The entrepreneur, vintner and artwork collector was surrounded by household when he handed away on the age of 86.
Hess was born in Switzerland again in 1936, and he inherited a brewery near Bern from his father. He discovered the brewing custom as an apprentice in Bavaria, and he pioneered a profitable new technique for producing non-alcoholic beers.
Hess bought the brewery and reinvested the proceeds in a mineral spring in Vals, a village near the Italian border. He turned Valser into Switzerland’s main mineral water model.
Within the late Nineteen Seventies, he travelled to the US in a bid to develop his mineral water enterprise by buying an American producer.
As a substitute, he ended up in Napa Valley and have become captivated by wine – a love affair that modified the course of his life.
He was drawn to the rugged hills of Mount Veeder, the place he claimed that the slopes had been unsurpassed in yielding high-quality grapes.
Hess established The Hess Assortment after buying 283 hectares of land on Mt. Veeder in 1978.
The primary Hess Assortment wines had been produced in 1983, and he continued to develop the enterprise within the years forward, whereas he additionally performed a pivotal function in establishing the Mount Veeder AVA in 1993.
Over the previous 45 years, The Hess Assortment has pioneered sustainable viticulture, and it additionally helped to revolutionise wine tourism within the area.
Hess, a passionate artwork collector, put in a three-story artwork museum above the vineyard’s tasting room in Napa Valley, housing items from well-known artists comparable to Francis Bacon and Gerhard Richter.
This gallery helped the property entice tens of hundreds of tourists per yr, providing a mix of nice wine and world-class artwork.
Within the late Nineteen Nineties, pushed by a ardour for wine and love of journey, Hess ventured to Argentina. He discovered a 150-year-old vineyard known as Bodega Colomé excessive within the mountains of Salta, which he known as a ‘diamond within the tough’.
He moved to Argentina along with his spouse, Ursula, they usually spent greater than a decade rehabilitating the vineyards and reworking the vineyard.
They expanded the enterprise with additional winery acquisitions across the Calchaquí Valleys, together with the Altura Maxima winery, and Bodega Colomé now has 4 estates totalling 150ha.
Hess bought the Valser model to Coca-Cola in 2002, permitting him to focus on wine and artwork.
Together with the Hess Assortment artwork gallery in Napa, he additionally based the James Turrell Museum at Bodega Colomé, which homes 9 of Turrell’s immersive gentle installations – the world’s largest set up of the artist’s work.
Hess is survived by Ursula, his daughter Alessandra, his stepdaughters Larissa and Sabrina, and 5 grandchildren.
