It was more than a decade ago when Carmen and Gail Policy first fell in love with the Napa Valley. In some three months the former NFL executive and his wife will be fulfilling a dream — they will move into their new home, surrounded by their vineyards in Yountville.

Policy’s football career with the San Francisco 49ers included five Super Bowl rings in a 10-year span and afterwards he spent five years as president and CEO with the Cleveland Browns, stepping down May 1, 2004. The Sporting News and Pro Football Weekly named Policy NFL Executive of the Year in 1994. He and Gail are parents of five adult children and are proud grandparents.

“Gail and I knew that ultimately we wanted to end up in the Napa Valley. She had a choice — slopes, seaside, the inner city (San Francisco) or the wine country,” Policy said. “She figured the wine country was going to be the best for us, although we’ll never lose our attachment to the city. The combination of the wine country with the city as a backdrop seemed perfect to us.”

Got serious in 2002

The Policys began looking for Napa Valley property in 2000 and got serious about it two years later. Policy said they looked and looked and then one day, their friend and real estate agent, Jeff Warren, called them up and said he knew of a piece of property that wasn’t yet on the market but was worth a flight from Ohio to see. Policy said the Peter Mondavi family owned the 14-acre property. It had been a vineyard but the vines were pulled out, waiting for the Mondavis to upgrade it with drainage and other improvements.

He and Gail took a special flight, drove to the Napa Valley, saw the fallow land on the floor of the Napa Valley and just “fell in love with it.”

“We wanted to have both a vineyard and a home,” Policy said. “We wanted to combine the parts of growing the grapes, having our home and making wine into a family affair. We thought this would give us the best opportunity to get this done in a special and qualitative way.”

Advice on planting

So they bought the parcel off the Yountville Cross Road in April 2003. He questioned a lot of people about how to plant the vineyard, including Jim Barber, whom he ultimately hired. One other person, an icon in the Napa Valley, had a hand in making this vineyard, now planted with three clones of Cabernet Sauvignon.

“By the way, I must say this,” Policy said, who is a fine storyteller. “I knew some people, but not very many in the Napa Valley, but everything you have heard and read about Robert Mondavi is true: His spirit, what he created in the Napa Valley in terms of sharing, educating, promoting, expanding, exporting and what is so special about this special part of the world.”

Policy said the Mondavis reached out to the newcomers — as they have done so many times in the past — and “helped us, gave us advice and tried to do everything they could to make things as easy and as informative for us as they possibly could. And it helped tremendously,” he added.

First release in 2009

After the Policys and Barber planted the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, they began working with Thomas Brown, whom Policy calls “a new breed winemaker.” Policy calls the barrel tastings “quite hopeful” and said the new wine will be released in 2009.

He adds, “I will pressure, browbeat, twist the arms of everyone who has ever suggested they are friends of mine to buy it, so that we can produce the next vintage.”

The couple’s love for the Napa Valley came slowly and began, really, when Policy was named vice president and counsel for the San Francisco 49ers in 1983. He recalled visiting San Francisco restaurants with the 49ers’ owner, Eddie DeBartolo and found them amazing. “I think it was the ambience,” he said, launching another story. “The waiters, the waitresses, they were so special. They offered a sense of professionalism that took you even beyond the food. And then, all of a sudden, you started sipping this red stuff from the Napa Valley and somebody who seemed to know what they were talking about said, ‘Oh, this is called Silver Oak’ or ‘This is called Mondavi’ or ‘This is called Stag’s Leap.’ And you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Whatever it is called, it is good. And maybe, we’ll leave the scotch behind and maybe the vodka doesn’t have to be on the table.’ Let’s start drinking some of this wonderful juice that’s coming from up north, above the Golden Gate Bridge.”

‘A slice of heaven’

And that was Policy’s first lesson and more were to follow, including many trips to the Napa Valley, an understanding of the wine country, which he calls “a slice of heaven” and slowly that understanding turned to love. “Falling in love with the area means you’re falling in love with what the area produces,” he said, “It’s just a natural course of events.”

Before the couple bought the land, planted a vineyard, built a house — designed by Yountville’s Howard Backen — harvested grapes and made wine, Policy began with a business plan. But, he said he abandoned the business plan halfway through, because he realized it wouldn’t work. “You have to understand, this is something more than that, and it is a matter of heart. This is a passion, this is the pursuit of happiness, it’s romance, but it is not business,” he said.

“If everything goes perfect and people love the wine, we may break even. I guess that’s what I’m going to ask Gail to go to church for and light candles for. Breaking even would be nice,” Policy added.

Return to his roots

He speaks about the wine business being his passion, and it clearly is. But it is also a return to his roots, when he was growing up in Youngstown, in northeastern Ohio. Policy said the yearly wine crop would not be harvested in Ohio; instead, grapes from California’s Central Valley — packed in crates — would arrive via railroad car to the center of town. “Everybody in the neighborhood showed up and brought some old vehicle to buy the crates of grapes from that railroad car,” he said. Everybody in the Italian-American neighborhood would make their homemade wine and serve it at the dinner table.

“It was all part of the everyday routine of understanding what was going on at the dinner table, what was going on in the cellar, what was happening in the neighborhood,” Policy said. The wine was responsible for neighborhood bragging rights — who made the best wine, who served it or who served the most wine.

How important was the homemade wine in his family? “Every Sunday after Mass there would be a family meal and wine would be on the table and no one sitting at the table would have an empty glass,” he said.

The full interview with Carmen Policy, a part of the “On the Vine” TV program, will be shown later this month. “On the Vine” is shown at 10 a.m. Saturdays on KFTY-TV Channel 50 from Santa Rosa.

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