
Montserpreneurs wine is located on a hillside not far from the northern most arm of Lake Hennessy. The winery is about a 10 minute drive from the Silverado Trail all on narrow windy roads. There are several other small vintners in the area and a visit here is always pleasant and is as far from the heavily touristic winery experience you often find along parts of Highway 29. This winery is owned by Marin Artukovich whose route to becoming a vintner has taken an interesting path. He helped run a pipe and other underground line contracting company in Los Angeles for many years with his father before retiring to Hawaii for the appealing surf and unique Island life this state offers.
After several years of the surf life and his father hinting that he was too young to retire Marin purchased a coffee plantation high in the Kona Coffee belt at about 2500 feet.There are more than a few similarities between growing high end coffee and grapes and Marin is not the only coffee farmer we have met with in Napa who also runs a winery.His coffee company, called Koa Coffee was founded in 1997 and in only a few short years was voted the best coffee in America by Forbes Magazine in their “50 America’s Best” issue.
Koa Coffee also won the prestigious Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition.As with Coffee and vineyards, terroir is very important.Koa’s home plantation is higher than many of the other area coffee farms and as a result the fruit ripens unevenly but slowly.Instead of picking everything at once, harvest is drawn out with only parts of the plantation picked at certain times, only when the fruit is fully ripe.Marin’s family originally comes from Croatia and he grew up with his relatives making wine and having a wine cellar and barrels in his own home.Even today his family in Croatia continues to make wine.Looking to get into the wine industry he started searching for a unique Napa winery and vineyard.