Next Wave Awards Wine Professional of the Year: Matt Crafton

In 2003, Matt Crafton arrived at his first interview for a winery job in a full suit and tie. He’d just received an economics degree from the University of Virginia but yearned for a hands-on career with room for creativity. A total greenhorn in the wine industry, Crafton decided he’d cut his teeth as the cellar rat at any Virginia producer that he could convince to hire him.

Now 23 years into the game, Crafton, president and winemaker at Chateau Montelena, proudly wears crew neck T-shirts and jeans to work — evidence of his personal and professional inclination for substance over style.

At the helm of such a historic estate, Crafton could easily rest on Chateau Montelena’s long-established laurels: The winery produced the Chardonnay that bested Burgundian competitors at the iconic 1976 Judgement of Paris and has since risen through the ranks as one of Napa’s foremost producers. Instead, he is nimble and ready to usher Chateau Montelena into the future, despite the headwinds that stand in the American wine industry’s way.

“The way we honor the past is not by dwelling on it,” he says. “We’d be doing a disservice to the people whose shoulders we stand on if we didn’t continue to innovate. They’d want us to get out in the world and bring our wine to new consumers.”

Credit: Carolyn Fong

Crafton started his career at the bottom of the barrel at a winery in Williamsburg, Va., eventually becoming cellar master. After earning a second bachelor’s degree in viticulture and oenology at the University of California, Davis, Chateau Montelena’s CEO and owner Bo Barrett — son of Jim Barrett, who purchased the estate in 1972 — hired Crafton on a one-year contract to work in the lab in 2008. Crafton’s dedication helped him swiftly rise through the ranks. By 2010, he was promoted to overseeing all white wine production, then earned the position of head winemaker four years later. Last year, Barrett named Crafton president and winemaker.

With the wine industry facing a down market, Crafton thinks winemakers can either spend their time navel-gazing about the doom and gloom or reassess their strategy and reroute course. Crafton embraces the latter. To do so, he is ready to reject what the rest of the industry is doing — or, better yet, he’s unafraid to try something new.

Rather than leveraging the methods of the past, Crafton embraces innovative marketing tactics. He took some of Chateau Montelena’s club members on a trip to Iceland this year, and in the past, he traveled to Argentina, New Zealand, and elsewhere around the world with the winery’s patrons. The trips may not be on site in Napa Valley, he admits, but an affinity for Montelena’s wine is the common ground among the strangers, which affirms their relationship with the brand.

“You have to bring the story and bring the brand to your consumers,” he says. “When so many other wineries are pulling back on those initiatives and doing less market work, we’re doing more.”

He brings up the proverbial fork in the road: “When I see everyone stampeding in one direction,” he says, “I go in the other direction.” When rosé was all the rage in the 2010s, Crafton turned his shoulder to pink wine. And now, as a major portion of the industry leans into non-alcoholic wines, Crafton refuses to budge.

“We have to go guerrilla,” he says. “We’re not going to follow the established playbook. I don’t want to just play the game — I want to win the game.”

Credit: Carolyn Fong

Following the uptick in sales in 2020 during the pandemic, Crafton says many of Chateau Montelena’s peers scaled up production — and, in turn, scaled down quality — a trend that he resisted. Chateau Montelena produces 40,000 cases a year, roughly identical to the estate’s volume in the 1980s.

While the rest of the industry channels all of their focus into regaining ground over the next few years, Crafton’s attention is on the long game. As many other wineries vie for shelf space at national chains to bolster sales, Crafton puts his efforts into small retailers because, as he puts it, “no one can sell small, independent brands like small, independent retailers.” He also rejects the current wave of discounting that’s swooping over the industry — a choice that may compromise the business’ short-term gains, but puts its brand value in a better position for years down the line.

“Slow, organic growth and wine quality are first and foremost,” he says. “That is how this brand will succeed. We’re not going to grow by making a frosé. I’ll leave that to somebody else.”

Crafton believes making and selling wine requires a robust combination of skills no single person can master, and the best way to get around that is to be OK with being uncomfortable. As he puts it: If a winemaker aims for comfort and safety, there’s a limit to their success.

“To me, average is failure,” he says. “Safety is not the goal. Success is the goal. I want this brand to be recognized not just as an incredible American wine story, but as the global brand. The only way we’ll accomplish that is by doing the hard things that other people won’t do.”

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