Vintner Voices: Encanto Vineyards

Wines: 2016 Encanto Pinot Noir & 2015 Encanto Estate Cabernet Sauvignon  BIO: Enrique Lopez, Founder and Proprietor of Encanto Vineyards was born in the small Pueblo of El Espiritu, Michoacán México in 1961. As a child Enrique grew up learning his ancestral craft of cultivating agricultural land. He was eleven years old when he first came to America with his family and farmed garlic in the fields of Nevada. That same year he attended St Helena Elementary School while staying with his brother Jesus in Napa Valley. Today Enrique has built his successful vineyard management company farming wine grapes for Shafer, Ballentine, Gallo, and Donum Estate Vineyards. Enrique and his wife Ligia produce several hundred cases of wine a year of their family brand, Encanto Vineyards.  Although, Enrique held his agricultural family history in high regard it was important to him that he received his degree in Chemical Engineering. Enrique graduated from the University of Morelia Michoacán in 1986. He continued to keep one foot in agriculture returning to America that same year and settled with family in Napa Valley. He was hired by Warren Winiarski of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars as a lab technician. In 1987, he accepted a job at Erickson Environmental utilizing his engineering skills.  In 2000 Enrique returned to the wine industry and founded, Servin- Lopez Vineyard Management Company. At twenty-two years old, Enrique never forgot a promise to return to Napa and make wine after randomly opening an encyclopedia where he read Napa Valley was a world class grape growing region. Enrique’s promise came true in 2008 when bottling his first vintage of Encanto Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford.  Website: https://www.encantovineyards.com/ Instagram