To local residents, the Bounty Hunter in downtown Napa is a wine bar, a wine shop, a restaurant and a place to congregate in the evening.

To people elsewhere in the country, however the Bounty Hunter is the source of hard-to-find wines and undiscovered gems of the wine world.

Holding a 36-page catalog while sitting in his office above the Bounty Hunter, owner Mark  Pope said, “This is the heart of the business. We’re saloon keepers for fun.”

The catalog, distributed twice yearly to 2 million people, contains about 250 wines, and the list reads like a Who’s Who of the wine industry, with brands from all over California and the Northwest, but “with a strong leaning toward Napa Valley,” he said. Also featured are some imported wines from top producers — “some of the finest white and red Burgundies on the planet” — and from such names as Gaja, along with some Champagnes and sparkling wines.  

After receiving the catalog, consumers call a toll-free number and are connected to a wine scout, one of seven members of Pope’s 15-person staff who take the orders, which can range in size from one bottle to a pallet of 56 cases. The order is sent to a 10,000 square foot warehouse off Tower Road in south Napa where it is filled, packed and shipped. “Hundreds of packages leave here in a day,” Pope said. “Boxes (containing) from one bottle to 12.”

‘Seal of Approval’

Every bottle is sent out with a sticker to identify it as a Bounty Hunter selection (along with the toll-free phone number), and Pope said, “It’s our version of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

Many of the wines shipped go to members of Bounty Hunter’s six wine clubs, each of which fills a different niche and different price range — from $45 per month (two red wines and one white) to $2,400 per year for 24 bottles (one white and five reds every three months). The catalog indicates that club members have advantages over other buyers, such as access to wines not generally available to the public, and “first dibs on specially selected and ‘last call’ wines.”

In addition, wine club members are invited to road shows, a series of visits to cities around the country, where customers taste 25 top wines. “We bring the Bounty Hunter catalog to their town,” Pope said. “It’s a nice way to say thank you to them and expose them to wines they would otherwise not taste, and it’s an opportunity to acquaint their friends with Bounty Hunter.”

The staff conducted a road show in Orange County last weekend and others are scheduled for Atlanta and Houston next month.

Gift packages

The catalog also offers special gift packages, ranging from $1,495 for a wooden box filled with 12 top-of-the-line wines called “Legends of the Fall” to a package of six bottles named “The World Cup,” featuring wines from around the world.

The wine scouts are carefully selected because of their passion for food and wine, their experience with wine and their dedication to customer service, Pope said. “They get to know a client, and they get to know what the client likes and dislikes,” he said. “It’s kind of like the care and feeding — and drinking — of the client.

“Everyone who likes wine lives somewhere on a continuum of wine enjoyment,” he continued. “You drink chardonnay, you start with the buttery oak type, and years later, you’ve moved over to the crisp style. Our job is to find your place in that continuum, to find the wine that works for you.”

He declined to say how many names his mailing list contains, but said he built it the “hard way. A lot of trial and error, by testing, by trying various demographics.”

No numbers

Pope disdains numerical scores for wines and never publishes them in the catalog. “You like your steak different, maybe rare, while someone else likes it medium well,” he said. “Everyone’s tastes are different. How can you compare a 94-point oak bomb with a delicate 94-point Burgundy? We talk about flavor profiles and we try to find you a wine that you like, not what some wine writer likes.”   

Although no numbers are used in any of the wine descriptions, the catalog doesn’t eschew critics completely — it quotes comments from Robert Parker and Wine Spectator in describing the wines and wineries.

Pope and his staff taste about 4,000 wines per year, and reject about 90 percent of them. “We’re suffering for your benefit,” he laughingly said. “It’s all about great stuff. If it’s not great, we don’t sell it.”

This philosophy appears on every left-hand page of the catalog and at the top of every Web site page where the phrase, “Because basically, people just want great stuff,” is printed, a line which Pope has trademarked.

Building relationships

Asked how he manages to come up with such an impressive list of wines, Pope said it’s all about building relationships. “I’m fortunate that (winery) people understand what we do. We help create value for wineries and help them to build brands on a national basis,” he said. “It helps distributors, retailers and restaurants in other states. If (consumers) see a brand in the catalog, and it’s in the local markets, they can buy it. It’s not unusual to see someone take a catalog into a wine shop, and wineries understand that. We are a credible third party resource.”

A Western motif is carried out in everything Pope does. The company logo is taken from an 1856 Currier & Ives lithograph, originally painted by Arthur S. Tait, which hangs on Pope’s office wall. The painting is titled “The Pursuit,” from which came the name of one of the Bounty Hunter’s own wine brands. He has created three other brands — Waypoint, Tin Star and Broken Spur — all with a western sound.

The four “house” brands are prominent in the catalog and in the wine shop. “I have contacts with some of the top vineyards, and we’ve been doing our own blending for about three years” using the services of winemaker Marco DiGiulio, Pope said.

Western oriented

The interior of the wine bar/wine shop/restaurant is western-oriented, as well. A stool at a chest high table is a real saddle. Some animal heads are mounted on the walls, and a frame holding some antique sheriff’s badges (Tin Star brand) is prominently posted.

When Pope was interviewed for this article, he wore blue jeans, a denim shirt, cowboy boots and a suede jacket, standard attire for him.

The theme comes from his love of “western stuff,” as he called it. He once ran a dude ranch in New Mexico, where he developed his love of horses. As a small child growing up in Livonia, Mich., he often went fishing with his father, and as a result, “I read the back pages of Field & Stream and saw pictures of Montana and Wyoming, and wanted to go there.”

He now has a home on the banks of the Missouri River in Craig, Mont. — “a sweet spot for fly fishing,” he said — and keeps a well-stocked wine cellar there for his frequent trips. The place is so remote that he has to drive 45 miles to the nearest grocery store, “so you have to plan your provisions.”

Gone fishin’

He spends up to 90 days a year fishing, riding horseback in the high country or bird hunting, but is always in touch with the Bounty Hunter staff by telephone or e-mail. “I can run, but I can’t hide,” he said.

About a year ago Pope brought Gordon Munroe aboard as president to run the day-to-day business. “That frees me up to find more wines,” he said, and he smiled as he added, “and more time to go fishing.”

He retained the title of CEO, but pointed to a Jack Russell terrier sleeping nearby and said, “That’s Gus Rivers. He’s the chairman of the board. On Nov. 11 he’ll be 11 years old and he’s been with me since he was eight weeks old.”

Sold pharmaceuticals

Pope started his career in the pharmaceutical field and moved to Napa in 1989 as director of sales for Dey L.P. It was during his 20 years in the pharmaceutical business that he hit upon the idea for the Bounty Hunter. “I always have been interested in wine,” he said. “As I traveled and entertained, I found people who were educated and sophisticated, but were uncertain about their wine knowledge.”

In 1994 he started the Bounty Hunter, producing the first catalog out of his home and sending out 40,000 copies. To survive he continued to work for two years as a consultant in the pharmaceutical field, but then devoted full time to the wine business. Shortly after, he moved to a small place on Coombs Street.

While working at Dey, he was downtown one day and “I saw this building (on First Street) and loved it, and thought that some day I’d like to have this building,” he said. When it became available in 2002, Pope jumped at the opportunity to acquire it.

“There weren’t many fun places in downtown Napa,” he said. “I wanted to create something I liked and others would like, too. If it didn’t work, it could still be a wine shop.” It became a tasting room, and then moved into serving food, what Pope described as “rustic campfire cuisine.”

“It gives many people who have bought wine from us a place to come,” he said. “We’re in the entertainment business, but it’s all about wine. We want to give them an experience they can’t get anywhere else.”

As he speaks about all aspects of the Bounty Hunter, Pope exudes enthusiasm. But as he surveyed the stacks of wine in his warehouse, he said, “This is the passionate part for me — seeing these packages leaving the place.”