The Story

Adriel Lares Proprietor and Co-Founder

Of Memento Mori’s three co-founders and childhood friends, Adriel Lares was the first to fall in love with wine. After graduating from Stanford University with an Economics degree, he flirted with investment banking at Morgan Stanley for a few years, often finding himself as engrossed with the wine lists at his business dinners as he was with the work itself.

By the early 2000’s he was a full-blown wine collector, spending as much time in Napa as possible and immersing himself in the people and stories behind his favorite bottles. Along with his two favorite wine drinking companions and closest friends, Hayes Drumwright and Adam Craun, Adriel soon developed a natural fluency with Napa’s wine industry and decided to start a label of their own.

They settled on the name Memento Mori, which they interpret as “Remember to Live,” to commemorate the serious health scares, family tragedy and times of trial that cemented their friendship over the years. This ethos also ultimately informed their decision to make wine – they made an agreement early on that regardless of life’s direction, they would embrace life to the fullest and pursue their passions.

The trio had been among the first to discover Arkenstone’s wines (Adriel’s was the first name on Arkenstone’s mailing list) and fell in love with the complex, sophisticated style. When they finally met its rising star winemaker, Sam Kaplan, they recognized the perfect winemaking partner for Memento Mori.

Over more than a decade, a #1 bid at Premiere Napa Valley, and a 100-point score later, Adriel has applied the same single-minded focus to Memento Mori that helped build a career that has spanned finance, tech, and which now includes his current role as CFO for Chelsea Football Club in London. Previously, Adriel was the CFO at Stash, a platform empowering middle-class Americans to invest and build wealth, and at Fastly, which he helped guide to an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange and position in the top echelon of rapid-growth Silicon Valley companies. He also led a successful IPO and highly publicized strategic acquisition as CFO at 3PAR – a deal that helped secure the interest of Memento Mori’s future vineyard partner, Andy Beckstoffer. Finally, Adriel has combined his passion for wine and business while serving on the Napa Valley Vintners Grants Review Committee, and as Board Member of the Vida Valiente Foundation as well as The Duckhorn Portfolio (NYSE: NAPA) where he also serves as Chair of the Audit Committee.

Adriel has never looked back, unless it’s to reflect on how far he’s come.

Adriel grew up the son of Mexican immigrants in Alvin, Texas (where he also met Hayes). The first in his family to graduate from a four-year college, he is quick to call himself the beneficiary of great mentors growing up. As a result, Adriel has always been a committed believer in paying it forward – Adriel serves on the boards of the National Hispanic Institute, Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco and has volunteered in various capacities at his alma mater since graduating.

In addition to wine, Adriel is passionate about relationships, mentorship, and his mantra that the best-lived life is one spent in service of others.

Hayes Drumwright Proprietor and Co-Founder

Hayes Drumwright’s story is largely what inspired the Memento Mori name and its intrepid ethos – Remember to Live. A talented swimmer growing up, Hayes met Adriel Lares as a teenager in the pool after moving to Alvin, Texas. Hayes attended Boston University to study Business Administration, where he met Adam Craun while both were on the swim team. All three became very close friends.

While at college and only 20 years old, Hayes was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor. Three weeks after surgery, Hayes was informed the tumor had grown so large it cut off its own blood supply. After five years of regular blood tests, chest x-rays and CAT scans, his doctor gave him a clean bill of health.

Coming face to face with his own mortality at such a young age had a profound effect. His miraculous survival ensured he’d take nothing for granted for the rest of his life and gave him the clarity to move forward without concern for things like failure, hardship, or embarrassment. That fearless new lease on life inspired him to both start his first company at the age of 25, and to quickly rebound when it failed four years later in the dot-com bust. He lost everything, but a year later he launched a new company called Trace3 with one hundred dollars and an unflappable spirit. His fearlessness paid off when he grew that tiny investment to over $500 million in revenue.

A love of wine was a natural consequence of that success and – along with Adriel and Adam – Hayes found himself spending almost all his free time in Napa, immersing himself more and more in the people and stories behind his favorite bottles. Still young and deeply involved in the businesses he founded, Hayes didn’t want to wait until retirement to build the wine brand of his dreams.

At 36 years old, he arranged a meeting with Adriel and Adam where they all made an agreement that regardless of life’s direction, they would embrace their time on Earth to the fullest and pursue their wildest goals. Memento Mori in Latin translates to “remember that you have to die,” but the trio have since used it as a daily reminder to remember to live – as ardently as possible.

Among the first to discover the complex, sophisticated wines of rising star Sam Kaplan, the team recognized the perfect winemaking partner for what would become their Memento Mori wine label. Over 10 years, a #1 bid at Premiere Napa Valley, and a 100-point score later, Hayes has applied the same single-minded focus to Memento Mori that helped build his career.

In addition to managing Memento Mori and serving on the board of Trace3, Hayes is also the founder of InstantScale, an investment firm focused on early-stage startups from Silicon Valley. Memento Mori’s success inspired him to found Vida Valiente Winery, a 17-acre estate winery in St. Helena. He and his wife Susana additionally founded Vida Valiente Foundation - a charity focused on helping first-generation low-income students attain last dollar scholarships for college. He has written regular columns for Forbes and Entrepreneur.com and became a published author with Management vs. Employees: How Leaders Can Bridge the Power Gaps That Hurt Corporate Performance.

Hayes remains passionate about investing in young entrepreneurs. A father of five, Hayes started the Little Entrepreneur children's book series, featuring children chasing brave goals to demonstrate how kids can accomplish special things no matter their age. In his free time, he loves playing the stock market with his 16-year-old son, collecting first edition books and rare pre-1933 gold coins with all his kids, exploring new restaurants and wines around the world with his wife Susana, and remembering to live.

Adam Craun Proprietor and Co-Founder

Adam Craun, one of Memento Mori’s three co-founders, grew up just outside of Washington D.C. A twin and one of seven children, Adam always felt drawn to the arts. His father was an economist, and his grandfather a renowned oncologist at the National Institute of Health. Despite being flanked by politics and science, Adam was determined to be a creative.

Adam attended Boston University’s School of Fine Arts on a full-ride Division I swim scholarship. He met Hayes Drumwright in the pool and the two became fast friends, growing especially close after Hayes survived a serious health scare while the two were still on the swim team. After they graduated, Adam had a stint in Chicago before heading to Southern California shortly thereafter to dabble in technology.

It was there around 2009, during a conversation about what was next for the three friends, that Adam, Hayes, and Adriel Lares realized they all shared a love of wine that went beyond mere appreciation. Surviving Hayes’ health scare together helped the trio determine that life is too short to delay their wildest dream, so they rolled up their sleeves, tasted through Napa Valley, and decided to go for it with the finest Cabernet the region had to offer. Memento Mori was born.

Memento Mori in Latin means “remember you will die.” With life’s successes, setbacks, surprises, pivots, and heartaches, the three decided that the very bones of Memento Mori would mark a vivid, similarly poignant reminder: Remember to Live.

Adam quit his day job and threw himself wholly into building the cult brand of Memento Mori.

As classically trained artist, Adam was able to quickly come up with the label’s iconic gold logo, now front and center on each bottle and luxuriously adorning all Memento Mori packaging.

With Sam Kaplan in charge of translating their Cabernet sources into award-winning juice, Adam set out to get the wine on the radar of every collector and onto the lists of the world’s top restaurants and wine retailers. Now a highly sought label whose core message resonates beyond its audience of cult-collectors, Memento Mori – just like its three founders – is an unstoppable force just getting started.

While traveling across the US to ensure consistent and relevant branding, Adam learned that he could use their wine to help raise money and awareness for very deserving causes. In a matter of ten years, Memento Mori was able to raise millions of dollars for organizations like Next Step (rehabilitation for individuals living with paralysis), The Frankie Lemmon School (education for children with special needs), and Emeril Lagasse Foundation (youth culinary, nutrition and arts education). The crossroads of art, wine and philanthropy is where Adam feels most fulfilled and inspired.

After creating the branding for Memento Mori, Adam was hooked and started The Business Beverage Company that brands, creates, and produces ultra-premium spirits, wine and beer brands with his dear friend Nicholas Lutz. Their highly anticipated first project is a vintner's approach to a high-end sipping tequila called El Negócio Tequila, releasing in 2022.

Of all of Adam’s activities and commitments, his favorite role is being a dad. He became a father to twins (Harper and Camden) in 2012. When he isn’t helping raise paddles at a fundraiser or shuttling his kids to soccer practice, you might find him strumming his guitar, competing in open-water swimming endurance events, and living life to the fullest with his wife, Dara, at their home in Los Angeles, CA.

Sam Kaplan Winemaker

Sam Kaplan has been making wine for over two decades in Napa Valley, where all roads have led since his childhood in Oklahoma. His physician father made wine in the family garage, with fruit from their home vineyard, and grapes from the Napa Valley via train, with Sam stomping grapes and sampling the finished product at meals. Sam went to Lewis and Clark College in Portland thinking he was going to become a doctor, but a stint living with a wine-loving family while studying abroad in Spain gave him second thoughts. Sam grew captivated by wine culture and its powerful ability to bring people together.

A pivotal point in Sam’s life came while visiting a winery in the Willamette Valley. Walking into the winery cellar that day, the smell of fermentation overwhelmed him, sending chills down his spine. It was a pivotal moment, and the intensity of aromas brought him back to his childhood, made him feel instantly at home, and cemented the realization that he was destined to pursue a career in wine.

Sam ended up with a Religious Studies degree and a job offer at Gary Andrus’ Napa Valley property, Pine Ridge. His instinct was to get a formal wine education, but Gary – now his mentor – convinced him to learn on the job, by farming and working harvests. Sam’s first full time role was at ZD Wines, where he learned the ropes and worked his way from the bottom up. He met his wife Nancy there, who worked on her off days to expand her palate as a Michelin star chef.

After seven years, the opportunity of a lifetime came knocking in the form of a winemaker role at what would become Arkenstone Estate. He helped design the Howell Mountain project from soup to nut with owners Ron and Susan Krausz and remains Winemaker and General Manager for the estate. His wines quickly became legendary for their depth, complexity, and balance, attracting the founders of Memento Mori. Co-founder Adriel Lares was in fact the very first person to receive a DTC shipment of Arkenstone.

Sam has always thought of himself as an “agriculture-first” Winemaker, so when the Memento Mori guys told him he’d be working with the unparalleled Beckstoffer Dr. Crane and Las Piedras vineyards, as well as Weitz, Oakville Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch, he was all in. He founded his consulting business in 2010 to make it happen and launched the very first vintage of Memento Mori to immediate critical acclaim.

Sam made headlines in 2016, when a pair of wines he made from the acclaimed 2014 harvest earned two of the top three bids (at $130,000 each) at Napa Valley Vintners’ annual Premiere Napa Valley futures auction for the trade – one of them being a Memento Mori, which helped put the winery on the international connoisseurs’ map.

The other wine from that superstar-making day was from Nine Suns, a project Sam started on Pritchard Hill in 2011, designing the production side of the winery and collaborating with viticulturist David Abreu managing the vineyards. In 2015, he and Nancy started a wine label called MAXEM, in tribute to their kids, Max and Emma. A Burgundian wine project from the renowned UV Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, MAXEM is a terroir-driven set of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir farmed by the Ulises Valdez family.

Over ten years, a #1 bid at Premiere Napa Valley, and a 100-point score later, Sam is a critical part of Memento Mori’s story. When he isn’t making iconic wine, he’s traveling, fly fishing with Max and Emma, exploring new recipes with Nancy, farming their garden, or blending artisan gins for his famous martinis.

Lauren Van Ness Vice President of Client Relations

Lauren Van Ness first discovered Memento Mori during her nearly nine-year tenure at the world class Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry. Initially attracted to the striking labels, she soon fell in love with the wines themselves and the moving story behind them. As Maître D’ and Director of Private Events, Memento Mori always topped her recommendation list for guests looking to discover an exclusive bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon crafted from heritage vineyards sites with an extra dash of underground industry buzz around it.

A Colorado native, Lauren discovered her love of food and wine while competing as a member of the United States Alpine National Ski Team, traveling to Chile, New Zealand, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Austria for competitions. Immersing herself in these remarkable settings with their various cultures, she became especially charmed by restaurants, the dedicated individuals that operated them and the lasting memories she took along with her following the best meals.

Lauren retired from ski racing in 2004, moving home to Colorado to study Communications at The University of Colorado in Boulder. Once considered the “Foodiest Town in North America” by Bon Appétit, Lauren tapped into Boulder’s restaurant industry working for The Big Red F, a multi-concept restaurant and hospitality company, while putting herself through college. Inspired by her work, she loved how food and beverage worked in harmony.

In 2009, a once in a lifetime opportunity was presented to her, and Lauren relocated to Napa Valley to accept a position at The French Laundry. Before ultimately stepping into the role as Maître D’ and Director of Private Events, Lauren trained in seven different positions – each one cementing her love of hospitality as well as her conviction that the true meaning of hospitality is “how you make someone feel.”

To complement the daily changing menu, the service team would customize wine accompaniments to suit each guest, which is what led Lauren to her deep dive into the world of wine. She pursued the WSET Level 2 certification and joined ACME Fine Wines in 2018 to completely immerse herself in the industry.

At ACME, Lauren curated several private offerings of the Memento Mori flagship Cabernet, and in the process learned more about the label’s heritage vineyards, AVAs, soils and talented winemaker, Sam Kaplan. The more she encountered the Memento Mori backstory, the more it resonated with what initially attracted her to wine – the relationships and memories wine can create, and later evoke.

Coming full circle, Lauren joined the Memento Mori team in June 2021. Previously the Director of Sales & Hospitality, she has an unparalleled professional foundation that has helped take Memento Mori’s client base from strength to strength which will only continue to grow in her new role.

Working alongside Chef Thomas Keller at The French Laundry and with Karen Williams, the Proprietor of ACME Fine Wines, also helped her realize the value in working alongside brilliant business minds, and she is thrilled to find a similar acumen in the Memento Mori founders. Their various experiences running successful companies both in and outside of wine remain an inspiration to Lauren and she couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this talented team.

Lauren cares deeply about the community of Napa and the romanticism of wine. When she isn’t hosting guests in the Memento Mori lounge, she loves to hike, travel, play cards, drink wine with her husband, Brian, and share her favorite spots in the Valley with friends.

Travis Retherford Director of Operations

Originally from Missouri, Travis Retherford was introduced to the world of fine wine and food early by his wine-loving parents. As the youngest of their four children, Travis loves to say that he benefitted most from their palates, which grew more sophisticated with every annual trip they took to Napa. After he helped his dad build a wine cellar in their basement, Travis made his own pilgrimage to Napa after departing his alma mater, Truman State University.

After studying as a pre-med undergraduate, Travis had planned to take a year off to prepare for his MCATs while working in an unrelated field. His oldest brother had followed a similar path, and, as a graduation gift, invited Travis to come visit him in San Francisco where he was doing his residency. Napa was the first stop on the Bay Area itinerary, and the brothers capped a picture-perfect day with dinner at the home of family friend Ronnie Anderson, the General Manager of Anderson’s Conn Valley. Within days of meeting Travis, she offered him a job. Seeing a role in wine as the perfect intermezzo between his medical career studies, he happily accepted.

Working in hospitality at Conn Valley, Travis was surprised to learn that Mac Sawyer, the estate’s long-tenured winemaker, had been in the medical program at UC Davis before dropping out to pursue wine. Mac offered Travis some vineyard and enology experience, and he found familiarity in the science of working in the lab. It was enough to scratch the itch that had drawn him to medicine, and – long story short – Travis never did make it to med school.

After Conn Valley, Travis helped elevate hospitality and sales programs all over Napa Valley, including James Cole, Farm Collective NV, Tank Garage, Pride, and Aonair.

Travis also dabbled in winemaking, with a 2017 harvest winemaking role at Robert Biale and Claudine, the label he helped with after his brothers' launch in 2014. Named Claudine for their grandmother, the Retherfords started with a half-ton a fruit and turned it into a brand that captured enough buzz that they were able to sell it in 2021.

Throughout his time in Napa Valley, Memento Mori was always a label that had intrigued him from afar. Travis had been a longtime admirer of the wines and the stylish, entrepreneurial spirit of the team, so when the opportunity opened to join, he was in.

As Memento Mori's Director of Operations and Estate Manager, Travis will utilize a broad knowledge base that includes expertise in compliance, technical skills, and a deep understanding of wine business operations that has made him an invaluable asset to the team since he came aboard in 2022.

In his free time, Travis enjoys golf, traveling the globe to dine, and exploring the Bay Area with his dog, Roux, and girlfriend, Cristina. When not drinking Memento Mori, he’s usually exploring wines from the classic regions in France and Italy, although a nice Scotch is never out of the question.

Scott Gray Director of Customer Development

As Memento Mori’s Private Client Manager, Scott will be the face of the brand on the road, sharing the wines and the story behind them with collectors across the nation.

Growing up as the middle child of five siblings, Scott Gray learned the art of sharing early on. Originally from San Clemente, California, Scott’s dad started collecting Napa Valley wines in the 1990s after frequent visits to the region, getting wined and dined as a food broker. After his dad bought a house in Rutherford in 2008 and started his own wine label (Riverain), Scott began coming up to Napa for long weekends and fell in love with the culture, sparking his interest in the industry that supports it.

A natural communicator and gifted writer, Scott studied PR and Advertising at Northern Arizona, where he also found a way to take snowboarding as a class every semester, basically minoring in the sport. During his summer breaks, he secured a recurring internship working for his dad’s Riverain winemaker, Thomas Rivers Brown, at Outpost on Howell Mountain. There, Scott learned to drive a forklift, clean tanks and worked in the tasting room on weekends, where he fell in love with hospitality.

Upon graduating, Thomas offered him a full-time production position at Outpost where Scott could start at the bottom and work his way up. He built on his internship experience, learning the ropes and challenging the assumptions he had held about wine as a consumer. He loved every minute. Eventually he learned how to operate a winery, the basics of oenology and the chemistry that goes into winemaking, took WSET courses at Napa Valley Wine Academy, and even started a small wine label in 2018 called GrayPez. He worked under Thomas at Outpost through the 2016 and 2017 harvests and then again at Mending Wall for the subsequent three years.

In early 2021, Scott was involved in a scary car accident where he broke his neck. His doctors said his recovery was nothing short of a miracle. It was during this time that Scott heard about the Memento Mori story and founder Hayes Drumwright’s health scare and similarly miraculous recovery. His dad had long been a fan of the wines and of Sam Kaplan, but Scott was deeply moved and inspired by Memento Mori’s Remember to Live ethos.

Once he had fully recovered, Scott became connected with the Memento Mori team. The rest is history.

In his free time, Scott enjoys golf (which is easy, as he has a handicap of six!), entertaining in his backyard, and dining out at his Napa Valley mainstays: Angele, Rutherford Grill, and Scala. When he’s not drinking Memento Mori, he’s usually exploring other wines from Napa Valley, as well as Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Cru Beaujolais.

Amber Brandner Director of Hospitality

Amber Brandner is the Director of Hospitality at Memento Mori, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping and executing the winery's future hospitality vision on its picturesque Calistoga estate. Originally from South Dakota, Amber studied the sciences throughout her education and ultimately earned a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of South Dakota. Her deep scientific knowledge and a keen interest in the chemistry of winemaking set the stage for her future career in the wine industry.

In 2011, Amber embarked on a transformative journey to Napa Valley, drawn by the region's renowned reputation for unparalleled hospitality. Her first role in wine was at Grgich Hills Estate, where she assumed a unique dual role that allowed her to leverage two distinct skills—her deep knowledge of chemistry and her innate love for hospitality. Mornings were spent in the chemistry lab and wine cellar, while afternoons were spent engaging in sales, marketing and hospitality, becoming Grgich’s tasting room manager within six months. During her early days in Napa, she also became a certified sommelier and earned a WSET Level 3 certification.

During Amber’s time at Grgich, she also met her future husband, Adrien Signorello, a Frenchman who had landed in Napa. Their shared love of wine became a cornerstone of their relationship, propelling them forward in both their personal and professional lives. In 2015, that budding relationship led Amber across the Atlantic to France, where she worked as a sommelier in Paris, mastering the art of French hospitality while expanding her palate with a diverse array of wines.

After three enriching years in France, they felt the pull to return to Napa Valley, and Amber spent the next six years at Diamond Mountain Vineyard, where she played a pivotal role in redefining their hospitality program as Director of Sales and Hospitality. Collaborating closely with the winemaker, she orchestrated a complete brand overhaul, elevating the guest experience to new heights of luxury and refinement.

Amber brings a cultivated expertise to her role at Memento Mori. She was initially drawn to the label’s exceptional wines and edgy and unconventional approach to the wine business; ultimately, it was the acquisition of Memento Mori’s Calistoga estate in 2023 that truly captured her imagination. The stunning property presented endless possibilities for creating unparalleled guest experiences.

Amber's goal at Memento Mori is to elevate the hospitality experience to entirely new levels of luxury while embodying the winery's ethos of "remember to live." Her approach blends sophistication with a sense of playfulness, offering novel experiences that celebrate the joy of wine and community without losing sight of the essence of living fully.

Outside of her professional endeavors, Amber enjoys time with her husband and two children, Flora and Julius, and their family’s adopted dog, Max. She and her husband often indulge in old world classics like Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne.

Aristotle Smith Director of Business Development

Aristotle Smith’s journey to Memento Mori is one defined by serendipity and a series of life-defining moments. A first-generation American with Greek and English roots, Aristotle grew up in the Bay Area in a close-knit, family-oriented household where food and wine played a central role.

His undergraduate years at Sonoma State University, nestled in the heart of California’s wine country, cemented his deep connection to the wine industry. While studying art and psychology, Aristotle found himself drawn to the culture of wine that surrounded him, intrigued by the opportunities he identified where he could apply his education to that world. He eventually forged a career that would combine business development, design, and a lifelong passion for fine wine.

Life took a turn when, just as Aristotle embarked on a graduate degree in business psychology from Notre Dame, he was forced to cut his studies short to move home and care for his ailing mother and father. Enduring the loss of both of his parents within the same year taught him the power of choice and the fragility of life – lessons that would shape both his personal and professional pursuits.

Once he was back in the Bay Area, Aristotle pivoted to the tech world, working at Craigslist, and then as a business development and UX design consultant, with clients ranging from small startups to TechCrunch. But wine proved to be the siren song that he simply could not shake.

Keeping a foot in the door of the industry, Aristotle completed his Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 3 certification while staging at Pearl 6101, a beloved San Francisco restaurant. He also hosted a YouTube show where he paired wines and spirits with eclectic cuisines, earning a significant audience of followers.

Aristotle’s full-time pivot to the wine industry began in earnest when he joined Knights Bridge Winery. During his three-and-a-half years there, he helped grow the brand and cultivate relationships with affluent collectors, all while undergoing cancer treatment for a sudden melanoma diagnosis. It was at Knights Bridge that he first met Hayes Drumwright and his wife Susana, a chance encounter that led to an immediate bond over deep family ties, health scares, and a mutual knack for business.

Aristotle had been familiar with the superlative wines of Memento Mori, but that meeting with Hayes and Susana helped him understand the true meaning behind the label’s ethos: “Remember to Live.” He immediately knew where his next step would lead him.

Now, as Memento Mori’s Director of Business Development, Aristotle now represents that very philosophy of embracing life, crafting exceptional experiences that resonate deeply with the label’s audience. Fostering authentic connections, his aim is to grow Memento Mori’s presence in luxury markets through personalized initiatives and exclusive experiences.

Outside of work, Aristotle still enjoys art, food, and wine. He is an avid soccer fan (especially Tottenham), and he enjoys watching his wife, Jessica, pursue her passion as an equestrian jumper. With a home in Greece, Aristotle frequently returns to his maternal roots, drawing inspiration from that heritage.

When he’s not enjoying Memento Mori, Aristotle loves to explore old-world wines, with a special fondness for Champagne. For him, wine is about more than just taste – it’s about celebrating life, family, and the moments that matter most.