From Draft to Dinner with Jack Nicklaus

A young winemaker shares his passion with golfing royalty at Pebble Beach.

Welcome to a newsletter themed at the intersection of longevity and wine history. 🍷

In 1971, a young Santa Clara valley man named Doug Farley got some troubling news. His draft number was called, which meant he was being sent off to war in Vietnam.

He was 20, a student at De Anza College with no military ambition. But President Nixon had recently reinstated the civilian draft, the first time since World War II.

The way the lottery draft worked: 365 dated lottery balls were dropped and spun in a fishbowl. All abled men whose birthdays aligned with 140 of the balls that were pulled out were sent draft notices. Farley’s was aligned with the second to last at 139 to be called.

“I had many sleepless nights. A lot of anxiety about being sent off to war,” Farley told me recently.

“I had many sleepless nights. A lot of anxiety about being sent off to war,” Farley said.

He dropped his college courses three weeks before needing to get his military-required physical exam. During that gap, he spent most of his time golfing in attempts to take his mind off going to war.

Then another stunning turn of events occurred.

“I came home one day and saw my mother crying. But this time, they didn’t seem like tears of sadness. They were tears of joy,” he said. “She just read in the Palo Alto Times that President Nixon was sending 15,000 fewer soldiers to Vietnam. That lowered the draft number from 140 to 125. Men in that range did not have to serve.”

Farley called that article “my new birth certificate.”

“It was a life saver,” he said.

He told his father, a Cornell-educated engineer, he planned to get a job “to decompress” before going back to college. Later that week, he went next door to watch a football game with his friend, Bob Lyons, who was a liquor salesman. When Farley said he was looking for a job, Lyons said he had just the contact for him: Louie Sarto, who ran the Gemello liquor store, adjacent to the Gemello Winery in Mountain View.

Sarto had told Lyons Mario Gemello, who owned and ran the winery, was looking for an apprentice who could learn to be an assistant winemaker. (Gemello was my grandfather.)

“Mario immediately hired me on the spot,” Farley said. “Working for Mario was incredible. He taught me what hard work was really about. And boy was it, especially around the crush season.”

1970s: Winemaker Mario Gemello and his assistant, Doug Farley (L) hard at work, bottling, labeling and boxing Chablis.

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Farley worked seven years for my grandfather, before moving to Minnesota. He was newly married and that’s where his wife grew up, and they agreed to raise their family in the Midwest.

In 1977, a year before the move, his winemaking endeavor allowed him to bond with his childhood idol, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.

“He was my hero. I’d go to the Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach every year,” said Farley, referring to what is now known as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. It was held last weekend. “And I knew [Nicklaus] loved it, too.”

In fact, in back-to-back years of 1972-’73, Nicklaus won the Pro-Am, which was launched in 1937 by Crosby, the legendary Hollywood actor and singer. The tournament of celebrities paired with top golfers was paused during World War II, but resurrected in 1947 at the apex of Crosby’s movie stardom: he was the number one box office draw for five consecutive years that ended in 1948.

Farley had heard Nicklaus had quite a wine collection and knew where he stayed: the Hotel Del Monte, minutes from the meandering 17-Mile Drive of luxurious homes, dramatic coastal cliffs, stunning vistas and snow white sand dunes.

Farley planned to drive down to Pebble Beach Saturday morning. A day or two before, he called the hotel and asked if they would connect him with Nicklaus’ room. To his surprise, he started to hear the sound of the hotel attendant connecting him. Each ring hung in the air with the hint of anticipation.

Back in those days, the paparazzi and fandom were minimal, so most athletes and celebrities didn’t feel the need to use aliases at hotel checkins. (Stakes and prize money were almost ten times lower than today. Tom Watson earned $40,000 for winning the Pro Am that year, compared to Rory McIlroy’s first place prize of $3.6 million this year).

Gripping the phone, soon Farley heard a click followed by another man’s voice say “Hello.” Farley cleared his throat and asked if he could speak to Jack.

“This is Jack,” Farley imitated his voice for me. He proceeded to tell him that he was one of his biggest fans.

“I’m an assistant winemaker at Gemello Winery and I understand you love wine.”

“Yeah, I have a nice collection,” he said.

“We make one of the most heralded cabernets and I’d like to give you a case,” Farley said. “I don’t want anything from you. Don’t need an autograph or anything. Just want to share our wine with you.”

“We make one of the most heralded cabernets and I’d like to give you a case,” Farley said.

He said, “Ok, but only under one condition: If you have dinner with my wife and I Saturday night and tell me about the wine.”

“It was amazing. We had dinner in his hotel room overlooking the 18th hole,” Farley said. “He wanted to know all about the Montebello vineyard where this vintage of Gemello Cabernet was made from. I felt like I really got to connect with him because I didn’t act like Joe Fan.”

Twenty-five years later, that 1970 Gemello Cabernet would win The Judgment of Paris re-enactment in a blind tasting.

Nicklaus asked for Farley’s address, and soon after, the golfing legend sent him a thank you letter. It arrived in a big box filled with golf balls and other souvenirs.

Bing Crosby - AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

If Bing Crosby attended the Pro Am in 1977, it would be his last. The entertainer died nine months later, coincidentally on a golf course. He had just finished 18 holes in Madrid, Spain, and was walking to the clubhouse when he fatally collapsed from a heart attack. He was 74.

His family agreed to keep his name on the Pro Am moving forward. That changed in 1986. It’s been known as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am ever since.

If you’re new here—hi, I’m Kevin!

I’m the author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇

The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features:

• Healthy aging/longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life.

• Wine history & stories of the Gemello Winery

• Ancestry & family research tips

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