Meet Neal and Gina Marder | Vineyard owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Neal and Gina Marder and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Neal and Gina, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

Neal is getting close to retirement in his professional career as a lawyer, and when we bought our 4 acre property and it had an operating vineyard on it, it seemed like a no-brainer to turn it into a business that he could devote full-time to after he retires.

The prior owners had produced wine for their own consumption and for their friends and family as a hobby. But after our first harvest, when we tasted the four different wines we make, and observed the significant volume of production for a small, single family vineyard , it was an easy decision. The Vineyard produces around 200 cases a year of Napa quality wine consisting of Rose, Grenache , Syrah and our flagship Boho red , which is a full bodied cab blend that is aged in French oak barrel for 18 months . So that was the beginning of our Vineyard called Heaven’s Hill Estate

What should our readers know about your business?

We became the owners of the Heaven Hill Estate vineyard when we bought a beautiful four acre property in old Agoura, California.. Our success with the wine business is primarily due to our focus on offering Napa quality wine to the local community and beyond through our commitment to quality and not quantity when we harvest our Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet grapes for the various wines we offer. We also developed our property into a spiritual retreat sanctuary that offers yoga , meditation, sound bath therapy, trail hiking and wine tasting at our outdoor Fresca led by Neal, Gina and our daughter Jacklynne . Gina is a certified sound bath and reiki healer Jacklynne is a highly trained yoga instructor and therapist. It has been Gina’s passion to offer a retreat space for the community that offers retreats focused on spiritual healing, raising our vibration and manifesting the life of our dreams.

Our mission is to allow our guests to immediately relax, decompress and escape from the pressures and stresses of everyday life. Making good wine is a labor of love. Managing the Heaven’s Hill Estate and Retreat Sanctuary is extremely time consuming and gratifying. We love what we do!!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would first take out of towners to our Vineyard to take a tour of our property and do some wine tasting and enjoy the offerings of our Retreat Sanctuary. We would then go to Malibu to the beach and see the sunset and have dinner at one of the restaurants along the coastline that includes vegan options. The next day we would drive up the coast to Santa Barbara and spend the day there, walk around the local town, and go to Ollie‘s for dinner in Montecito. On the way back, we would stop in Ojai and play golf at the Ojai Valley Inn. on our journey back to Heaven’s Hill Estate. Time permitting, we would stop in Ventura and have a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The success of our vineyard at Heavens Hill Estate is attributed to the hard work, commitment, and “labor of love“ of our team that includes our event coordinator and social media Director, Zoya Mohan, our Vineyard manager, Christian, our winemaker, BAllen, and all of our friends, family and community in the Conejo Valley, who have supported us since day one. Special thanks to our wine club members and the restaurants and hotels who have purchased our wines and help promote our brand

Website: Heavenshillestate.com

Instagram: Info@heavenshillestate

Facebook: Heavenshillestate

Image Credits
Heavenshill Estate