Improving with Age, Natalie Coughlin is Making Her Mark with Gaderian Wines
Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Natalie Coughlin is now enjoying the sweet taste of success as cofounder of Gaderian Wines in Napa Valley, Calif.
There’s a fine line that Natalie Coughlin walks, one that she readily acknowledges as she tip-toes in its vicinity.
After all, she is Natalie Coughlin—a 12-time Olympic medalist swimmer, a world record holder, the owner of 60-some medals in international swimming competition. There’s also a certain business value to the clout that comes with being an author, appearing on reality television and having graced the pages of both Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition and ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue.
But in 2017, when Coughlin followed her passion to the wine industry, she was very clear that it wouldn’t be just another famous person’s label. The wine would stand for itself, for the hands-on work that she and business partner Shaina Harding did behind the scenes, for the abiding passion that winemaking has become to the 42-year-old Coughlin.
“I really try not to rely on my Olympic success and swimming success as too much of a crutch because I don’t want it to come off as a vanity project or just something that I’m slapping my name on,” Coughlin said. “This is something that means a lot to me, and I put a lot of time and effort into it, so I want it to be as authentic as possible.”
Gaderian Wines has become the Olympian’s second career. She and Harding source all their grapes from the Napa Valley, not far from Coughlin’s North Bay hometown of Vallejo. A women-owned business looking to bring different wines to the fore, Coughlin has launched a passion into a brand true to her Northern California roots.
To learn more about Gaderian Wines, see its offerings or order, visit here!
POPPING THE CORK
Courtesy: Natalie Coughlin
Coughlin grew up in close-enough proximity to wineries to have an idea of the industry’s contours. Her journey to the vineyard doesn’t involve a eureka moment, but rather a combination of environment and self-discovery.
A regular glass of red wine became a treat in the latter stages of Coughlin’s career, which included consecutive gold medals in the women’s 100 backstroke at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. It fit her general nutritional ethos, all in moderation, in her rigorous training regimen.
She’d been to wineries with parents and family friends growing up. But upon her retirement at age 32 in 2015, she delved deeper into the multi-faceted business.
“When I was younger and starting to get into it in my 20s, I would go to places and I was always very curious,” she said. “When I would find a place that I really liked and someone pouring who seemed to know what they’re talking about and really interested in educating, I would ask them, ‘Hey, I’m trying to learn more about wine. Where would you go? Where do you suggest I go next? Which wines do you think I should check out?’ And that’s really how I would educate myself—just by word of mouth.”
Coughlin connected with Harding, a Florida transplant making wines in Napa since 2008, and Gaderian was born in 2017, named for the Old English term meaning “to gather.” Harding brought technical expertise as Coughlin learned the ins-and-outs of viticulture and contributed her acumen on the business side. Both were devoted to the region’s terroir, and in seeking market niches, they focused on a local character to the wines.
Gaderian deals primarily in pinot noir and chenin blanc, with a smaller run of cabernet sauvignon, the grape for which the region is most famous. The brand is connected to the four vineyards from which it sources fruit, a literal connection to the land and its history.
Coughlin is most excited about the Henry Ranch Vineyard, which hosts one of the region’s few sources of chenin blanc. The versatile and resilient grape, more popularly cultivated in the Loire Valley of France and South African wine-growing regions, was once popular in California. But its prevalence waned in the 1970s, as vineyards used acreage on more popular and sellable cabernet grapes, which Henry Ranch also includes. In the 2021 United States Department of Agriculture survey of California grape-growing, chenin blanc accounted for about 4,200 acres, less than 1% of all wine-type grapes grown and about 2.5% of white wine-type grapes. Old-growth plantings like Henry Ranch, which dates back at least 60 years, are even rarer and more treasured.
WHETHER THE WEATHER
Courtesy: Natalie Coughlin
Wine-making suits traits that carry over from Coughlin’s swim career. As a life-long outdoor swimmer before and after her stint in Berkeley at the University of California, she’s always been attuned to conditions and unusually subject to its whims. “You’re always exposed to the elements, whether it’s the heat of the summer or the cold of winter,” she said. “So we’re used to that.”
Wine-making has taken that to another level and accentuated Coughlin’s ability to adapt on the fly.
The last four growing seasons have been a test of resilience for the fledgling brand. In 2020, Gaderian’s entire red grape crop was smoke-tainted by massive wildfires in Northern California. Henry Ranch barely survived the blazes, and only after Harding and Coughlin had been told it was destroyed.
“You’re just always so nervous about something breaking out,” she said. “So we’ve very, very in tune with how quickly everything could be destroyed and how important it is to have proper land management and good general practices when it comes to fire prevention.”
The fires abated, but the drought that intensified them persisted, leading to fruit shortfalls each of the next two years. Above-average winter precipitation in 2023 led to a bumper crop, with the expected four tons of fruit ending up closer to 6.5 tons. With a little angling for extra capacity, the brand launched a sparkling rosé with the extra fruit. Those challenges are likely to only intensify as climate change ramps up. (To that end, chenin blanc is one of the more heat-tolerant grapes with the potential to flourish in a warmer world.)
“It just forces you to be really nimble, business-wise,” Coughlin said. “You have to be ready and willing to pivot.”
Coughlin and Harding have kept Gaderian modest in scale. Of the eight wines produced, none has exceeded 150 cases in production. That puts them squarely in the boutique category, and it allows them to do most of the work by hand with minimal mechanization. It creates wine true to the fruit and to the process that brings it to life.
Gaderian is, Coughlin says, a serious endeavor that the company doesn’t take too seriously. It’s more involved than just a whim that Coughlin would slap her name and face on, but it’s also not so overwrought as some wine brands can become.
The label strikes that balance perfectly. Coughlin and Harding conspired for something elegant, yet just a little silly. They settled on a jackalope, a rabbit with the horns of an antler, simply drawn in ink by an artist friend of Harding’s. It mixes whimsy with uniquely American folklore, a figure that Coughlin calls “a mascot,” but after a few too many cabernets and too quick a glance, you might just mistake for serious.
“It’s hilarious and silly, and I love it, because so much of wine oftentimes can be really pretentious, and people like take it too seriously,” Coughlin said. “It’s a serious wine, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
It’s a formula that Coughlin is keen to keep bottling up.
To learn more about Gaderian Wines, see its offerings or order, visit here!
