About Us
Hoffmann Vineyards is veteran owned and operated based in Applegate, MI and Fallbrook, California. The venture began when John Hoffmann, a 21-year veteran of the US Navy and original founding partner of Hoffmann Vineyards, purchased a 50 acre Malbec and Bonarda vineyard with four other partners in Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina in 2003. John and his partners' objective was to grow and produce premium Malbec wines for a local Michigan winery from manually farmed high quality grapes in the most celebrated Malbec wine region in the world.
Veteran Owned & Operated
Hoffmann Vineyards is proudly veteran owned and operated - we have over 60 years of combined service as Naval Aviators and continual service between 1957 and 2007. Collectively, we completed ten combat deployments aboard USS' Franklin D. Roosevelt, Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk, Carl Vinson and John C. Stennis and nearly 1500 carrier landings in various aircraft including E-1 Tracer, E-2 Hawkeye, A-7 Corsair and FA-18 Hornet.
Our Vineyard
Our vineyard, as depicted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Dominic Juliano, highlights Cerro El Platta soaring 19,520 feet above sea level. The vines consist of 100% Malbec in two trellised variations, espalier and Paral (canopy).
The oldest sections of the vineyard were planted in the 1980's and make up the majority of the vineyard. We replanted two smaller sections beginning in 2013 and recently added Merlot, Syrah, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay grapes.
Hoffmann Vineyards produces Reserve and Reserve Especial vintages only from the finest grapes in select portions of the vineyard in consultation with our agronomist Juan Argerich and enologists José Di Marco and Carolina Colqui throughout the growing season and at harvest.