FORGING EDEN

A physician-turned-vintner recounts the improbable creation of one of Napa Valley’s most acclaimed mountain vineyards.

After more than two decades as a successful physician, Krupp became increasingly drawn toward winemaking in Napa Valley. His unlikely path was modeled by his parents’ and grandparents’ hard work, curiosity, and self-reliance, while childhood summers on his uncle’s farm introduced him to agriculture and the satisfaction of growing things. Krupp’s evolution from doctor to vintner was gradual, shaped by a series of encounters that steadily deepened his fascination with wine. During his medical internship, he discovered fine Bordeaux; while serving with the Indian Health Service in Phoenix, he formed a monthly wine-and-food group and befriended a local merchant who introduced him to some of France’s great wines. At Stanford, an attending physician and amateur winemaker taught Krupp and fellow resident Keith Marton to make their own wine in Marton’s garage. By then, Krupp was hooked. He later welcomed cardiologist Clifford Schultz, whose technique (mainly to do with extra-cleanliness) helped improve their efforts, resulting in several prizewinning wines at county fairs. Krupp absorbed these early lessons and employed them when he built Stagecoach Vineyard from the ground up with his brother Bart. The undertaking required a herculean effort to find investors, secure easements, and locate an elusive water supply. Vineyard manager Esteban Llamas serendipitously entered Krupp’s life when he stopped by the fledgling vineyard to point out what Krupp was doing wrong; his unsolicited advice developed into a working relationship that would last decades. Krupp himself is an exceptionally engaging guide to this education; he’s candid about his mistakes and setbacks and explains viticulture, winemaking, and vineyard economics in a way that’s comprehensible to the layperson. Yet the memoir’s greatest pleasure is watching Stagecoach take shape. The family history, professional relationships, personal triumphs and losses, and eventual decision to sell the vineyard deepen rather than distract from that story. Written with the momentum and narrative drive of a novel, Krupp’s account offers both an illuminating look behind the curtain of Napa’s wine industry and a moving portrait of a life’s work coming full circle.

An absorbing account of ambition, reinvention, and the people behind an extraordinary Napa success story.