began to plan. Part of the plan included bringing in a partner with proven experience and wisdom. Mark Nesbitt, Lee’s father, was the perfect fit. With over 30 years of experience in production agriculture and food processing, Mark delivered a wealth of agri-business management expertise that was critical to managing the start up business. With all the partners in place, the last step was to name the winery. Lee and his wife Kris were hooked on the concept of ALCHEMY, the mythical transformation of essential elements into precious metals such as silver and gold. The name Alchemy was not available so Lee turned to his mother, Julie for inspiration. Being an avid crossword puzzle fan and a master at word games, Julie remembered the word “Chumeia” which is the ancient Greek word for Alchemy.

In 1999 Chumeia Vineyards was formed with the purchase of 20 acres of land eight miles east of the Central Coast city of Paso Robles, California. Lee Nesbitt’s dream of building a winery was coming to fruition. In June of 2000 ground was broken and construction was underway. It took just over 90 days to construct a 5,400 square foot facility with a capacity to produce over 7,500 cases. That fall, the winery was ready to receive its first load of fruit on the new crush pad just twenty minutes prior to receiving the temporary occupancy permit from the Fire Department.

In May of 2001 the tasting room doors opened to the public and wines were introduced to the United States and beyond. The wines garnered great success with wine critics and more importantly with consumers, building customer loyalty based on the delivered promise of exceptional wines for the right price.

As Chumeia builds brand loyalty across the country, the winery continues to improve the property where the alchemic process occurs. In 2002 four acres of Cabernet Sauvignon were planted and first harvested for the 2005 vintage. As Lee states, “This is a mimic of a true Bordeaux style vineyard that will produce ‘Heavy Metal’ Cabernet”. The properties back 8.5 acres were recently planted to “Iron Man” Zinfandel and Petite Sirah.