Being a winemaker definitely isn’t for everyone

But ‘triple crown’ alum says he wouldn’t trade the experience for all the tea in China or, presumably, all the wine in France

By Clay Evans

It sounds like a dream to many people, a back-to-basics, earthy escape from the high-wired hubbub of modern life: planting a vineyard, stomping grapes and making wine.

Of course, wine growers are farmers, and the farming life is rarely as bucolic or relaxing as many city slickers imagine.

“When the grapes are in the bins, ready to crush, you are surrounded by sticky, gooey fluid and thousands of bees, and everything is purple, it doesn’t look terribly romantic at that point in time,” says Larry Londer, co-founder and former owner, with his wife Shirlee, of Londer Vineyards in Anderson Valley, Calif. “But I would not have changed anything for all the tea in China.”



Londer, a “triple-crown” Buff who graduated with a B.A. from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1964, and earned an M.D. in 1968 and an M.A. in health administration in 1994 from the CU Health Sciences Center.Shirlee, a 1964 graduate of the CU-Boulder School of Education, lived their dream of making wine from 2000 to 2013.

Larry first became interested in wine while working his way through medical school with a job at Denver’s Colorado Boulevard Liquors, across from then-Colorado General Hospital.

“The beers at the time weren’t very interesting. And I didn’t have any interest in spirits,” he says. “But I found wine fascinating.”

The couple cultivated their interest in wine while living in Albuquerque, where Larry ran an ophthalmology practice and Shirlee operated its optical shops. They got an opportunity to learn more about the business after Larry became the wine-committee chair for the New Mexico Symphony auction.

“I was getting on a plane and going out to wine country, Sonoma, Napa, begging for donations,” he says. “We said, ‘Wouldn’t this be a wonderful place to retire?’”

After he retired in 2000, Larry began taking classes at the University of California, Davis, one of the world’s top viticulture schools. Friends and experts advised them to choose a grape variety before buying a property, to ensure that local climate was a match.

We were extraordinarily naïve. It’s a tough life. The failure in the wine business is very high. I have so much more respect for farmers in general now.They were most intrigued by Pinot Noir, a cool-climate grape, and soon bought a 53-acre property with a house in sparsely populated Mendocino County — the land was “raw,” having never been a winery. In 2001 they planted 16 acres and expected to start making wine in 2004. But then they met and hired winemaker Greg La Follette, who had them bottling their first releases by the end of 2001. At its peak, Londer Vineyards was selling 7,000 cases a year.

Cultivation and winemaking proved both physically and emotionally challenging.

“Physicians, especially surgeons, like to be in control, for good reason. In agriculture, there are a lot of things out of your control. We were extraordinarily naïve. It’s a tough life. The failure in the wine business is very high. I have so much more respect for farmers in general now,” Londer says.

Marketing proved to be an enormous challenge as well. But through their shared management, financial experience and sheer tenacity, they began selling, and the Londer Vineyards Pinot Noir lineup began earning accolades.

“I could not have succeeded with the winery if I had not done the MHA program, which gave me the financial and business background I didn’t get in medical school,” Larry says. “And I could not have done it without Shirlee. She became our chief salesperson. We just put the wine in a truck, drove to San Francisco and started knocking on doors of wine shops and restaurants. Most said ‘Get lost!’ but she was like a junkyard dog, grabbing ahold of your ankle and never letting go!”

The Londers moved back to Colorado in 2011, operating the vineyard from a distance. They stopped producing Londer-labeled wines and sold the property to Kendall-Jackson in 2013. But they declined to sell the name.

“You might make some money, but you have no control of what happens to your name or the quality of wine that might be under your label,” Larry says.

At 72, Larry doesn’t miss the labor or being at the mercy of both nature and economic cycles. Still, he wishes he’d started 10 or 20 years earlier.

“But I miss being out there harvesting and making wine,” he says. “There aren’t that many people on this planet who I think would enjoy it. But I was lucky enough to be in two totally different professions and thoroughly enjoyed both.”

Clay Evans is director of public relations for CU Presents.

Feb. 27, 2015