Farm Talk with Paul Ward - Winery and Wellness Retreat Estate in Old Agoura CA with Proprietor Neal Marder

Enjoy these next 25 minutes as a vacation away from the stressors of daily life…

Paul interviews Neal Marder, proprietor of Heaven’s Hill Estate, a vineyard and Spiritual Retreat Center, in Old Augora, California. Perched on the edge of the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles, Neal and his wife Gina have carved out a sanctuary for themselves, the community, and all animals. Heaven’s Hill is entirely plant-based property that honors the sanctity of all living things. In fact, during the recent drought that devastated local wildlife, animals were welcomed to enjoy the water fountains and produce in the organic garden.

As the largest vineyard in the area, Heaven’s Hill Estate currently produces four types of wines; Boho Blend, Sinner Syrah, Goddess Grenache, and Rapture Rose. The vines have adapted perfectly to the microclimate and produce exceptional wine. Fortunately for listeners close to Agoura Hills, the vineyard offers wine tastings and wellness retreats featuring sound baths and yoga. For those not fortunate to live near the tranquil estate, shipping and a mail order wine club are available.

Heaven’s Hill Estate: https://www.heavenshillestate.com/
Shop Heaven’s HIll Winery: https://www.heavenshillestate.com/shopourwines
One Minute Virtual Tour https://www.heavenshillestate.com/virtualtour

In this episode you will learn:
[0:59] How Neal and Gina Marder founded Heaven’s Hill Estate.
[2:59] The quality of the soil for agriculture.
[7:08] How such a rare grape (Grenache) was selected.
[8:29] Harvesting the grapes by hand to ensure quality.
[10:43] Local availability of Heaven’s Hill Estate wine.
[12:50] The impact of the Woolsey Fire on the flavor of the wine.
[16:02] Events, retreats, and activities available to the community.
[18:54] Future plans for Heaven’s Hill Estate.
[19:54] Farm-to-table ethos and events.
[22:55] How to experience wine from the estate.

Have ideas for future episodes? We’d love to answer your questions – leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to Paul@HomeAndRanchTeam.com or visit www.HomeAndRanchTeam.com

A special THANK YOU to our sponsors! Farm Talk with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsors, OPUS Escrow and Karly Rosalez from The Money Store and Community West Bank. Supporting our sponsors ensures Farm Talk can provide listeners with the best possible episodes.

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Paul Ward (00:04):
Hi, this is Paul Ward, and welcome to another edition of Farm Talk. I’m very excited, today we are in Old Agora, California at Heavens Hill Estate. Our special guest is Neal Marder. Neal, welcome to the show.

Neal Marder (00:16):
Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to be here.

Paul Ward (00:19):
And we wanna thank our sponsors, Opus Escrow and the Money Store. So, Neal, you are the proprietor owner, founder of this establishment.

Neal Marder (00:29):
I am the lucky guy, along with my wife, Gina.

Paul Ward (00:32):
This is a winery and wellness center. It’s also attached to your personal residence. You’ve created quite a garden of Eden here. I understand now why it’s called “Heaven Hills Estate.” And you are farming kind of right on the edge of an urban area, but in a little kind of garden spot. You’re growing grapes for wine here.

Neal Marder (00:54):
We are. Yeah. It’s our little slice of heaven. Yeah.

Paul Ward (00:58):
And how long have you been doing that? How long have you been growing grapes and making wine?

Neal Marder (01:02):
Well, the vineyard was an established vineyard when we bought the property, so it’s a mature vineyard. When we bought the property, we weren’t necessarily looking for a vineyard. We were looking for a property where we could use it to rescue animals. So part of the culture here, the environment is a plant-based property. That is, (it) honors the soulness and sanctity of all forms of life. When I saw the size of the property and the fact that it had a vineyard that was almost an acre in size, I said to myself, “This is too good to be true.” Cuz I love wine. I always have. And I found myself becoming a winemaker as a second career.

Paul Ward (01:59):
And so did you just jump into being a vintner? I mean, has that kind of always been kind of something that you’ve looked at and just said, “I’m gonna jump in?”

Neal Marder (02:09):
No, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. So I did a lot of diligence. I talked to the prior owner for quite a bit. His vineyard manager, his winemaker, and started to learn about what was involved in making the decision to do this, not just as a hobby, but as a business. So a lot of the properties in this area have little vineyards in their front yards where, you know, they’re making 10, 15 cases of wine to consume. This property with a good harvest makes almost 200 cases of wine. And so that’s still a relatively small single family vineyard compared to many. But for this area, it’s the largest vineyard in the area.

Paul Ward (02:59):
Interesting. And how is the weather here? How is the soil for growing? Have you found it accommodating?

Neal Marder (03:05):
Well, that’s one of the real blessings about living on this property. It’s the ecosystem and the soil composition is really quite remarkable. So it’s perfect for not only making wine, but the property itself, if you look at the grass, even during a drought, looks like it’s a new marathon. The flowers, the vegetation, everything is working perfectly together. The property is, as, you know, above street level. So we’re getting a nice little breeze even on a warm day. We’re getting really the perfect climate, working with the really rich soil to be really the perfect platform for making not only great wine, but the beautiful surroundings that accompany the property.

Paul Ward (03:59):
And I see you’ve terraced some of your hills to kind of match with what’s happening in, you know, Europe or Napa.

Neal Marder (04:07):
We did. I mean, we wanted this to be a feeling for the community where they could get away from their normal stresses of life. And instead of traveling 45 minutes or an hour to a nearby resort, they could come here and try to kind of escape their stresses, and pressures in life and feel a sense of relaxation being in nature and enjoying everything we offer here as well as some really great wine.

Paul Ward (04:40):
Well, that is one thing that I noticed when I first arrived, which is kind of the calming sense that you get when you walk on the property. I mean, you don’t realize that you’re right on the edge of, you know, a metropolis with 10 million people. You would never know that coming out here just, you know, five minutes from the 101 freeway.

Neal Marder (05:01):
That’s a very consistent comment we get from people that come here. They’re blown away. That something so magical could be literally five minutes from the freeway where you feel, you know, you’re in another country. You could be in the hills of Italy and you would never know it, because of how fortunate we are to be on this property.

Paul Ward (05:31):
And you’re growing different varieties of grapes Right. To make different types of wines. Is that right?

Neal Marder (05:37):
Yeah. There’s three different grapes that we grow. There’s Grenache grape, which is actually pretty rare for not only this area, but it’s not a common grape you find even not only in California, but in the United States. It’s a grape that you see predominantly in countries like Spain or Portugal or Italy, where if you go to a restaurant in a country like that, you’ll see Grenache. Different Grenache is on their menu out here. It’s not very common. And so I really didn’t know much about Grenache. I had to get an education about Grenache. And it’s very nice wine that you can drink not only in the evening, but during the day and not get tired or get a headache. It’s kind of a lighter wine that people drink like a Pinot.

Neal Marder (06:31):
They are used to that kind of a lighter texture wine, and ours is really very full of flavor. So we’ve got Grenache grapes, we grow and we also use that to make our Rose. Then the rest of the property is primarily Ciag grapes. Then we recently have planted some Cab vine, so we’ll be in a couple of years making, in addition to our Grenache, our Syrah, and our Rose, and also we make a blend called the Boho Blend. We’ll be making a hundred percent Cab wine.

Paul Ward (07:08):
Okay. Now, in regards to the Grenache, did you research that? Or did somebody say, “Hey, we think that this might do well here and, you know, there’s a market for it.” What was your thinking about getting into that?

Neal Marder (07:20):
Again, I mean, we inherited the grapes and so they were already on the property. The question that we needed to answer was, “What are we gonna do with that Grenache grape?” Were we gonna use it for just blending, were we gonna make Grenache with it, or were we gonna use it to make both Grenache and Rose? I’m not a Rose drinker at all. And when our winemaker said that he wanted to make Rose, I said, “I don’t know about that.” He said, “Let me make six cases for you.” (This was the first year we were here.) “And if you like it and I think you will, then next year we’ll make more.” And those six cases went very quickly. They were fantastic. It’s more of a drier Rose than a sweet fruity, fruit forward Rose. So people who are looking for more of a dry, crisp Rose, I think would really like ours.

Paul Ward (08:27):
Interesting. I also understand that you guys do hand harvesting and destemming all by hand. You’re not using any machines. It’s like a labor of love.

Neal Marder (08:37):
You took the words outta my mouth. . I mean, we’re not really in this to get rich. Our goal is to make the absolute best wine that people in the community will taste and say, “This tastes like it’s from Napa.” So when we started to get that kind of feedback, we were comfortable saying, ‘This is like Napa quality wine.” I mean, we drop a lot of fruit, so we don’t squeeze every juice out of the bottle. We’re mainly focused on quality and not necessarily quantity. We could probably make another 50 cases from the grapes that are on the property, but instead we’re trying to produce less, but produce really high quality wine.

Paul Ward (09:27):
And you age the wine in real barrels. Is that correct?

Neal Marder (09:32):
So Rose is not really a wine that you need to age. It’s pretty much ready to go right out of the bottle. So if you go to a wine bar, or you go to a restaurant, you’ll see Roses that are 2022’s and you don’t have to think twice about drinking it because it hasn’t been aged. The same thing with Grenache. Grenache doesn’t really need to be aged that much. Although it gets better with aging, it’s ready to drink . Our Syrah, we do age for 12 months in French Oak Barrels. And the Boho blend, which is a blend of Cabs with a little bit of Grenache, we age in French Oak Barrels for 18 months. So that’s our flagship wine. The Syrah is our estate Syrah that we call, “Sinner Syrah.” Because as my wife likes to say, “When you taste it, we think it’s Sinfully Delicious.” So we called it, “Sinner Syrah.” I hope that doesn’t sound too candid, like a commercial.

Paul Ward (10:42):
No. It’s great, it’s fun! . And you guys are now participating in the California Wine Festival in Santa Barbara. I mean, you’re kind of expanding, you’re in local restaurants.

Neal Marder (10:54):
Yeah. We’ve been invited to participate in wine festivals in Santa Barbara. We’ve done it for two years. We’ll be going on our third year in Huntington Beach in Dana Point. Our wines are on a number of wine menus and local restaurants like 101 North Rosco. We’re in wine bars. So, you know, we also have a wine club. We really are a word of mouth vineyard, although we do have a website where you can purchase our wine on the website. But we’re out there, you know, in the community and as far north as Santa Barbara and as far south as San Diego.

Paul Ward (11:44):
Okay. That’s great. Yeah. And water, that’s a big question. We had some amazing storms, but we’re not, you know, out of the dark yet with our drought situation. I understand that grapes don’t really take that much water once they’re established. Have you found that you can put ’em on micro drips and they just kind of do their own thing?

Neal Marder (12:06):
Yeah, exactly. All of the vineyard is all on micro drip and the vines have an incredible capacity for storing water in their roots. So you could go through a drought and if you get a bad harvest, it’s not necessarily because they don’t have enough water. It’s because of being impacted by wildlife, you know, who are looking for food or just you know, 115 degree heat that is three or four weeks nonstop. But it’s not usually because they’re not getting enough water.

Paul Ward (12:51):
So we were talking earlier about the Woolsey fire and how it came pretty close. Smoke and ash fell in the area of course for many days, and that had a different impact on your grapes and the flavor.

Neal Marder (13:06):
Yeah. You know, when you taste wine, you’re tasting not only the fruit, but sometimes, the wine maker will add certain things to the wine. If you like wine, you’re gonna pick that up with wines that have been aged in, you know, new or old French oak. And some wines that are in areas where there’s been a history of volcanoes that gets in the soil and affects the taste of the wine, there’s no question. But the Woolsey fire certainly, the soil absorbed the smoke and the ash and the wines that were produced the year after that harvest people have commented, have a bit of a smoky flavor to it, but they seem to like it. Whereas, you know, the more recent harvests, I don’t think you get as much of that smoky kind of overtone to them.

Paul Ward (14:09):
Sure. It’s interesting how mother nature works her magic in so many different ways.

Neal Marder (14:14):
We’re dependent upon luck. Mother nature, in terms of the soil, the sun, and then of course, you know, a good wine manager and a good wine maker, all of those things come into play. Whether you’re gonna make a good wine or not.

Paul Ward (14:33):
In addition to wine, you’re also a wellness center. You’ve got yoga retreats, you’ve got spiritual retreats, you’ve got occasional guest speakers that come.

Neal Marder (14:43):
Yeah. These are things that we’ve done for private small groups. Whether it’s a corporate retreat or a group of like-minded people or neither of those. Just people in the community that are looking for an outdoor experience where they can be with nature and do some things again that are right here in the local community, whether it’s yoga on our yoga platform, or meditation or sound bath in our tee-pee or taking a hike in the surrounding area. We offer all those things to the community. And that’s really my wife Gina’s vision. She’s a certified Sound Bath healer.

Paul Ward (15:29):
Again, you know, we live on the edge of 10 million people, which is hustle and bustle and stress and, you know, come out here and detox and maybe do yoga or drink wine or do both. It’d be interesting to combine the two. I don’t know if that’s a thing.

Neal Marder (15:47):
It definitely is a thing. We like to send people home after their yoga or meditation or sound bath with a complimentary bottle of wine. Nice. So they enjoy both of our offerings, but the two kind of go hand in hand.
Paul Ward (16:09):
And your gardens are beautiful. I mean, are you the horticulturalist here?

Neal Marder (16:16):
You know, it’s funny. People who know me don’t think I’m handy, but my wife says I am. And I really enjoy doing that kind of thing. I mean, it’s the actual opposite of what I do for a living. I wear a suit every day and I’m a lawyer, but I love, especially on the weekends, being out here and just working on the grounds. We have an organic garden as part of our property. So we do farm to table. And my wife and I love to work in that garden, you know, planting and replanting. It’s a lot of fun.

Paul Ward (17:02):
Very cool. And you’ve had corporate events. Chamber of Commerce type activities?

Neal Marder (17:08):
We’ve had the Chambers here for retreat. We’ve done things as sponsors of the Thousand Oaks Civics Arts Plaza. We even did a law firm retreat where partners from around the country came and did a business retreat. It was during the rain, and they actually did it inside the tee-pee. The comments that we got was (that) it was one of the more collaborative, soulful experiences any of them ever had. So, you know, we do all kinds of stuff like that. But we really offer things like that on a really selective basis. To people that are really looking for the right place and the right opportunity to have a retreat where they’re having both a business experience, but also an enjoyable one.

Paul Ward (18:08):
It’s part of a Agora Hills.

Neal Marder (18:11):
Yeah. This is really a small knit community that goes back decades. There’s really only a couple of areas in this part of Southern California where they’re thought of as horse properties. Where really, you must respect when you’re driving around or walking around this area the animals. That means driving slow. That means appreciating mother nature, and Agora is one of those areas. So this originally was a horse property by one of the original owners, and eventually we will use part of this property to rescue animals. My wife is an animal rescuer and animal activist. So this is an entirely plant-based property that is consistent with the surrounding area of just honoring and respecting mother nature, the environment, the culture and the animal kingdom. So during the drought, for example, this became a haven for all kinds of wildlife that we captured daily on our nest cameras. We saw raccoons here last night, coyotes, and bobcats. We do nothing to deter them from enjoying our fountains and drinking water, and unfortunately sometimes getting a meal from our grapes .

Paul Ward (19:48):
Sure. Sure. And you guys are doing some farm to table events where you’re growing food and serving it to your guests.

Neal Marder (19:56):
So behind us is a very long table with a beautiful pergola above it. We serve food up here that’s farm to table. In our garden, we’re planting garlic, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, you name it. So it’s part of the fun experience here of enjoying food from the earth and the surroundings.

Paul Ward (20:27):
And the wine, of course goes with that

Neal Marder (20:28):
The wine goes beautifully with it.

Paul Ward (20:30):
Absolutely. Actually, speaking of wildlife, there’s gonna be a wildlife bridge soon over the freeway.

Neal Marder (20:39):
Yeah. Just about a mile down the way. I think that’s really good news for both the wildlife and the community. There’s, unfortunately, too many times when deer, coyotes, wildlife, are getting struck by vehicles trying to cross the road. This will be just a natural pathway for them to go from one side of the community to the other without hopefully getting hurt. So it’s really an exciting time period. We’re all kind of looking forward to seeing that being completed.

Paul Ward (21:24):
Of course, you and your wife have created this garden of Eden, Heaven’s Hill Estate. So the animals are welcome too.

Neal Marder (21:32):
They’re always welcome. I’m surprised that there haven’t been bunny rabbits running across our feet. But if you didn’t know it, you would think this was a zoo. My wife feeds the squirrels in the morning and the birds. So, you don’t have to be a human to be welcome on this this sanctuary.

Paul Ward (21:58):
That’s awesome. Cuz you know, so much farming is about getting rid of the animals, and you kind of have it working in a symbiotic relationship here.

Neal Marder (22:08):
Yeah. Our winemaker isn’t too happy about it, . Because he wants to see us produce as much as we can. But this last year, normally we’re making up to 200 cases of wine, we’ll be only producing probably around 75 cases. Okay. So it’s a much smaller harvest. That doesn’t mean the wine won’t be just as good, but that’s just because there were a lot of hungry animals looking for food. We were a good place to find it instead of going to the grocery market.

Paul Ward (22:38):
Right. Well, you know, if the wine is that good, you just charge a premium .

Neal Marder (22:42):
Right. Well, yeah. The prices are going up a little bit.

Paul Ward (22:45):
So for folks that might not be so local and can’t visit the restaurants that were mentioned. How can folks have a taste of your wine?

Neal Marder (22:57):
Well, we do offer our wines for purchase online and we ship, but we also just about every month, are doing a wine tasting event at various locations. There’s the Kajo Valley Food and Wine Trail. During the summer, there’s wine festivals in Santa Barbara, as I mentioned, and all over northern and southern California where we are sampling our wines. And we also do private occasions. Wine tastings on the property.

Paul Ward (23:34):
Oh, very cool. What would that website be so that folks could check out what you have and maybe order a bottle?

Neal Marder (23:40):
Bottle. It’s heavenshillestate.com.

Paul Ward (23:43):
“Heavens,” plural. Heavens.

Neal Marder (23:45):
Heavens. “Heavenshillestate,” all one word. And if you go on the website, we have a gallery of pictures, and we also have a virtual, through a drone, presentation of the entire property. I think it’s six or seven minutes long.

Paul Ward (24:00):
Okay. So this is a bottle of “Sinner (Syrah)” that you were mentioning.

Neal Marder (24:05):
That’s the “Sinner Syrah,” and I’ll also hand you our “Rapture Rose.”

Paul Ward (24:12):
“Rapture Rose.”

Neal Marder (24:13):
Which is two of the four wines that we make.

Paul Ward (24:17):
Yeah. Very cool. And the other was the Grenache?

Neal Marder (24:20):
The other is what we call the “Goddess Grenache” and the “Boho Blend.”

Paul Ward (24:25):
Well, Neal Marder, thank you so much for being our guest on this edition of Farm Talk. We greatly appreciate being here.

Neal Marder (24:31):
It’s been wonderful to talk to you. Thank you.

Paul Ward (24:34):
We wanna thank our sponsors, Opus Escrow and The Money Store. Be sure to check us out wherever you find your favorite podcast. And you can also watch us on YouTube at Paul Ward Farm Talk and tune in for the next episode. Thank you so much.