About Us
EIDOS is the collaboration between friends Ben August and Adam Casto.
Together they work to create wines that represent their ideals, for the world and wine.
Ben August
Ben August, founder of August Vineyards, has been an entrepreneur throughout his adult life. His early experience working in vineyards as a teenager inspired a lasting desire to engage directly with agriculture and big skies. After four decades in business, including leading a successful HR outsourcing firm, he acquired a vineyard in Napa's Oak Knoll district, fulfilling a longtime dream. A year later, he purchased a 150-acre parcel on Mt. Veeder, where he replaced a neglected walnut orchard with Cabernet Sauvignon vines.
The vineyards reflect Ben's admiration for poetry and literature. The Oak Knoll property is named "Tortilla Flat" and the Mt. Veeder vineyard "The Grapes of Wrath," both nod to John Steinbeck. Since 2010, August’s first wine, named "Earl 17," honors Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, believed by many scholars to be the true author behind Shakespeare's works.
Alongside his wife, Ben manages their estates, travels to wine regions globally, and curates collections that showcase their deep appreciation for the arts, humanism, and justice.
Adam Casto
Originally from Colorado, Adam Castro spent the majority of a decade working in winemaking around the world; from New Zealand and Australia to South America and Europe. He has been making wine in the Napa Valley at some of the most prestigious wineries and vineyards since 2012.
Adam’s diverse background has allowed him the opportunity to be involved with many facets of the wine industry, and he regularly utilizes a wide range of skills throughout it. Adam is most interested in the semiotic analogue between wine as a design instrument, its ongoing reciprocal evolution with society and the cultural implications thereof.
Adam is currently the Head Winemaker at Ehlers Estate in St. Helena.