THE DETOUR
In 1979, a 32-year-old from the Bronx sold his first screenplay for $135,000. He spent most of it on 280 acres of Sonoma hillside with no road, no water, no electricity, and no vines. Today that land is one of the most sought-after vineyard sites in California.
Wait, I’ll come back to him.
I'm the last person I expected to become a wine lover.
The path began when I moved to San Francisco in 2011 and started taking day trips to Napa. It began as day drinking champagne in limos, quickly evolved into an experience where the wineries were the highlights. It all came together on the "Sideways Tour" through the Central Coast, organized by a sommelier friend. Something clicked over that weekend, and my relationship to wine hasn't been the same since.
When I first got into it, I did what a lot of people do. "Hey Google, what wineries should I visit?" Wrote down #1, #2, and #3 from the search results. Punched them into the GPS. $100B of market cap (at the time) can't be wrong, right?
To be fair, most of them were pretty good. But the more often I got up to wine country, the more I started asking actual aficionados where to go instead. And the places they sent me were almost never on the first page of search results. Yet those small detours, more often than not, led me to a varietal, an experience, a style of winemaking that challenged what I thought I was supposed to enjoy.
That journey came full circle the first time I met Robert Kamen.
You may not know his name, but you definitely know his movies: The Karate Kid. The Fifth Element. Taken. The Transporter.
My wife and I walked into his tasting room in downtown Sonoma on a recommendation from an industry local, and were greeted by a short, older gentleman with beads of sweat still glistening on his forehead from his morning bike ride. He gave a brief "hi" and then, still in his skintight biking spandex, launched into the full history of the winery without so much as a running start.
The way he tells it, the whole thing was an accident. In 1979 he sold that first screenplay, called a friend in Sonoma to celebrate, and made the trek to Northern California. His friend suggested a hike up to property at the top of a local peak.
There was no road to the property, so they walked in for about an hour and a half, passing a joint back and forth on the way up. Robert, by his own account, complained the entire climb — until he got the top and saw the view. On a clear day, you can see all the way to San Francisco (I’ve been up there a few times and can confirm).
At that moment Robert said something to the effect of, “I could stay up here forever.” His friend didn’t miss a beat: “Well, you can. It's for sale.”
That friend was Phil Coturri, who happened to manage a few plants…and his vineyards weren’t bad either. He is now one of the most respected viticulturists in the world, and the person most responsible for bringing organic farming to California wine country.
Robert bought the property at week later.
Phil planted the vines, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, in the fractured volcanic rock at 1,450 feet. It was a challenging site: the sun, wind, rain, and temperature all needed careful consideration.
To service the property, they dug a well and put in a road. For over a decade Robert sold the fruit to other Sonoma wineries and wrote screenplays. Then in 1996 a fire tore through the property, killed half the vines, and destroyed his house with them.
Robert’s response? To stop selling his grapes to other people and start making the wine himself. He brought in the “mad scientist of winemaking” Mark Herold, who wasn’t afraid to experiment with wine born from a soil type that nobody had figured out yet. By any metric, it’s been a massive success.
Sitting there listening to all of this while drinking his Syrah, I was hooked.
Kamen wines are excellent, no question. But there are a lot of incredible wine in Sonoma. What made Kamen so memorable was the story and people behind it, and the hard-earned trust that made it work.
Robert had the capital, but capital alone wasn’t going to make this work. Phil Coturri was the missing piece, the yin to Robert’s yang. Phil had been around long enough to know what that hillside was: overlooked potential that could create something incredible with the right investment.
Neither of them was networking on their fateful hike. They were two friends who were smoking a joint and complaining about the incline. The relationship existed for its own reasons long before it produced anything, which is exactly why it produced something when given the opportunity.
That's the pattern I keep finding in both of my businesses.
Melier is built on the idea that hidden gems exist in every corner of the wine world. The hard part isn't finding them, it's finding the ones that speak to you specifically. My partner Dan Zepponi is a 20+ year veteran of the industry and currently CEO of Cuvaison Winery and Brandlin Estate. He's my Phil Coturri.
At Golden Gun Ventures, my partners and I have spent 20 years in the Silicon Valley ecosystem building our own network of Phil’s. We rely on them to tell us about an undervalued company or an emerging market the way Phil told Robert about the potential of an undeveloped hillside.
Net net, if I’ve learned one thing it’s that you can't manufacture a trusted network on demand. You can only put in high-quality reps, consistently, over a long enough period for it to bear the fruit — sometimes literally.
WHAT I’M DRINKING
They’re known for their excellent Cabernet Sauvignon, but the Syrah is the wine that always surprises people in the best way (it’s also Robert’s personal favorite). He fell in love with Syrah through years spent around Hermitage and Chateauneuf, and it shows. Kamen Wines are all organically and biodynamically farmed, with very limited production.
If you visit the tasting room in downtown Sonoma, give it a try. Or if you’d like to book a private tasting up at Robert’s mountain estate, shoot me a note and I’ll put you in touch with his team.
RECENT DETOURS
Companies — Recently invested in NScale at their Series C. They’re a full-stack AI infrastructure provider with a stranglehold on the European market, and are well-positioned for rapid US growth. They have several key long-term advantages over competitors like Coreweave (NASDAQ: CRWV), which should bode well for their expected IPO in late 2026.
Health — Just completed a one-month hiatus from social media, and it did wonders for my focus and productivity. Planning to have my agents run point going forward so I don’t get sucked into doom-scrolling again. If you’re thinking about taking a social media break, my advice: go cold turkey, wait out the shakes, and don’t look back.
Reading — About 1/4 of the way through “The Count of Monte Cristo”. I attempted the abridged version in high school, but opted to read the full version at the suggestion of a trusted acquaintance. I used to love reading but haven’t done so purely for enjoyment in years. I’ve really enjoyed getting back into it, and the social media hiatus has helped it stick.
That’s it for this edition. I look forward to sharing these opportunities — and bottles — with all of you.
Cheers,
Greg