At Hamel Family Wines, we strive to make great wine and to have fun doing so. We value quality over quantity, enjoyment over tedium and fostering long-term recurring relationships with our guests.
A simple rationale for the badger in Hamel Family Wines’ (HFW) logo would be that the Hamels have three generations of alums from the University of Wisconsin. It would also be an oversimplification. Another explanation might be destiny.
While trying to envision the ideal image to brand the family business, the Hamels encountered the same problem many businesses do in trying to find something distinctive. They had several different opinions, found many good ideas taken, had their share of brain-freeze, etc. During this time, while badger signs began to reveal themselves, no one saw them as such.
For example, while in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day in 2010 with son John, Pam happened upon a rock store and went in. Oddly, in addition to rocks, it also sold taxidermy. Pam noticed a familiar animal posed regally on a shelf. Confirming it was for sale, she purchased the badger to surprise George, Jr. Once home, she placed it in the master bathroom closing the door, figuring he was bound to discover it that evening. The surprise almost backfired when Pam heard a scream as George discovered it.
Ultimately, that badger became the muse that inspired the image that today adorns the HFW brand. But that is still jumping ahead in the story, as it had yet to dawn on the Hamels that a badger might make an ideal image.
The family continued to experience dead ends trying to agree. Even so, what might be considered omens/signs continued to randomly appear. One day, George, Jr. noticed this article in the San Francisco Chronicle with an interesting subject matter. He found it a tad ironic that badgers are native in Sonoma County, yet not so in Wisconsin where his affinity for badgers first began.
Then, a YouTube sensation of a day in the life of a honey badger became all the rage. Still, even with the strange coincidence of the clip’s narrator being named Randall (the UW Badgers play football at Camp Randall), the family had not yet realized its ultimate brand destiny.
George, Jr.’s affinity for newspapers yielded yet another random badger sign. While in Telluride, Colorado for a wine festival, he noted this story in the local paper about badgers being relocated to the Telluride valley floor.
In addition, Pam added to the family’s growing collection of stuffed badgers with two more, including one in an “action” pose.
By this point, it probably seems obvious how this story ends. But it had still yet to dawn on the family. Finally, after months of disagreement and with deadlines looming, John noted that the one thing the family seems to share is an affinity for badgers. He suggested that the noble badger become the image to adorn our brand. The Hamels finally coalesced and embraced their badger destiny.
A male badger is a boar (but never boring), a female is a sow (yet rarely seen sewing), and a young badger is a cub (definitely not a scout). Badger colonies or communities are often called clans. With that in mind, we created our own wine community called the Badger Clan Wine Club. It’s a way to remain connected to Hamel Family Wines, fellow HFW devotees, and to ensure continued access to the latest releases of our wines.
A Badger Clan membership is an ideal way to ensure continued access to HFW’s latest releases while remaining connected to the Badger Clan community. Through signature wine club-only events, including Camp Hamel, The Badger Hour and The Badger Clan Supper Club, the desirability, intimacy, and sense of community multiplies each year. These events feature a medley of HFW favorites like great wine, scrumptious food, distinctive music and creative entertainment. Members also have priority access to Lighting of the Vines, HFW’s annual community holiday gathering featuring a vineyard lighting orchestrated to holiday music.
Each Experience is privately led by an Estate Ambassador, includes a tour, and wine tasting, and can include food pairings. In addition, a “dry” tasting is offered for non-wine drinkers who are enjoying the Experience with others.
Please CALLcall 707.996.5800 or to request a reservation.
In addition to hosting the above Experiences, we do offer At Home With Hamel Family Wines Virtual Experiences. Please email our Director of Hospitality Nicole Kosta at nicolek@hamelfamilywines.com to inquire.
You may also book through CellarPass by signing into your account.
We are open by appointment for all Experiences Thursday at 1pm and 3pm, and Friday through Monday at 10am, 1pm and 3pm. On Tuesday and Wednesday we offer our Estate Experience and Collectors’ Experience at 10am, 1pm and 3pm.
Hamel Family Wines
15401 Sonoma Highway
Sonoma, CA 95476
Phone: 707.996.5800
Fax: 707.996.5801
Email: info@hamelfamilywines.com
Industry Contact: giii@hamelfamilywines.com
For press inquiries please contact Natalie Perkins
Phone: 650.207.1029
Email: nperkins@colangelopr.com
George Hamel, III (affectionately known as GIII), is the Managing Director overseeing sales, financial, and business operations at Hamel Family Wines. He is a passionate advocate for the family business focused on crafting terroir-specific wines that highlight the distinctive characteristics of the family’s estate vineyards.
George has a B.A. from Bard College and an M.B.A. from Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute. He is currently Vice President of the Board of the Wine Business Institute and a former member of Bard College’s Board of Governors. Prior to joining HFW, George was a Financial Advisor with the Private Wealth Management group of Wells Fargo Advisors in New York City and Palm Beach. While he thrived in the investment world, he found himself wanting to return to the west coast where his family resides and began looking for ways to get back to California. Around the same time, George’s parents, Pamela and George Jr., were entering the wine industry, and GIII jumped at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help build a multi-generational family wine business. “Having an investing background has provided me with a toolkit to oversee the sales and business side of a family business,” says George. “Those tools also help me educate our customers on Hamel Family Wines’ biodynamic winegrowing practices and share with them our true terroir-inspired wines.”
GIII enjoys spending his free time with his wife, family, friends, and two dogs, while actively supporting his community in a variety of ways, including his volunteer work at Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch. Music is a big passion of his, having toured with a rock & roll band during his sophomore year of college. An avid sports fan, GIII has coached youth basketball and enthusiastically supports the San Francisco Giants, Wisconsin Badgers, Golden State Warriors, and San Francisco 49ers.
John Hamel, II, is the Managing Director of Winegrowing at Hamel Family Wines, overseeing all winegrowing and winemaking operations. While he holds the official title of winemaker, John views his role more as a winegrower, leading his team in crafting terroir-specific wines from estate vineyards, emphasizing biodynamic and organic farming practices and minimal-intervention winemaking techniques.
John’s path to wine was not a direct one. After receiving his B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with academic distinction and Phi Beta Kappa honors, John took a job at an organic farm in Napa Valley, driven by an intellectual curiosity in the Slow Food movement. The job sparked his interest in wine, leading him to a accept a position at a wine-centric public relations firm, further fueling his growing passion for wine. When John’s parents, George Hamel, Jr. and Pamela Hamel, bought a vacation home with a small vineyard in Sonoma Valley, John decided it was an opportunity to try his hand at winemaking, and went on to earn his Winemaking Certificate from the University of California-Davis.
From 2011 to 2016, John immersed himself in the study and practice of winegrowing and winemaking with input from notable consultants, adding to his growing expertise and knowledge. After spending several years honing his techniques and absorbing everything he could about the specific terroir of his family’s estate vineyards, John officially took over Hamel Family Wines winegrowing and winemaking in 2017.
His continued evolution as a winemaker is progressively evident in each vintage of Hamel Family Wines, which John attributes to his increasing familiarity with the vineyards and the best techniques to cultivate and produce the highest quality of wines for each vintage. John is committed to biodynamic and organic farming practices and is working to implement dry farming across all of his family’s vineyards. “Our goal is to produce wines that connect people with the terroir of each unique vineyard site,” John says. “Practices like biodynamics and dry-farming allow the vines to have a deep and natural connection to where they are growing, and ultimately we strive to have this connection expressed in the wine.”
When he is not at the winery or in the vineyards, John spends as much time as he can with his wife, their twin girls and son. He also enjoys cooking, running, music, and spending time with their chocolate lab.
Elke Humphreys is the Office Manager at Hamel Family Wines (HFW). Her primary responsibilities include human resources—specifically payroll and benefits administration, accounting, reconciliation, reporting and inventory management.
Elke holds an Associate Degree in Small Business Management from Santa Rosa Junior College. Prior to joining HFW, Elke worked at PCAS-Nanosyn (formerly Serres Laboratories, Inc.), a small contract research organization in the pharmaceutical industry, for 18 years. Her business experience, strong organizational skills, attention to detail and multi-tasking capabilities make Elke an invaluable part of the HFW team.
When not keeping everyone in line at HFW, Elke enjoys spending time with her husband, gardening and learning to knit.
Pam and George, Jr. met in high school in VA. Both had military fathers, who had retired after stints at the Pentagon. At the beginning of their junior year, Pam transferred to the school George was attending. They double-dated to their junior prom (each with different dates).
George’s initial wine memory with Pam occurred while courting her. Seeking to impress her, he took Pam to an Italian restaurant above his pay grade as a high school JV basketball coach. George looked around at the bottles of wine displayed that served as the wine list, and selected an Italian white, simply because it was in a bottle shaped like a fish. Pam eventually married him anyway.
Pam and George have lived in the Bay Area for 20+ years. In 2006 they bought a house in Kenwood in Sonoma Valley, primarily to escape summers in San Francisco. That house, where they now reside, came with an acre of Cabernet Sauvignon vines. That began their family wine odyssey.
Alberto Antonini is an influential leader in the winemaking consulting business. An Italian oenologist and grower-producer, he has found his niche focusing on combining modern and traditional techniques to create authentic, pure, terroir-driven wines. “The Drink Business” magazine and “Decanter” magazine ranked him among the Top 5 Wine Consultants in the world in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
Alberto has received an Oenology degree from both the Université de Bordeaux and the University of California, Davis and he earned a Doctorate in Agricultural Studies from the University of Florence. His client list spans the continent, working with wineries in Italy, the U.S., Argentina, Canada, Chile, Uruguay, Armenia and Australia.
He lives with his family on his estate “Poggiotondo” in Cerreto Guidi (near Florence in Tuscany).
Terroir expert Pedro Parra’s invaluable knowledge runs deep—literally—into an understanding of every detail of terroir and the relationship between wine and terroir. He has spent his career immersing himself in soils, geology, geomorphology, climate, viticulture and oenology.
Pedro studied forestry at the Alliance Française, then went on to complete a PhD and Master’s degree in Precision Agriculture from the Institut Agronomique National in Paris where he studied agronomy and soil types. Pedro is also a wine producer, co-producing the Chilean cult brands ARISTOS and Clos des Fous, and working alongside Vosne-Romanee producer Louis Michel Liger-Belair. He is also partner with Alberto Antonini in Altos las Hormigas in Mendoza and started his family’s own project, Pedro Parra y Familia, in 2013.
Pedro also consults for some of the world’s greatest vignerons in Chile, Argentina, Italy, United States, Canada, Armenia, Uruguay and Burgundy.
In 1997, Corinne Comme and her husband Jean-Michel Comme took over Jean-Michel’s grandfather’s family vineyards in Bordeaux, in the outlying Sainte-Foy, transforming it into one of the region’s first organic properties. After two decades, Corinne is now a renowned Biodynamic Consultant, expanding her influence to U.S. vineyards in Virginia and California.
Corinne studied as an engineer in food science and technique in Bordeaux and worked in the agro-food industry for several years before immersing herself in biodynamic practices at Château du Champ des Treilles.
Following in his mother’s footsteps, Corinne’s son Thomas is converting Robin Williams’ former estate, Pym-Rae, to biodynamic, dry-farmed wines.
Garrett Buckland is a visionary viticulturist known for elevating the quality of vineyard sites while cultivating some of the finest grapes in the world. Garrett has been involved in all aspects of farming, from developing and managing some of Napa’s most renowned vineyards to rootstock trials and even winemaking.
Garrett received his B.S. in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. He perfected his skills working at his father’s Buckland Vineyard Management before starting Premiere Viticulture, a vineyard consulting company based in Napa, with Steve Matthiasson, and VineInfo, a vineyard software company and viticultural database for ultra-premium winegrowers. In addition to HFW, Garrett’s client list includes Acumen, Araujo, Arcadia Vineyards, Baldacci, Blue Rock, Bettinelli Vineyards, Hall Wines, Knights Bridge and Long Meadow Ranch among others.
Garrett is the Past President of the Napa Valley Grape Growers and the Napa Viticultural Technical Group, and past Conference Chair of the Association of Applied IPM ecologists.
Located in the town of Kenwood in Sonoma Valley, seven miles northwest of Hamel Family Ranch, is Tres Palmas Vineyard, a six-acre Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon vineyard. Sonoma Valley is typically cooled from north to south, so this vineyard experiences a cooler climate throughout the growing season than Hamel Family Ranch that is ideal for white wine varietals. The southerly afternoon winds sweep down into the valley, drawing in the cool Pacific Ocean influence and allowing the grapes to retain their natural acidity. Located on a gentle slope on a foothill of Sugarloaf Ridge, the vineyard is predominantly set in well-drained, dark, cobbly, volcanic soils.
Located on the western slope of the Mayacamas Mountains, six miles northeast of Hamel Family Ranch, is Nuns Canyon Vineyard (NCV). This mountain vineyard has elevations ranging from 1,300 to 1,700 feet, and is defined by steep slopes with soil profiles of red clay loam underlain with gravel and fractured basalt. NCV has primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, but also Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Grenache. It looks directly across Sonoma Valley at Bennett Valley to the west, and receives a moderating influence from this coastal gap to keep daytime temperatures warm but not extreme during the growing season. With much of the heat that amasses daily on the valley floor being pushed up and out by the cool marine layer coming into the valley in the evening, NCV sees warmer nighttime temperatures than lower elevation vineyards.
Located at the western base of the Mayacamas Mountains, situated adjacent to Hamel Family Ranch’s northwest corner, Armor Plate (AP) is similarly a valley floor vineyard. The five-acre vineyard features colluvial and alluvial basalt-derived soil, and was planted as a Zinfandel field blend in the 1890s. Aside from a one-acre block redeveloped in the 1990s, the remaining old vine vineyard is primarily Zinfandel, interplanted with several varietals including Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Petite Sirah, Semillon and Chasselas. With extremely deep and established roots, the older blocks are completely dry-farmed. Like Hamel Family Ranch, AP features very warm afternoon temperatures due to its Sonoma Mountain protection from the cool Pacific influence.
The Demonstration Vineyard (DV) is a small Bordeaux varietal field blend on Hamel Family Ranch, planted to four Bordeaux varietals used in HFW’s Cabernet Sauvignon-based red wine blends: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The 1.5-acre vineyard was planted in 2014 and will produce a single bottling exclusively from the DV once the vines reach full maturity.
Located at the western base of the Mayacamas Mountains, Hamel Family Ranch (HFR) is a valley floor property of 124 acres at the foot of Whitman Canyon with elevations ranging up to 400 feet. Its vineyards contain Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Grenache, Petite Sirah and Zinfandel. The oldest vines are 20 years old. The soil/topographical profile of HFR finds its origin in the erosion of the canyon and the distribution of the eroded volcanic material. With undulating slopes, the soils are primarily iron rich red clay loam underlain by meta-volcanic gravel and bedrock. Sonoma Mountain, lying due west, protects HFR from the cool Pacific influence into the late afternoon. HFR enjoys very warm afternoon temperatures refreshed by cooler evening fog throughout the growing season.
The 7,000-square-foot winery is home to a combination of stainless steel and concrete tanks with different capacities, used for red wine fermentation. The tanks allow for different sized vineyard blocks to be fermented separately. The green-growing “living” roof of the winery also expresses an emphasis on sustainability.
The 12,000-square-foot cave provides an ideal climate for elevage–the period in which wine ages in barrel. Barrel fermentations and fermentation in concrete “eggs” also happen in the cave. Additional features include the Reserve Room, a wine library, and three walls of exposed earth and rock, showcasing the subsurface terroir.
The Estate House hospitality center, consisting of two pavilions, sits on a stone plinth just west of the winery, and provides guests with dramatic views of gently-rolling vineyards and the beauty of Sonoma Valley. The Library, between the pavilions, provides a private oasis to support functions with seating for up to 12 guests.
The former owners’ house, the four bedroom, three and one-half bath, open floorplan, country-inspired Ranch House has been renovated and is available as a perquisite for Badger Clan members. Idyllically set amidst vineyards, oak meadows, chaparral, with ample outdoor space, it is located across Whitman Creek from the Estate House.
With a goal of optimizing terroir expression and each property’s potential for agriculture self-sufficiency, biodynamic farming practices are utilized. This entails raising livestock, varying agriculture, natural biodiversity and compost production. All four HFW properties are certified biodynamic and organic.
