Once the indigenous Wappo tribe’s trading grounds, the site where AXR winery now sits was granted to Edward Turner Bale in 1841 as part of the Rancho Carne Humana Grant. In 1883, August Hersch, a German immigrant, bought a section of land from John Tychson, who owned the neighboring vineyard, and began making wine like his neighbor. By 1886, Hersch’s wines were in high demand, rivaling those of Bordeaux. August fell ill with consumption (TB) and died prematurely, but before he did, he deeded the winery to his wife Frederika for $1. Frederika joined forces with Josephine Tychson, who had also lost her husband John, and together with her eleven children and Josephine’s seven kids, they ran both wineries as the first women winemakers in Napa Valley. Frederika sold her winery in 1895 to a banker and railroad financier for $9,550 in gold coins (the equivalent of around $10 million today). 

Into the prohibition period, the property passed through several buyers and was converted into various businesses, including a speakeasy and a brothel. Once Prohibition was repealed, the property was converted into a luxury resort. A Hungarian family bought the property in 1932, naming it The Madrones, after the beautiful trees that grew on the property. The main house, used as a tasting room today, was their resort’s restaurant, and seven guest cabins dotted the property. It remained a resort into the 1970s, but after a fire broke out destroying most of the cabins, the property went dormant for many years.

In 2001, a couple from the East Coast, Chris and Pauline Tilley, were honeymooning at Auberge du Soleil and decided to move to St. Helena, where Chris grew up. They purchased the derelict property. Chris and a local historian discovered the property’s original permit would allow a winery on the 8.5-acre parcel (ten acres minimum is the current law). Since Fredricka Hersch had left the winery, it had not been used, yet the property still had a 20,000-gallon winery permit. After seven arduous years of rebuilding and getting the winery up to code, in 2008, V Madrone Cellars was established, and once again, the property was making wine.

Six years later, in 2014, AXR was started by Jean Hoefliger and three of his friends, Don Van Laeken, Kelly Trevethan, and Mark Schratz.

“We used a custom crush facility for the first couple of vintages of AXR,” Jean Hoefliger explained. “We started it as a feel-good project; it is a project that from the beginning had a very strong philosophical rule that every person that was going to come on board would be of a good soul. No assholes.”

AXR is named after the notorious AxR1 rootstock, the culprit behind Northern California’s widespread phylloxera devastation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It was the first time that the wine industry really paid attention to rootstock,” said Jean. “Of course, AxR1 was supposed to be phylloxera resistant and ended up not being so, but it also triggered a massive look into the importance of rootstock’s influence on wine quality. In Napa Valley, this time in history was truly a turning point, shifting the overall quality of wine higher. Even though it was hard for vineyard owners, it was a catalyst to transition the Valley into what it is today. The ‘X’ of AXR represents a hybrid crossing—the crossing of the vine species of Aramon (Vitis vinifera) and Vitis rupestris. But to me, it also represents the crossing of our four founders who wanted to do something that strikes the right chord. I think that the philosophy of our wines is really about pleasure, but also a cross between the past, present, and future.”

Meanwhile, by 2016, Chris Tilley was getting ready to retire and was thinking about putting V Madrone Cellars on the market. Jean and his friends behind AXR heard about his plan and requested to see the site. They fell in love with the property. After four months of negotiations, which included signing the spiritual entity clause, they reached an agreement with Tilley to purchase the estate for their AXR winery. They closed the sale on January 1, 2017.

“We purchased this estate almost seven years ago,” said Jean. “And every time I drive on the property, my blood pressure drops by 20 points because there is something magical about the place. That magic truly starts with the people in it - from the sales to cleaning to the tasting room to ownership, everyone has a really strong sense of belonging in the business, and this is unique.”

Interestingly, AXR Winery still sources fruit from vineyards planted on AxR1 rootstock, including Ritchie Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. “There are some vineyards in Northern California that are remote enough, or the soils are sandy enough that phylloxera doesn’t survive,” Jean pointed out. “It is very interesting to see that the AxR1 rootstock is getting planted again today because it is a high-quality rootstock, albeit sensitive to phylloxera, but planted in the right conditions, it gives great quality. 

OK, let’s get to the paranormal activity part of the story.

“These buildings are full of history,” Jean told me. “And also haunted. We have many, many stories from different people. There is a story of a family who rented one of the cottages here, and their kids told them that an old woman would come sit on their bed and visit them at night. We had a new staff member who was down in the original wine cellar on her first day and kept feeling a pet on her head as though welcoming her. She had no previous knowledge of the ghost experiences. She is now our Director of Operations. Many of our staff have felt taps on their shoulders with no one there. A wine fridge was caught on video opening and closing by itself. And once, we had a country music star staying on the property. Around midnight, the entire Sonos system (inside and outside) started playing Native American chanting, which suddenly went off after about 30 minutes. However, we were unable to make it stop on the Sonos App. She had called our team to assist in turning it off, and no one was successful until it did so on its own.”

Jean firmly believes the history of the property gives a signature to the wines. “There is an amazing vibe and soul on the property that triggers something unique. Even the wine that we make from the site, the single vineyard V Madrone, screams uniqueness. It is nestled against the Mayacamas Mountain range and gets early shading, but it also has sappiness and herbal notes from the sap of the redwoods and madrone trees. To me, the DNA of wine is a sense of place, and the sense of place of V Madrone Vineyard and AXR is very special.”

So, what’s the best way to keep your winery ghosts happy?

"We are always respectful and say hello to the spirits in the morning and good night in the evening," smiles Jean.