Memento Mori

Memento Mori was founded in 2010 by Adriel Lares, Hayes Drumwright, and Adam Craun. Hayes met Adriel as a teenager in the pool in Alvin, Texas, and met Adam on the swim team at Boston University. The name comes from an ancient Latin philosophy that recalls mortality, which the founders interpret as 'Remember to Live.' Adriel Lares was the first of the three to fall for wine, and by the early 2000s he was a full-blown collector spending as much time in Napa as he could, before the trio started a label together. Sam Kaplan has been the winemaker since the first vintage, and the winery describes his approach as translating each vineyard site into balanced, terroir-driven wines.

• Founded 2010 by Adriel Lares, Hayes Drumwright, and Adam Craun
• Name taken from the Latin philosophy of Memento Mori, which the founders interpret as 'Remember to Live'
• Adriel Lares was the first of the three to become a dedicated Napa wine collector
• Sam Kaplan has been the winemaker since the first vintage in 2010

All three co-founders are proprietors of the winery and run other ventures alongside it. Adriel Lares, a Stanford Economics graduate who began in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, was CFO at 3PAR, where he led its IPO and acquisition, and at Fastly, which he helped guide to an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. He is now CFO of Chelsea Football Club in London, and he serves on the Napa Valley Vintners Grants Review Committee, as a board member of the Vida Valiente Foundation, and as a board member and Audit Committee chair of The Duckhorn Portfolio (NYSE: NAPA). Hayes Drumwright founded the technology company Trace3, which he grew to more than $500 million in revenue, and InstantScale, an investment firm focused on early-stage startups. He founded Vida Valiente Winery, a 17-acre estate winery in St. Helena, and with his wife Susana the Vida Valiente Foundation, a charity helping first-generation, low-income students attain last-dollar college scholarships. Drumwright has written columns for Forbes and Entrepreneur.com and the book Management vs. Employees: How Leaders Can Bridge the Power Gaps That Hurt Corporate Performance; a second book, The Empty Center, followed in August 2026 and reached number one in its Amazon New Release category within days of preorder. Adam Craun, a classically trained artist, designed Memento Mori's gold logo and set out to put the wine on the radar of collectors and on the lists of top restaurants and wine retailers. He also co-founded The Business Beverage Company with Nicholas Lutz; its first project is El Negocio Tequila. Sam Kaplan grew up in Oklahoma, earned a Religious Studies degree at Lewis and Clark College, and worked at Pine Ridge and ZD Wines. He is Winemaker and General Manager at Arkenstone Estate, started the Nine Suns project on Pritchard Hill in 2011, co-founded the MAXEM label with his wife Nancy in 2015, and is winemaker and partner at Vida Valiente. Decanter has described Kaplan as consultant and co-owner across several wineries, among them Arkenstone, Memento Mori, and Vangone. Genevieve Echavarrie joined Memento Mori in 2015 as General Manager and Director of Client Relations and played a critical role in the winery's 2023 move into its own estate.

• Adriel Lares: CFO of Chelsea Football Club; previously CFO at Fastly and 3PAR; board roles at the Vida Valiente Foundation and The Duckhorn Portfolio
• Hayes Drumwright: founder of Trace3 and InstantScale; founder of Vida Valiente Winery and, with his wife Susana, the Vida Valiente Foundation; author, most recently of The Empty Center (2026)
• Adam Craun: designed Memento Mori's gold logo and took the wine to collectors, restaurants and retailers; co-founder of The Business Beverage Company and its El Negocio Tequila
• Sam Kaplan: Memento Mori's winemaker since 2010, also Winemaker/GM at Arkenstone, winemaker and partner at Vida Valiente, and co-founder of MAXEM
• Genevieve Echavarrie: General Manager and Director of Client Relations since 2015; played a critical role in the 2023 move into the winery's own Calistoga estate

Memento Mori sources Cabernet Sauvignon from Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard, Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard, Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard, Weitz Vineyard, and Oakville Ranch Vineyard. The Memento Mori block at Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, on the western border of St. Helena, was planted in 1998 on Cortina soil, sand, and rock. Beckstoffer Las Piedras lies a couple hundred yards west of Dr. Crane along Sulfur Creek on alluvial rocky sand, and its history goes back to the original Mexican land grants of the late 1830s. Phil Coturri, an organics pioneer, farms Oakville Ranch. Vine Hill Ranch, on the western bench of Oakville slightly north and west of Yountville, has a history going back to the late 1880s. In April 2023 Memento Mori bought a 17-acre Calistoga property on Azalea Springs Way, formerly known as Stonescape and previously owned by the late Bay Area art collectors Norman and Norah Stone. Its four-acre estate vineyard, on volcanic soils, is the newest source in the portfolio and gave its first Memento Mori fruit in the 2023 vintage.

• Beckstoffer Dr. Crane: Memento Mori's block planted 1998 on Cortina soil, sand, and rock
• Beckstoffer Las Piedras: alluvial rocky sand along Sulfur Creek; history going back to 1830s Mexican land grants
• Oakville Ranch farmed by organics pioneer Phil Coturri; Vine Hill Ranch dates to the late 1880s
• 17-acre Calistoga estate bought April 2023 (formerly Stonescape, previously owned by the late Norman and Norah Stone)
• Estate's four-acre vineyard, on volcanic soils, gave its first Memento Mori fruit in the 2023 vintage

The flagship Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon draws on several of the winery's single-vineyard sites and has been released in every vintage since 2010. Single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, Beckstoffer Las Piedras (including a 2023 'Duo' bottling from a single block within the vineyard), and Vine Hill Ranch, alongside a Sauvignon Blanc aged in French oak. The 2023 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, the first release grown on the winery's own Calistoga vineyard, joined the lineup that year. The wines go out by allocation, in extremely limited quantities, to mailing list collectors with an active purchase history. The Beckstoffer Dr. Crane bottling that Wine Spectator reviewed in August 2022 ran to 125 cases. The inaugural 2010 vintage was 150 cases from a small block of Rutherford fruit, and the vineyard portfolio has since grown to take in further Beckstoffer sites and Vine Hill Ranch.

• Flagship Cabernet Sauvignon released every vintage since 2010
• Single-vineyard bottlings: Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, Beckstoffer Las Piedras (plus a 2023 Duo block bottling), Vine Hill Ranch
• 2023 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon: first release from the winery's own Calistoga vineyard
• Sold by allocation in extremely limited quantities; the Dr. Crane bottling Wine Spectator reviewed in August 2022 ran to 125 cases
• Inaugural 2010 vintage: 150 cases from Rutherford fruit

In 2016 two wines Sam Kaplan made from the 2014 harvest drew two of the top three bids, at $130,000 each, at the Napa Valley Vintners' Premiere Napa Valley futures auction. One was a Memento Mori lot, a result the winery credits with putting it on the international connoisseurs' map. Forbes reported in November 2025 that Kaplan went on to earn three separate 100-point wines in a single vintage. James Suckling's May 2025 reviews scored the 2022 Vine Hill Ranch bottling 97 points, the 2022 Beckstoffer Dr. Crane bottling 96, the 2022 flagship Cabernet Sauvignon 95, and the 2022 Beckstoffer Las Piedras bottling 95; the publication's coverage of the 2023 vintage described the Memento Mori flagship as a perfect-scoring wine and the Vine Hill Ranch bottling as on the cusp of perfection. In May 2025, for its 15th anniversary, Memento Mori unveiled new label artwork designed by Adam Craun, giving each wine its own butterfly design symbolizing transformation. In March 2026, Hayes Drumwright bought the historic Edge Hill estate in St. Helena from Joel Gott for $21.5 million, joined in ownership by his wife Susana and a group of 20 investors who are private clients of his other wine labels. Edge Hill, renovated by the late Leslie Rudd, includes 27 acres (six planted to a field blend of red grapes) and a three-story stone winery built in 1876; winemaker Sam Kaplan and general manager Genevieve Echavarrie round out its leadership. The estate will first serve as a temporary home for Vida Valiente while a winemaking facility is built there, work not expected to be complete until 2030, after which Drumwright plans to launch a new Cabernet-focused label called Ultra Mortem, which he has called 'a nice finish to our trinity of the wineries.'

• 2016 Premiere Napa Valley auction: a Memento Mori lot was one of two wines that drew $130,000 bids
• Forbes (2025): winemaker Sam Kaplan earned three separate 100-point wines in a single vintage
• James Suckling scored four 2022 bottlings 95 to 97 points in May 2025 reviews
• May 2025: 15th-anniversary label redesign with butterfly imagery by Adam Craun
• March 2026: Hayes Drumwright bought the Edge Hill estate in St. Helena for $21.5 million, with a new Ultra Mortem label planned once its winery is complete around 2030

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.mmwine.com/story/, https://www.mmwine.com/wines/, https://www.mmwine.com/vineyards/, https://www.mmwine.com/experience, https://www.mmwine.com/visit/, https://www.mmwine.com/press/, https://www.mmwine.com/. Secondary sources: The Napa Wine Project, Wine Business (via SF Chronicle reporting), Shanken News Daily (March 16, 2026, recapping Wine Spectator), Yahoo Lifestyle (2026, citing Wine Spectator). Last verified 2026-10-12. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.