The Foyt family -- synonymous with auto racing – is gaining quite the winning reputation in wine, too. Indy car legend A.J. Foyt enjoys a glass of red now and then, but it was his son, Larry, and grandson, Anthony Joseph IV, who branched out with the business venture.
“When I quit driving and Anthony kind of quit driving about the same time, we’re chatting one day,” recalls Larry Foyt, president of A.J. Foyt Enterprises. “The subject turned to business and I said, ‘We ought to do something fun together, something we enjoy.’ I said, ‘Let’s get into wine; it’s something we both enjoy.’ ’’
The enterprise was launch in 2009, and today it includes the Foyt Wine Vault (a bank vault is in the wine tasting room), a retail establishment on Main Street in Speedway, Ind., near Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Of course, photographs and memorabilia of A.J. Foyt’s racing success in the Indianapolis 500 are incorporated in the warm and comfortable space in a 42,000-square-foot building owned by the leader in Indy car wins with 67.
Foyt Family Wines debuted with its release of No. 14, which was a 2006 St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon. Last year, the Foyt Family Wines 2010 No. 77 Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon won the Double Gold Medal in the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
The wine vintages have a number that tells a story of its importance to the family, such as the No. 77 Cab – the year A.J. became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times.
“We didn’t have the kind of money to buy a bunch of land in California so we found a winemaker who would let us be part of the process and we partnered with Tom Meadowcroft,” Larry said.
Meadowcroft Estate Vineyard lies in the Mt. Veeder region of Napa Valley near Sonoma Raceway, where the Verizon IndyCar Series season finale will be contested Aug. 30.
“It’s a small business and when we were talking about what we would name it we thought that we have this great name and it’s silly not to use it,” Larry added. “So we used it to kind of pay tribute to everything A.J. did because Anthony and I wouldn’t have been able to do the things we did without Dad.
“I called Dad and said, ‘Anthony and I want to start a wine business and we want to put the family name on it.’ He said, ‘You can put our name on it, but I’ll tell you what. It better taste better than Andretti’s.’ That’s always been our joke for a long time.
“A.J. has been good because we’re always making him sign wine bottles and he says, ‘What do I get out of this?’ It’s been a lot of fun.”
The next logical step, according to Anthony Foyt, was a retail outlet. The wine tasting room opened in spring.
“(The business) was fun at first, but also we didn’t want to lose our butt on either. It’s just kind of built each year, and this is our next step,” Anthony said. “We’re fortunate that my grandfather bought the building. We’re excited to see where it goes. We’re really serious about our wine, like having wine and take pride in making good wine.”
