 and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the owner of the very beautiful Gondona Estate Winery in Napa Valley on Prichard Hill. He is Manuel Pires, and today we are going Beyond Fine Wines. Hey, Manny, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Thank you, Rusty, it's a pleasure to be here to tell my story, you know, across three continents. Yeah, Manny, you are such an incredible person. You've had so much success in your life, but can you first tell me a bit about your background? Well, I was born and raised in Portugal in the Dorou region, and it is actually it's called Trajors Monsets behind the mountains. So that kind of goes well with the show today. I was 15 when we came to the United States to specific Connecticut and attended the school in Connecticut on star of my young career, spending a summertime, you know, when working for a watch company on that, put me on the right path of electronic timers. Very after that, I started the company in 1977 manufacturing and repair electronic timers. Then right after that in three, acquire Morse Watchments, which is the leading technology of time devices, that watch, you know, night watchman systems, smart keys, and we took a national and not only that, but it also international. Manny, I'm impressed that you were the president of Morse Watchments because like you said, you were the global leader, global technology leader in management security systems. I mean, this is worldwide. Now, I want to ask you, what did you focus on with your company that made you successful? Focus was technology at the time in the early 80s things were just moving so fast, but the way the technology was being, the systems were all mechanical devices. Everybody was in the age to, you know, to change it to some method of doing it electronically. And that is when I developed the first night watchman systems in the 83, took it to the market for six months and then put it into a global and that we were the very first ones on that field. And then that literally within six months was overnight success. Man, and it's amazing the patents that you had developed with Morse Watchments. And Manny, I want to ask you about your beautiful Gandona State Winery. I mean, you're in Napa Valley overlooking Lake Hennessy. It's absolutely beautiful. And why did you name your winery after your grandfather? Well, that goes back to as a young boy spending the amount, you know, the time and the summertime on that, and on this farm, you know, school would not be able to finish fast enough so I could work, you know, not work, but spend the time with them in the summers. And the name was given to him when he returned from the United States in 1920 and he helped the village a great deal until the very last day of his life and that it means humble, someone, you know, gracious and that stayed with me for until now. Even when I visit the village, the village refers to me is the grandson of Gandona is coming, so that's what the name is. So I made a promise to myself someday I will develop or own a winery and I will name it Gandona. I love that, that the name means humble man and many tell me about why your winery is so special. I mean, you're at Pritchard Hill and how many acres do you own and how many acres are the actual vineyards? So we're in the north corner of Pritchard Hill, the middle ridge. The Pritchard Hill consists of three ridges and we're at the middle. The property, it's a 114 acres estate and we have under 20 under vines. Man, it's absolutely beautiful. Justin Cruz and I had the pleasure of being there at your estate last month and it was absolutely gorgeous. I mean, the view overlooking Lake Hennessy, I mean, your wines are absolutely incredible. We love all of your wines and we love being there with you, Manny. Did you like having, did you have fun with us too? Absolutely, you know, you know, and I didn't know what were you, you know, until Harry calls me up, I said Rusty is gonna come to visit you. So that was a surprise. Now, Manny, I wanna ask you, why is your winery successful? I think it's not a, it's one, it's the leadership I have on and then surrounding with a great team, like Philippe and Adam on Costa as well. It's being focused, you know, being coming from outside, no wine experience. The fundamental was acquiring, you know, beautiful land, you know, the best land and then, you know, consider the best land to produce Cabernets of Young and this, and Pritcher Hill. I should not be any less, the wines, they should not reflect no less than our neighbors. And with the right team on, and it put me where I needed to be, you know, and continue improving what we need to be done to be successful. You're so right about the importance of building the right team around you. And Manny, tell me about how the fires had affected you or that area. Well, we've been affected by the fires the last three years, one way or the other. Started at 17, but under normal conditions and what I have, we haven't experienced fires, they come in much later than what was the fire in 2020. You know, it's after the harvest. So all the fruit is in, you know, we're the only biggest concern we have, you know, make sure the fires don't get, you know, they got close enough. So, you know, add damage and structural or the vineyards. But the 2020 fires started at, you know, August 14th and that was, we just had finished variation, you know, not even close to be picking. And then we stayed surrounded for almost six weeks by fire and smoke. People need to know that even if a winery doesn't, you know, get burnt down because of the fires, the smoke will ruin the grapes. Is that true? That's what happened in 2020. So we made a decision not able to pick any fruit for that reason alone, you know, not totally ruined, but it would be showing in the wine after this bottle. So the level of wine we're producing on Pritcher Hill, that would have been very difficult for us to put it in the bottle. And what type of grapes do you grow at your vineyard? What a, the estate is 100% Cabernet, you know, so we, you know, it's, that's what the soils and what if the region is well known for it. And right there, you mentioned about the soils. Tell me about the uniqueness of the soil and why it turns out to be such great soils for your wines. We're sitting in the middle of, which took place some type of lint slide, you know, during maybe two or 5,000 years ago when the soils are just lots of volcanic rock, you know, reddish, so lots of iron, you know, as well. So it's great because lots of rock, with also lots of nutrients decompose materials and great drainage for the vines and the soil exposure, various areas with vines enjoy and be able to produce the level of fruit work. No, it's amazing. And I want to ask you about Philippe Melka. Philippe Melka has been named one of the top nine winemakers in the world and he's your winemaker. What makes him so great? Well, Philippe and I met about 2006. He was familiar with the property even back then. And, you know, in 2007, I approached Philippe said, would you consider being the winemaker? So the answer was, he didn't give me an answer right away, but within a year or so, he said, yes, I will be. But he was fundamental involved with replanting the entire state as well, even before he was the winemaker. So, and he's been our winemaker since 2010. And that's amazing. And I want to ask you about Terry Kakazu. I mean, Terry is the owner of Terry's Place and Hazard Wine Company here in Hawaii. And she is the one that connected you and I together. And there she is with you and Philippe. Correct. I, you know, that photograph brings memories. You know, I was, I believe it was the very first day. I remember the conversation I had with Terry. He said, I'm going to be in town. I'd like to visit you. I know what you're producing, you know, and that's how it started, you know, back, I believe it was back in 2010. Yeah, she's such a great promoter for Gandona. I mean, you're in Costa, the mayor. I mean, I love all of your wines and Terry is just so knowledgeable. And I'm so appreciative that she was able to connect you and I together. And Manny, I want to ask you, what's a big challenge for you in dealing with your winery at the moment? I think the challenge is young now, what, you know, specific in the summer times, the fires. That is, it's the biggest challenge. You know, there's not a single day goes by. We don't think about it. And it's been on our minds for, you know, since 2017. That's, right now that's, that's what it is. Even this year, the challenge was the nature of, we were getting, we got on five days, the temperature reached the 117 feet from five days straight. And this is just before harvest, you know, and we were forced to pick right after that, you know. And that's the challenge we have young now, what's coming in during that those 30 day period of harvest. When you deal with those high temperatures on certain days, is there a way that you can cover certain parts of your vineyard or what do you do about it? We do have shade called, we can protect the food and the South side, but it's, we do that as well. That helps, but wasn't, this year was just, we never had experience that 120, you know, for that period of time. You know, in the 2015, we experienced two or three days at 110 and that does help. But this year was, you know, it was beyond that. So Manny, when it gets that hot, how does it affect the grapes? It really depends out quick and now if they're exposed to the sun at the late afternoon, literally dehydrates the fruit. So, you know, if we get them in days and without protection, if we, you know, they'll start turning to raisins. What's another challenge you deal with, maybe in terms of, you know, there's some bigger wineries versus, you know, you're more of a limited production winery. What's a challenge with that? Challenge is if you're able to find the right partner to support you in the certain markets in the United States because we're so small, we're, it's difficult to find that partner to represent the wines and those specific markets. You know, it's unless, you know, it's done, most of it is done direct to the consumer, but where else we want it to be exposed and into the certain markets. And many, how many, so how many limited cases do you produce per year approximately? The total wines from the, it's under 2,000 cases, you know, varies, you know, from year to year, but that's, it's very small. Okay. And how would you describe the details of your Cabernet wines? The Cabernet is that they're, they represent the site, that is lots of beautiful fruit, very fruit-forward, they're levels of fruit, lots of beautiful mineralic, clean, velvety. These are the wines are for long aging. Yeah, I agree because for me, I can't really taste all of these unique details. I just try the wine, I'm like, oh, this is really great. I mean, I know if it's great wines or just okay wines and all of your wines are just superb. And Manny, you have my first book Beyond the Lines, I need to get you my second book, but I want to know how did you like the book and what stood out to you in it? What stood out to be in the different sections of the book was that one, it's a team player. So it's not only that, but also at the same time, it's the success is gets measured, not in the short term and the long term. So the vision and you want even in any business, you can be short-sighted, you have to have the discipline and be able to execute the goals, you know, they're on different markets, but the goals you have at mind, you know, but again, it's a team, being a team player. No, I'm glad you brought up that because I mean, we have teams, whether it be in sports, business, I look at a family as a team and not just being able to achieve success but to sustain success. And that's what you've done with Morse Watchmen's, that's what you're doing with Gandona Estates. Is there like a secret recipe for you achieving this sustained success? It is the team, but also we have to move with the market to where the market takes you and be sensitive to that as well and be focused and that if it's domestic or international-specific at Morse Watchmen's, we were very successful in the European countries, with the fact perhaps was because growing up and spending that amount of time in the summers, that I was sensitive to that versus the United States and pick the right partners, I think that it is essential. And they have to be at the same level of focus of the market and develop those markets based on teamwork. And many, we've heard of the phrase attention to details and I'm all about a superior discipline details and that's what you're about too, these superior discipline details in terms of why your winery stands out as one of the premier wineries in Napa. How detailed are you when you're doing what you do with your vineyards? We are very detail-oriented but more on not only in the winemaking but also in the farming and that's what it's all about. It's producing a great bottle of wine. You also need stars and farming, stars in the soils and that. Yeah, I agree. And Manny, tell me about the caves that you built at your winery. I mean, you have some incredible caves there. So tell me about how you built it and why is it important to have the caves? Well, the caves is, it's nothing new. There were very difficult and logistics just to come up to the bridge to the top of the hill. It was a company that they've been doing it for a long time but it was challenging because it was bedrock on a very unstable rock on it. But the caves is great for the wine because that's where the wine rests in a way for 20 to 30 months on a barrel without changing the temperature. It maintains around 56 to 60 all year round without any influence from outside. And Manny, you have been to Hawaii multiple times and before the pandemic, you were featured at the Kapalua in Maui, the Kapalua Wine and Food Festival, right? And how was that experience for you? It was a great experience and we kept on supporting that association as well and we continued doing it and we start coming more often visiting Hawaii in specific Maui. So it was not only once but we would come and visit and stay there, you know, effervescent times a year. Well, Maui is absolutely beautiful and I want you to come to Oahu. When will you be coming to Oahu next? Soon, that'll make a short trip to the big island, you know. And Manny, obviously, you know, in my book I talk about the importance of taking calculated risks. You cannot just be complacent and have success. You need to take calculated risks. What are your thoughts about the importance of taking risk? But you have to evaluate the risk. There's a level of risk and I think that overcomes what you know as well. So the risk can be there but at the same time you have to measure their risk. It is a worth to go through that and in our case, we don't, you know, Morris Watchman's, there was always a risk when we introduce a new revision or a new version of the system. The risk is, you know, when you're dealing with the state of the art electronics, you know, specific in the software, you know, it's very quickly, you know, it's redundant, you know, because the technology moves so fast. And so, but there's risks. Any risk, and every day we walk out the door, we just have to overcome those. Ian, when you came up with those patents for Morris Watchman's, I mean, you were always very forward thinking. You're trying to anticipate the next trend, right? Correct. You know, it was not only the patents but the product. The product didn't exist. So we not only created the product but we developed the market so the product can be actually sold and used. And that is, that was the biggest risk that we didn't know how the market would accept it. But we, so the market for the key control didn't exist. All the keys were B&House and metal cabinet with the paper tag on it with the name all in, you know, together and our system allows us to be very precise. It's all done electronically. And so that along the market, we moved the market from, you know, from a mechanical device to a solid state device. And Manny, I mean, obviously you've created a superior culture of excellence at Morris Watchman's. You did the same with Gandona State Winery. What type of leader are you? What kind of, how would you describe your leadership style? I wouldn't even know how to answer it but I'm looking for an excellency on that, whoever the outcome is, you know, it's not easy every day or any day, but at the same time you have to deal with those situations, you know, and overcome, you know, with the team. No, I'm glad you said excellence because that's all, that's what we're about. We're all about, and I always say, Manny, there's a difference between a culture of excellence and a superior culture of excellence. And that's what I really like. I like helping good teams become great, but I like helping great teams become extraordinary. And you truly have an extraordinary vineyard there. And Manny, I want to really thank you for taking time to share your insights on my show today. You're very welcome. Thank you, Manny. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Manny and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.