Experience the best of wine country in Los Angeles with our style and information blog. Discover top wineries, scenic routes, and insider tips for an unforgettable visit.
Razz-Mez-Tazz made of mezcal, mango, spicy bitter, agave and Tajin.
Black Gold prepared with Neft vodka, simply syrup, cucumbers, and activated charcoal
Wolfsglen, Westwood’s premier cocktail and dining destination, features New American cuisine and a hot Cocktail Scene. They’re getting a lot of rave reviews already!
Located at 1071 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, Wolfsglen is Westwood’s premier cocktail and dining destination featuring New American cuisine with a global Angeleno influence complemented by an array of expertly crafted cocktails.
Inspired by the legacy of John Wolfskill, a former state senator and pioneer rancher who played a pivotal role in the development of the land where Westwood Village now stands, Wolfsglen blends history, culture, and cuisine into a one-of-a-kind dining experience.
Sammy Espinoza – General Manager, Photography by Tonelson
Quietly opening its doors in November 2022, Wolfsglen is the brainchild of new hospitality team CFO Mark Garcia, Director of Operations Fernanda Hay, General Manager Sammy Espinoza, Chef Fidel Guzman, Sous Chef & Pastry Chef Moriah Castañeda, and Bar Manager Edward Ruiz.
Wolfsglen’s culinary journey begins with Chef Fidel Guzman
Wolfsglen’s culinary journey begins with Chef Fidel Guzman, whose New American seasonal menu embraces global Angeleno flavors, showcasing the finest seasonal and fresh ingredients.
Photography by Tonelson
Starter Dishes
The To Start features delectable dishes like Brown Butter Labneh, Hummus with chili crisps, Burrata with grilled and flambé peaches, Esquites, Mushroom Arancini, Shrimp Toast, Steak Tartare, Shawarma, and Bone Marrow & Black Garlic, among others.
Photography by Tonelson
Handmade Pastas
Handmade Pastas take center stage with Chef Fidel’s Rigatoni Diavola, Cacio e Pepe, and Bolognese, each prepared to perfection.
Photography by Tonelson
Mouthwatering Entrées
The Entrées boast mouthwatering selections such as Pan Roasted Pork Chop with a togarashi-whiskey glaze, Steak Frites, Wolfsglen Burgerwith candied bacon, spicy aioli, and arugula,Beyond Burger, Roast Chickenwith aji verde and pea tendrils, Seared Salmonserved with a pineapple ginger glaze and miso potato purée, Seared Striped Bass, and Cauliflower Steak with curry and raisin chutney.
Photography by Tonelson
Leave room for dessert
Don’t forget to leave room for dessert! Culinary duo, Chef Fidel Guzman and Sous Chef & Pastry Chef Moriah Castañeda present an array of tantalizing options, including Homemade Peach Pie, Mango Sweet Rice, Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake, and Ricotta Donuts with blueberry compote and lemon curd.
Photography by Tonelson
Wolfsglen’s bar program
Wolfsglen’s bar program, originally created by Fernanda Hay, now under the expert guidance of Bar Manager Edward Ruiz, offers a diverse range of perfectly balanced and playful cocktails. Signature creations include the Razz-Mez-Tazz made of mezcal, mango, spicy bitter, agave and Tajin, Purple Rain comprised of gin, blueberry purée, lemon, and butterfly pea flower, Geisha’s Kiss with Masumi sparkling sake, elderflower liqueur, and lychee purée, and Black Gold prepared with Neft vodka, simply syrup, cucumbers, and activated charcoal, with even more to try.
In addition, Wolfsglen also offers specially select White Wine, Red Wine, Rosé, Sparking, and Beer + Cider.
Courtesy of Wolfsglen
Wolfsglen’s is the ideal destination
Nestled in a historic two-story building developed in the 1930s, Wolfsglen showcases beautiful high ceilings, modern design, a lush patio for al fresco dining, and private event spaces. It is the ideal destination for lunch, dinner, drinks with friends, intimate gatherings, or special events. With its rich history, elegant ambiance, and mouthwatering cuisine, Wolfsglen promises an unforgettable dining and drinking experience for everyone!
Wolfsglen is open every Sunday and Monday from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:30 am to 12:30 am, every Friday from 11:30 am to 1:00 am, and every Saturday from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am.
Wolfsglen offers Howlin Hour every Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm and Late-Night Howlin Hour every Friday and Saturday from 11:00 pm to 12:30 am.
For more information about Wolfsglen or to make reservations, please call 310.208.1071 directly or visit www.Wolfsglen.com.
Chile’s Santa Ema Winery brings Premium Flavor to your next meal.
Chile’s Santa Ema Winery brings culture, family and premium wines to focus over their multi-generational history. Have you tasted one of their bottles? It brings dimension to light dishes, like seafood, heavier like BBQ, even dessert.
Today I have the opportunity to speak with Santa Ema’s Jaime Merino about life, history, flavor pairings and what’s next for Santa Ema.
I don’t know if people truly understand how busy wine professionals are. Would you mind just giving us an idea of how much you’re traveling and how you spend your time?
Jaime Merino: Yeah, absolutely. You know that in the wine industry, it is extremely important to be in front of the distributors that are our commercial arm into the different states.
We need to have an importer because we are an imported brand. So our wine’s coming from Chile. In order to get into the U.S., we need to have an importer. So we spend a lot of time in front of the importer and virtually every week we’re in touch either via video calls or phone calls or face to face, taking the wines into each one of the states, we need a distributor in those states.
That is the representative of the wine. So we assigned the brand to a set distributor in New York, for instance, and then that distributor with their sales force is going to take the wines to the trade, to the street. So it’s going to take it to the wine stores, going to take it to the restaurants, going to take it to the clubs, depending on the legalities of each one of the states.
Therefore, we need to spend a lot of time with the distributors and the sales forces of those distributors to make sure that they have the information for each one of the wines that they’re gonna be pushing. And then not only with the Salesforce of the distributors, but also with the trade and their sales forces.
Because any one of us as a consumer walking into a wine store that has already made the decision that we want to buy a wine, we probably have a budget. And also we probably have an idea that we want either a white or a red, but then we need to start diving into the details. Do I want domestic? Do I want imported?
And then if it is imported, do I want old world, new world? Then you start narrowing to the point that you’re going to say, I want to buy a wine from Chile.
Then that opens a new box of alternatives. So you can imagine the process of getting to one particular bottle of one particular supplier needs a lot of skimming into this very interesting and complex wine industry.
So let’s talk about the historic brand. Can you share a little bit about the history?
Jaime Merino: Yeah, absolutely. Santa Ema with one M, because we come from Chile.
But Santa Ema is a family owned company. It is owned by a family, last name Pavone, that their roots go back to Piedmont, Italy. So today, the company is run by members of the third and fourth generation of the family, and the founder of Santa Ema is the grandfather of the third generation, a gentleman named Pedro Pavone, that migrated from Italy, a little region in the Piedmont, Italy, called Rivalta.
And he migrated into South America, went across the Andes in a sidecar motorcycle and established himself in the heart of the Mao Valley, southwest of Santiago, the capital city in Chile. So he established himself in that area in 1917. And established his family, grew his family, and with his son, Felix Pavone, they bought some land and one of the properties that they bought in Isla del Maipo was actually devoted to agriculture, and that particular property, the name was Chakra Santa Ema, that is like an orchard Santa Ema or Farm Santa Ema.
So that is the origin of the name / brand that we use. Because Santa Ema was a staple landmark in that particular region.
They planted vineyards, they started producing wines that initially they were selling bulk.
But then in 1956, they founded Ema Winery, and they started producing their own wines to be bottled and started selling in the domestic market. Throughout the years and throughout the development of this company, pretty much done by Felix Pavone, we’re talking second generation.
The first exports of Santa Ema happened in 1986 into Brazil. When Brazil was just starting into becoming a wine consuming country. Today Brazil is one of the engines in South America in terms of top markets for wine consumption.
So ultimately it started as a father son business that grew and evolved into a multi generational still family business.
Yes. And probably different to many families involved in the wine industry and in the wine business for the Pavone family, this is it. So this is what they do. This is their life. This is their reputation.
Basically, they are not in the wine business because it’s trendy, because it’s fashionable. No, this is a business for them with family members hands-on. Today we have members of the third generation and fourth generation so we are undergoing a very interesting times to the winery because you can imagine that the members of the third generation are people mid 50s to early 60s and then the members of the fourth generation are their early tp mid 30s. Professionals coming from college with sometimes different visions from traditionally what the family has done.
A second ago, you mentioned regions. Let’s talk about the vineyard and the regions and the soil types Santa Emma uses and works with.
Jaime Merino: The winery and most of our properties are established in the Maipo Valley in Chile. Maipo is probably one of the most traditional valleys and wine regions in the country. Chile, for those people that have a rough idea of what Chile is, first of all, we need to look at South America.
If you look at South America, and – I will challenge people reading this to grab a map and look at South America – you’re going to notice that South America is shaped as a cluster of grapes. Therefore, no secret why South America is a very good vineyard paradise, as it is referred to sometimes, and that’s why we have very strong countries in South America producing wines.
Of course, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil producing these days. Peru becoming a very interesting offering of wines. There is wine produced in Bolivia, Chile. We’re going to start seeing a lot of wines coming from South America. But then if we go back to Chile, Chile sits on the western side of South America.
It runs north to south, and it roughly expands for 4,000 miles, but with an average width that is no more than 180 to 200 miles. So the best way to picture Chile, as I normally explain to consumers and trade, take the northern tip. take the southern tip, flip it upside down, and bring it to the west coast in the U.S.
So now, the northern part of Chile is going to be from Los Angeles all the way down to Baja California.
Baja California, that is super dry and desert, that is going to be your Atacama Desert in Chile. The central part of the country, It’s going to run from San Diego all the way up to San Francisco, so it’s going to be pretty much the agriculture area of the country.
That’s why, when we move, into October, November, we start seeing a lot of peaches and plums and fruits coming from Chile because we are in the opposite season. Then if you go from San Francisco up to Seattle; and all the way up to Alaska, that is going to be the southern part of the country. So you’re going to go into the lake districts, ultimately you’re going to go into Antarctica.
So that is a good way to picture how Chile looks from north to south, that will be like moving from south to north on the western side of the U. S.
Now, if you grab Chile and you put it across the U. S., it will span more or less from New York all the way up to Seattle. So that is going to be the length of the country if we put it across the U.S.
I love those comparisons.
Jaime Merino: Appreciate that. Yeah, just to give a sense of location and a sense of what people should find there because sometimes at least here in the U. S. Chile is known for some ideas of certain regions, like for instance, the northern part of the country because of the Atacama Desert and the geysers in the in the northern part of Chile, or if you go to the southern part of Chile and you go to Torres del Paine, that is a very touristic area. Or ultimately, if someone is a little bit more exploring with an exploring soul, they can jump into Easter Island, that is also Chilean territory, and that will be more of the Polynesian side of Chile.
In terms of the Maipo Valley, it sits pretty much in the central part of Chile in the belly bottom of the country, Santiago being the capital city, and Maipo surrounds the Santiago to the south and runs from the foothills of the Andes, starting at 1,000 to 3, 000 feet above sea level, all the way to the coast, so we’re moving east to west, bordering the Pacific Ocean.
That is going to be pretty much what you’re going to see in Maipo. And that applies pretty much to most of the wine regions in Chile, running east to west. With very few exceptions, most of the valleys in Chile, Maipo for instance, they take the name out of the river that runs through the valley that waters the vineyards and all the agriculture activity that happens in the valley.
So Maipo Valley is because there is a Maipo River that runs from east to west. And then, since you’re coming from the Andes, starting at 3,000 feet and then going through the central part of Maipo and into the ocean you have very different growing conditions in Maipo Valley.
So most of the time I tell consumers when you are exposed to a bottle of wine coming from Chile that on the front label reads Maipo Valley, try to ask where in Maipo, because the conditions are going to be totally different.
Just to give you an example, here is a Sauvignon Blanc Select that reads Maipo Valley, but this is a central part of the valley that is only 25 miles inland from the ocean. So we have good, cool conditions to be able to produce a very expressive, fresh, crisp Sauvignon Blanc.
But then, on the other side, I have a Cabernet Sauvignon, also from Maipo Valley, but here we have a combination of fruit coming from a vineyard that we have at 1, 000 feet above sea level, with fruit coming from a vineyard sitting roughly at 500 feet above sea level.
Okay, so it is extremely important to understand this. Probably people are wondering why the altitude is so important or how the altitude could impact in terms of the style of wine that we’re going to produce. In simple words, if any of you come to visit us in Maipo, say January, February, March, that is our summertime, the first thing that I’m going to do is to make sure that you’re wearing a hat, that you have enough water, and most importantly, that you have sunscreen on you.
Okay, so let’s take this example now to the vines. Can we control the amount of water that the vines have? Yes, because our vineyards are planted with drip irrigation systems, so we can control the amount of water that each vine is getting.
Can we give hats to the vines? No, they need to find their own ways to protect themselves by growing extra leaves, trying to generate a very populated canopy of leaves to protect the clusters. What do the clusters do? Because we cannot put sunscreen on the clusters, so they need to naturally grow thicker skin to protect the fruit.
And just because of that thicker skin, you’re gonna have more structure, more tannin, more varietal expression. So that’s why it makes a very important difference where you’re planting your fruit or your vines in order to determine the style of wine you’re gonna get.
The higher you go, the more robust wines you’re going to be able to produce just because of this natural protection the vines develop.
We’re going to talk about your bottles.
Because we have a lot of foodies reading. What kind of foods would be great to pair with each one?
Jaime Merino: Before I go into the specifics of the wine, and particularly to all the foodies, I am one of those. Let me tell you that anytime that a winemaker that is going to be,”the winery chef”, is thinking on the wine that he’s going to be producing, he should be thinking immediately with what type of food he’s going to be pairing that wine.
That is probably one of the key aspects to understanding wines, and this is going to be at the same time an invitation to all our viewers, foodies or not foodies, to break taboos.
And what I mean by this is that probably our grandparents and eventually our parents were of the idea that whites are for seafood and shellfish and reds are for meats and game and why?
Why? Break taboos, play with this. This is a life element that we need to challenge to see how it performs with different types of foods and different types of elements. Also one of the other big differences that I find in Chile, comparing the U. S., in Chile, wine is part of the diet.
So for us, any meal lunch or dinner could not exist without a glass of wine to go with whatever type of food we’re going to be having. That is also a huge difference being part of the diet and not just looking at wine and approaching wine as a special occasion product that we’re going to be consuming.
Having said that, I have in front of me three of the most popular wines in our portfolio:
Santa Ema Select Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc is our Santa Ema Select Terroir. So Chile, in terms of whites, produces Sauvignon different types of white varieties. Chenin Blanc, Pinot Grigio, that is extremely popular, but Sauvignon Blanc is the queen of the whites, and Chile has a very strong reputation for Sauvignon Blanc.
One of the things that you need to be aware of is that stylistically, what we try to accomplish here is not the super grassy, grapefruity, very exuberant nose that you will find in Sauvignon Blancs coming from New Zealand. Sometimes you’re going to find that in Chile. But the style of wines in Chile in general is more geared towards France, the old world.
So this is going to be like a crossover between New Zealand and Sancerre. You’re going to have more minerality, you’re going to have a little bit more complexity, and not that you’re going to open this bottle and you’re going to have that very exuberant nose that is going to be extremely, Intriguing. No, it’s a little bit more tame.
It has a very nice refreshing acidity. It has a very crispy style with very interesting citrusy notes to it, making it a very good wine to enjoy at the end of the day, just because you want to hit a glass of wine at the end of the day or to be paired with food.
What type of food?
In my world, I will do ceviche all day long. If not, I will go with some oysters. Maybe with a delicate white fish – flounder or cod, for instance. Not too elaborate, not too much abusing on dairy products, cream or butter. The more simple, the better.
Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo Valley and I have Merlot from Maipo Valley. I’m going to leave Merlot to the end. Although in tasting order, most probably. We’re going to do first Merlot and then Cabernet Sauvignon, but I’m going to explain the reasons why I’m leaving this Merlot to be the last one.
Santa Ema Select Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maipo Valley. In terms of the fruit, a combination of fruit coming from the central part of the valley and fruit coming from our vineyards in the foothills of the Andes. Just to give a little bit of the extra kick, extra structure, a little bit more of a backbone.
A Cabernet Sauvignon by the book, meaning a very honest, true expression of the variety. We use a combination of French and American oak barrels. We want a little bit of the expression of both types of wood. American most of the time is going to be more chocolate, more vanilla, more of the “sweet tastes” that you will find in wine.
French is going to give you more of the leather, the tobacco, a little bit more of the complexity. And that is the reason why we use a combination of both types: American oak barrels and French oak barrels. But not to abuse the oak, so we keep a percentage of the wine in American, and percentage of the wine in French, normally six to eight months, sometimes up to 10 months.
Then we blend it all together and we put it back in the bottle just to keep a good expression of fruit.
Red meats, strong cheeses, it works extremely well. So if you guys like grilling, barbecuing, big time, a perfect match to go with anything that you’re going to be grilling, barbecuing, but please leave the barbecue sauce in the pantry or the refrigerator because the sweetness of the barbecue sauce is going to kill most of the wines that are going to be pairing with it.
If you want ribs with barbecue sauce, fantastic! Drinking wines that are going to be suited for that is going to be challenging. I’m telling you try to keep your meats as clean as possible in terms of any super hot, spicy additions or the sweetness of barbecue sauce.
Santa Ema Reserve Merlot
Santa Ema has been working with Merlot for many years to the point that our reserve on Merlot is one of our flagships in the portfolio. Iit is a very particular wine because we use American oak barrels that are produced by a cooper in Missouri specifically for this wine with specs that are determined just for this wine.
What is the secret is that these barrels are toasted inside at a certain level of temperature that is going to allow a caramelization of the wood. That is going to be transferred ultimately into the wine via very distinctive notes of vanilla, roasted coconut, and sometimes nuances of chocolate, to the point that in certain markets, this wine is referred to as the cookies and cream wine or the chocolate kiss wine.
It’s a very interesting bottle to explore and to renew your vows with Merlot.
We have a very strong influence of Italian dishes here, so say a lasagna, chicken parmigiana will go extremely well with this, a Mexican dish with mole sauce, not too spicy mole, not too much in the heat side of mole, but more in the profile taste of mole. And if you really want to throw a curveball to this Merlot, try to venture and pair it with tiramisu and see what happens.
Phenomenal ideas.
Just to give you a little thing in relation to food and wine pairings. Many years ago, in a wine event here in Atlanta with Alton Brown, that is one of the Food Network celebrities, we put together a seminar “How to destroy a wine” and the whole concept of it was, me choosing wines, Alton Brown cooking and in the last minute doing something to what he was cooking for me to be able to say, ‘Alton, you destroyed my wine.’
So it was a very interesting experience and particularly for the consumers attending a very eye opening experience that very simple things like [preparing] a green salad that you drizzle some olive oil and you put a little bit of salt and pepper and in the last minute you say, ‘Okay, I’m going to pour this with the Sauvignon Blanc.’
Then Alton asking me, ‘Do you want me to squeeze some lemon on your salad?’ Sure, absolutely. But you destroy my wine. The show [had ]little tips and things like that.
Is there anything that we haven’t talked about that you really feel the audience wants to hear about or you want to share?
Jaime Merino: Today, one of the biggest challenges that we have as a country, Chile has a very good established reputation as a wine producing country, but most of the time perceived as a good value producing country, inexpensive wines coming from Chile. So you’re going to find brands out there, sometimes retailing for $5, 6, 7 a bottle.
And that’s fine. But that is one aspect of Chile. There’s another aspect of Chile of more premium, super premium, ultra premium wines.
I feel very often that consumers are afraid to venture into those more expensive wines. And sometimes when I’m talking more expensive, normally they retail between $15 and $18 a bottle.
That is a new Chile that needs to be discovered because that is where most of the interesting revolution in terms of the wine industry is happening right now.
My invitation is to go to your preferred store, go to the South American section or Chilean section, if there is one, and see what they have from Chile. Okay. That really
Where can we find these wines? What’s the website? And how can we follow you on social media?
Jaime Merino: Okay if you want to know a little bit more, go to www.SantaEma.CL the CL is for Chile.
If you want to follow us on social media, Instagram and Facebook
The easiest way to buy Santa Ema is go to wine.com and see what is available in your region,
Eila Wines Shows off the best of Oregon’s Vintage with Intense, Complex Taste
Oregon’s Willamette Valley continues to impress with their small allotment, high quality wines. Is Eila Wines a daily drink? Having tasted through their current portfolio, they’re more for a special night.
These wines are for memories and savoring. You don’t want to rush the experience.
Eila Wines Process
According to their website, their winemaking uses varying amounts of whole cluster during fermentation with ambient yeast, minimizing extraction.
Harvesting dates are chosen to retain acidity/freshness balanced with phenolic ripeness and maintaining moderate alcohol levels.
Then the wine is fermented in small batches and aged in a low impact mixture of new and neutral French oak barrels.
2021 Chardonnay Eila Wines
2021 Chardonnay Eila Wines
An excellent example of why Willamette Chardonnay’s are gaining national popularity.
Grapes are sourced from Von Oehsen Vineyard in the Eola-Amity AVA at an elevation of 400-500’. Harvested in early September 2021. Crushed then pressed, fermented in barrels. Stored on lees with minimal battonage. 42% new oak from a Damy puncheon.
Medium gold in the glass. Light and delicate on the nose. Lemon, peach, orange blossoms. Crisp citrus, orange blossom, dried fruit flavors.
With only 109 cases produced, this is a special bottle. If it’s still available, buy it immediately and hold onto it for a special night.
2021 Indigo Pinot Noir Eila Wines
2021 Indigo Pinot Noir Eila Wines
Complex is too simple of a word for this bottle. It delights in throwing you twists and turns; and taking your mouth for a ride.
Grapes sourced from Witness Tree Vineyard in the Eola-Amity AVA at 500’ elevation. Harvested early September 2021. Fermented using 38% whole cluster. Aged in 40% new oak oak.
Deep ruby in the glass. Medium body with blackberry, black currant on the nose. White pepper, licorice, dried herbs, A multi-dimensional flavors, while still being light on the tannins.
This bottle deserves to breathe. Seriously. Open it, decant it, savor it. But whatever you do, don’t rush it. Let it be a marathon and your mouth will thank you.
The winery itself describes it as “a richer, darker wine” and they’re not wrong.
Sourced from Prophet Vineyard in Eola-Amity AVA at a 440-600’ elevation. Harvested mid- September 2021. Fermented using 25% whole cluster. Aged with 20% new oak.
It transformed from a kitten to a tiger after giving it substantial breathing time. Deep ruby in the glass. Medium body. Blackberry, blueberry, raspberry on the nose. Velvety pleasures in the mouth. Bell pepper, dried spice. A sultry finish. Highly enjoyable.
With only 120 cases produced, I would stand in a long line just to taste this wine again.
2021 Violet Pinot Noir Eila Wines
2021 Violet Pinot Noir Eila Wines
A unique wine, unique flavor, for a unique palette.
Grapes sourced from Le Cadeau vineyard at 600-700’ elevation in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. Harvested mid-September 2021. Fermented using 27% whole cluster. Aged with 25% new oak.
Medium ruby in the glass. Red currant and cranberry on the nose. Heavy cranberry on the palette. An elegant wine with tart acidity. The tart acidity wasn’t my favorite choice. I admire how it kept opening. I struggled to find a food pairing and found it bold on its own. I always enjoy tasting unique wines. Perhaps I’d like it more next time.
Napa Wine: Malek Amrani’s The Vice Wine Invites a new Generation of Wine Lovers to Open a Bottle.
Winemaker Malek Amrani’s The Vice Wine is about as personal of a brand as it gets. Each batch is crafted from single grape varietals sourced from hand selected Napa Valley vineyards that best express the grape varietal and the region.
Passionate labor, sustainable farming, a long expertise of the wine industry and a current understanding of the consumer’s wine trend.
The Vice Wine’s Winemaker Malek Amrani
Today I sat down with The Vice Wine’s Malek Amrani for a conversation about luxury sales, Napa Valley’s legendary grapes, following your passion and inspirations and the future of wine for the next generation.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. The full conversation can be found on our YouTube channel.
I just want people to understand how busy you are sharing your wines with the world. Can you share a little bit about your average calendar week?
Sure, thank you. First of all, thank you so much for having me today. I just literally just walked in three minutes ago I was in Miami. So I landed in San Francisco a couple hours ago and just got in here So speaking about travel, a lot of what we do is travel because you can make the best wine in the world, but it’s really the ability to go out and sell it that makes us successful or not.
It all comes down to sales. On average, for me, for the last eight years, I average about five, six nights a month at home. A lot of my time has been spent on the road. Although this year I’m trying to shift gears a little bit and spend more time here in Napa Valley and less time on the road.
Got it. So what inspired you to get into the world of wine? Any memorable celebrations?
What inspired me to get into wine was my love for it. I was fortunate enough to start tasting wine at an early age with my father. And I graduated high school at 16 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Went to Senegal, West Africa for med school. I did a year there and realized that it wasn’t for me. And speaking of celebration, I really wanted to do something that was quite celebratory on a daily basis and fun. I moved to New York and the first six months in New York I really just tried to survive and bounced around and did all types of jobs.
But then I quickly realized that I needed to get my hands on wine and not have to pay for it and then meet people as well, because I was new to New York and I had no friends, no family. So I wanted to meet people. I realized that working in the wine industry, wine bars, and restaurants would be ideal to fulfill the two needs that I had at the time.
I dove into the wine industry early on at the age of 18. And between 18 and 21, I worked in the restaurant world a lot. I was working 2-3 jobs consistently. I was fortunate that when I was 21, I got a job in distribution representing Diageo and Moet Hennessy Brands in Manhattan to on-premise accounts, basically restaurants, bars, hotels, and whatnot.
And during that time, I also got inspired to start importing small batch boutique wines to New York and selling them too, selling them to people I knew and make a name for myself in the industry through imports as well, beyond the territory that I had at my first job.
Then in my mid twenties, I was doing it. I realized I had done it all in the wine business, except to make wine. The wine region that I’ve always been a big fan of was Napa Valley. So I looked for a brand that kind of was a solution to what I was looking for one, a Napa Valley winery that made wine for that everyday occasion that I can afford accessibly and to a winery that made more than the classic three or four varietals: Cabernet, Sauvignon Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and there aren’t many really.
And lastly a winery that kind of broke down Napa Valley to the sub regions that there are because Napa has such a very diverse terroir and sub regions, 16 in total today. Wow. So I couldn’t find one. So I decided to make one, start one, create one.
You worked at the biggest wine company in the world. How did you go about getting that job?
And then what kind of lessons did you learn while being there?
It was out of luck. I was a buyer for a restaurant on Park Avenue in Manhattan. And I was talking to my sales rep. I asked him if he liked his job and I really didn’t think about applying or anything. He thought that I was interested in a similar position and out of luck, they had open positions and he spoke to my first manager at the company and she called me and she asked me to meet with her.
I honestly didn’t know what she wanted to meet about. I thought she wanted to meet about the restaurant where I was working; and work on some program or something. And in less than 48 hours, I had a job. So I was quite lucky.
But how intense and how it is working at Moet Hennessy or LVMH is a big umbrella.
It’s the number one luxury company in the world. They certainly do a lot of things, they are number one for a reason. And at the same time, I was with the sister company that also owns part of the Moet Hennessy Diageo. Diageo is the biggest liquor supplier in the world and at the time they had wine as well.
So in a way it is easier to walk in anywhere and say I have Johnny Walker or Veuve in my portfolio. But at the same time, from a sales perspective, it was very not aggressive, but very goal-driven. And I found myself that out of 116 months of employment, I was a top quarter performer for 112.
So it was extremely competitive and I wanted to be the best at what I did. All the time. A lot of it really has to do with building relationships and working harder than the competition and doing a lot of things right and never promising something and not delivering.
Is there a major lesson that you learned while working at that global luxury company that has helped the Vice wines?
Yes, I think, many things. My first, probably my most important lesson was to intertwine your personal life and your professional life in this industry. You can’t really separate them and be successful at it. I think it’s just making it work. It is a fun industry, we do go out a lot and get to enjoy a glass of wine during the day or two or three.
At the same time it is work and finding the balance between the personal and the professional and making one feed the other in a sense. It’s one of the biggest advantages that one can do to succeed in this industry.
I think you fulfilled two fantasies that a whole lot of wine people dream about doing. One being rockstar salesman at these amazing companies. The other becoming a winemaker.
Any advice for someone who wants to be who you were a few years ago?
Advice? Yeah, absolutely. One, it takes time. You have to be patient; and persistent and consistent.
To build relationships and establish and build a territory and build certain sales revenue. It doesn’t happen overnight. You first gotta establish relationships and relationships come down to trust. The second thing is it really comes down to being patient and consistent.
Outlasting the competition because there’s such a huge turnover in the industry. So if you trust the process that if you stick around long enough and do certain things right for a long time, people will turn over in the industry and there will be opportunities that will pop up left and right and they will be yours for you to capture.
Personally, one of the things that really made me successful, and a lot of people may not do it, is that for 10 years in Manhattan, I commuted on a motorcycle 12 months a year. The subway was fast, but I never wanted to miss a phone call.
When the average salesperson is probably seeing 5, 6, 7 accounts a day, I was seeing consistently 15 to 20. So I was able to have a bigger territory and see my clients on the regular without appointments. I was on a motorcycle. I was the guy just going to show up and just say hello and I was in and out, just checking on you, see if you need anything versus I have to make an appointment, find parking, all that kind of stuff.
The work ethic definitely, 15 in a day is a very deliberate choice with time and energy.
Your wines are called “Vice”. Was there a “Vice moment” where you knew it was time to move on and become a winemaker?
That moment probably lasted a couple of years. There was a lot of self questioning and self doubt on the daily because I had, at one point, two very successful businesses.
One, I worked my job on a W-2 and the other one, my own business, my imports business. And I was doing pretty well at the time in my mid twenties and, within three, four years, I may have paid a little bit over a million dollars in taxes. How do you let all this go and jump into the vice and, basically not have a revenue?
Especially in the beginning stages, it took me a couple of years to really decide what to do but The Vice, the idea started in 2013.
Winemaker Malek Amrani
We really became a business in 2016. And I let everything go for The Vice in 2018. It took some time. At one point I was having three businesses happening all at once, and it was very stressful.
So that “Vice Moment, it wasn’t like sudden. It wasn’t quick. It was a long vice moment.
Tell us about the regions that The Vice grapes are sourced in and equally important, how the heck did you get grape sourced from these in-demand areas?
So I chose Napa Valley because Napa, one, is their vice to me, hence the name of the Vice Wine, name of the brand. My vice is wine, but their vice is Napa. And I’ve always been a huge fan of Napa.
And Napa is the apex of the American wine industry is what set the tone for us, what opened, it’s what really led this American wine revolution in a sense. It all started really with Napa back in, in the 60s and 70s. So I wanted to shoot for the top because of that aspect.
And also, it’s just part of the American dream. As an immigrant, there is nowhere on the planet, I can’t imagine myself going to France, Italy, or Spain, and walking right into their top wine region and say, I’m going to do what I do today. I have no doubt I wouldn’t be welcomed.
Napa did just the opposite and welcomed me and gave me an opportunity, not just as a wine region, but as a community.
The second thing, how I got into having access to these grapes, a lot of it is street work. Putting in the time, coming a lot to Napa and hanging out at a lot of places where winemakers hang out for lunch or dinner and talking to the bartenders and doing my due diligence and investigating on my own and really networking and knocking on doors. Not being afraid to knock on doors and introduce myself to people and tell them about what my plans are and see if they’re willing to sell me some grapes.
In this industry, when you buy, when you contract to somebody, you pay a little bit of what the grapes are worth when you first pick the grapes and then the rest within time in the new year or so.
A lot of what I’ve done in the beginning was pre paying. So I pre paid for the grapes while they were still hanging on the vines. It’s almost like buying the fish while it’s still swimming in the ocean. So in that sense, they owed me versus I was at the mercy of a lot of the growers to sell me grapes. They already had the money, they already got paid.
So they had to work with me in a sense and again, being honest, not being late on payments and having good relationships with the growers goes a very long way.
Can you share your Napa Dream with us that you put on your bottles and let us know what that means to your family?
Yeah, so I’m sipping right now batch number 100, the Napa Dream. So we make our wines in batches. Every single wine, and I made a little bit over 130 wines to date. Every single wine has a number.
It started with number one, which was a Chardonnay 2013 vintage. And when I first started The Vice, I had this long term vision, but I didn’t envision myself to be here today with batch number 100. So batch number 100 is an homage to batch number 1.
I named it The Vice and not my last name. As you see, most of the wine industry, it’s someone’s name on the label. I didn’t want to do that. The Vice to me is what wine is: a Vice. Napa is my vice. So it’s very personal.
But at the same time, the craft beer industry really had a boom in 2008 – 2020. What made it really successful were the names. Craft beer has some really wild names. You look at the name and packaging, and it’s what probably draws you to open the can, you buy it and try it.
At the time in 2013, there weren’t many un-conservative names in the wine business. It was still very conservative names and people’s last names. There was 19 crimes and there was The Prisoner.
I thought The Vice would be a very good name, One, because it meant something to me and Two, it’s very edgy and it’s borderline bad.
It’s not bad. It’s not bad unless you do too much of it. That’s what vices are. If you overdo it, then they become bad. They become addictions, a lot of things, and it’s an easy name to remember.
I’m going to assume almost every wine lover knows Napa Valley. Touch a little bit on the region of Napa, the soil your vineyards are using, and how that influences your aromas and your tastes as we actually get into the bottles themselves.
When people talk about Napa Valley, most of the time we talk about how this perfect Mediterranean climate that we have here, its location about 35 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, the Bay, San Pablo Bay, which is an extension of San Francisco Bay, the microclimate.
We talk a lot about the microclimate, but one thing that I think makes Napa the best wine region in the world, in my opinion, is that Napa has half of the world’s recognized soil.
It’s a paradise for someone who is really into soil because there’s so much diversity here. More than anywhere else when it comes to soil diversity, we make wine from 14 out of 16 sub regions of Napa, but within the same AVA. Within the same sub region, we have different soils.
So a lot of the wines that we make are single vineyard wine You do get to taste the purity of the terroir from a specific soil type. It’s something honestly that we can talk about for days and it’s fun for most people.
Going a little deeper in that for a moment.
We picture you in Manhattan, probably very well-dressed at that old job. Now you’re working a farm. What was it like the first time you stepped onto that vineyard.
What that experience was like for you?
For me, honestly, I always felt that my calling was to be in the countryside. Although while Napa is the countryside, it’s like the Hamptons of the West. It’s still probably the most expensive agricultural land in the world.
It’s very beautiful. But being in touch with nature and being a little isolated from the hustle and bustle of civilization, which is usually in the cities. I find a balance when I’m here in Napa because I do travel a lot. I’m on the road and I’m back to the cities trying to sell wine across the U S and also across the world.
Vineyard life, farm life, it’s my balance. It’s my happy place being in the vineyard. I’m sure you can’t picture me, but I do wear a lot now. I never thought I would ever be wearing cowboy hats a lot. But I do wear them because it covers my head pretty well from the sun.
Walk us through your favorite wines. Let’s talk about aromas and flavors and color and what you love about them so much.
First thing, I don’t have favorites. All my batches are equal to me. Every single batch has a story; is a labor of love. But the wine of the moment right now is my orange wine.
So I started making orange wines in 2020. Orange wine is the oldest winemaking style in the world. Five, six thousand years ago, when they started fermenting grapes to my knowledge, they were white wine grapes.
Today, all white wine, we take the varietals, we press or break the skin of the grape and capture the juice immediately, discard the skin. Orange wine is basically pretending to make red wine with white wine grapes. So there’s skin contact.
So we basically ferment the juice out of the grapes with their own skins and what you get in return, you get some type of orange hue in the wine. The wine I’m opening right now is my Orange of Gewurztraminer and it’s called Brooklynites because that’s where I got the inspiration out of Brooklyn. And we’re doing really well with it. It’s just been very successful for us. It’s up and coming.
This wine, Orange Wine, reminds me of Rosé of 15 years ago when Rosé just started to make a comeback or just started to grow in sales and popularity.
I also feel like with orange wine, I feel like it’s a generational thing.
If you look at Sauvignon Blanc, for example one of the top white wine varieties right now, 20 years ago, no one was really drinking Sauvignon Blanc, but it was really the Gen X that made it popular.
Same thing with Rosé I feel like Orange is just at its infancy stages right now, and it’s having it’s moment. Driven by millennials and Gen Z’s also Gen X and boomers when they see it on a wine list and they see it in the store, they get curious, maybe a little embarrassed that they haven’t had an orange wine.
They’ve been drinking wine for decades already. So there is a little sense of curiosity when it comes to orange. So it’s doing really well for us. It’s 3,000 case production right now. Our total production of The Vice is 27,000.
And Gewurztraminer, the varietal means spicy. I won’t call it spicy. I’ll call it flamboyant. Because it just pops out of the glass with so much roses, lychee, peach, apricot.
It’s a really pretty varietal and this orange wine of Gewürztraminer is certainly a treat. Very well said.
The 2020 Chardonnay. The mouthfeel, the balance, when you were creating it, how did you decide what it was going to be like?
It is an homage to batch number one, Chardonnay.
So I really wanted to create something almost like there’s a legacy and a celebration for reaching that milestone of making a hundred wines. I wanted to go back to very traditional winemaking. The birthplace perhaps of Chardonnay is Burgundy. And in Burgundy, a hundred years ago, they were not bottling every single year.
They bottled when they needed to. They had good vintages, bad vintages. So it wasn’t this cycle.
Now, the majority of the industry doesn’t age Chardonnay for more than 12 months in oak. Most people have a misunderstanding of oak and malolactic fermentation in wine.
I hear it all the time, people saying, I hate oaky chardonnays because they’re too buttery, too oaky. There’s two different things. Oaky and buttery are two different things. So the malolactic fermentation, the conversion of malic acid into lactic acid, is what gives you that creaminess in Chardonnay.
And predominantly, all red wines go through it. But in white wines, Chardonnay is the only one that goes through malo. And it is a style that’s fading. It’s boomers who love the buttery Chardonnays.
But when it comes to oak you really don’t find anybody aging Chardonnay for 30 months.
It’s a little bit crazy to do, but this was my vision as a celebration. And the funny thing is that I just came back from Miami and the joke, everybody that tasted it. They’re like, wow, what a delicious wine and how did you get the idea? And I was like the joke here in the cellar in Napa was when I was making this wine, everybody here was like, who’s going to drink this wine?
And the joke was Florida will drink it because they love big oaky Chardonnay. But the reality now in the valley and other markets too. The younger consumer is actually loving this wine because it doesn’t have much malolactic fermentation. Only 25% of the wine went through malo. So there is a little kiss of butter.
Almost like buttered popcorn, but without being too buttery, without having greasy hands. And then the oak flavor here is just amazing. Because it just pops with butterscotch and vanilla and full spices and it’s a super long finish. You take a sip and five minutes later, it’s still sitting in your palate which is quite unique for a Chardonnay.
You had a vision before you produced the bottle. How close to reality did it become, and what were the challenges to get it there?
To explain that I have to give you the background. Everything I do is not out of just because I decide to.
Everything I do is it backed by the marketplace. Most winemakers, they have an idea, they go apply it. I have so many ideas. All my ideas actually are based on creating demand that’s already in the marketplace or about to be. So a lot of what I do is research and development.
I’m not going to wait to get a market watch article last year to tell me that this varietal or this segment is trendy. I’m seeing it live in the marketplace. I’m seeing it live with the consumer. I am doing tastings in stores. I’m doing tastings at restaurants, hosting dinners, and seeing what the consumer wants.
So I’m seeing it before the rest of the industry. Everything I do is based on where the trend is going before it even becomes a trend. And it is a gamble because not everything comes to fruition. But that’s the basis of what I do is based on the wine enthusiasts, people that drink wine, their interests and what they want to have in the, what they wanna see.
Let’s talk about your Pinot Noir.
This is my house Pinot Noir. We call it the house because this is what I envision to be the house Pinot, basically a Pinot Noir that you open and whether you drink a glass or finish the bottle. If you drink a glass, you can put the cork back on it and it will be good for at least four or five days.
All our wines are made in a traditional style and they’re exposed early on to oxygen. So they’re oxygen resistant compared to conventional wines. When you open the wine; conventional wine by the second or third day, they already flatten out and turn into vinegar cooking wine. The Pinot Noir here is for the everyday occasion and it doesn’t require any food, although this pairs well with everything.
This is the only red I’ll probably pair with any type of fish. It really is a very good wine on its own. Doesn’t really require food. I make a lot of big Cabernets and big heavy varietals like Petite Syrah and certain Malbecs. Very good. You drink a glass and you start begging for food because some wines really require that.
The House Pinot is my go to wine for that everyday, anytime occasion. It is from Carneros, so it’s Southern Napa, and it’s made in a traditional Burgundian style.
What makes this wine actually unique is that a huge amount of of Pinot Noirs now in California are laced with something else to be a varietal on the label, like Pinot Noir or Cabernet. All you have to be is 75% to 85% based on the county. So there is a lot of blending and we’ve seen a lot during the past few years.
The emergence of jammy Pinot’s. It’s all cut with something big and heavy. Pinot is supposed to be lean. A beautiful aromatic varietal with high acidity. It’s supposed to age really well. So we’re going back to that traditional burgundy style.
The wine next to it is a red wine blend.
We make 14 different cabs, so many different red wine varietals. All these wines I make are 100% single varietal. I don’t like to blend. I just love to showcase the true expression of the varietal from the terroir that it comes from of Napa Valley.
I made this wine and I called it Millennial. This is batch number 96 Millennial. And this wine is a blend of different varietals. It’s like a world blend almost. It’s 63% Petite Syrah, 22% Malbec. 8% Tempranillo, Spanish varietal, 7% Primitivo, an Italian varietal, and 1% Charbonneau which is a very rare varietal that we have here in Napa. So multiple varietals, I called it the Millennial because, I found that the millennial consumer is looking more for a style when it comes to a red wine, something that’s medium body, fruit forward, softer tannins. And they’re not really much into what vintage is it, what’s the region, what’s the AVA, they are still very price conscious.
So the retail price for is $29. It’s our least expensive red wine that we make. And it’s a really mouthful of a wine. It’s very juicy. It’s like lava cake in a glass. Although it’s dry, it’s got no residual sugar. It’s still so fruit forward. And there are so many flavors from lava cake to blueberry compote to raspberry jam.
We did not put anything. No vintage, no AVA, no nothing. We just wanted to focus on the blend itself and, that’s a red wine, it tells you exactly who it’s made for.
I’m not sure if you see yourself as a foodie. Any food pairings that you recommend with your wines?
Yeah, I certainly consider myself a foodie. Half of my time alive is spent going from one restaurant to another. Granted, I don’t eat at each one of them all the time, but I do try to eat a small dish everywhere I go and try different things, different cuisines, and I love, as someone that was born in Morocco, I love flavor.
Maybe part of my success in winemaking has to do with my palate. And my taste for my open mind, the taste for food also, and being willing to try different flavors.
When you say Napa, people think Cabernet right away. No one would ever think of orange wine first. Maybe not anytime soon, hopefully one day, but as of now, everybody thinks Cabernet. And. Cabernet to me or some red, big red varietals I think the best friend for our big wines.
My favorite pairing right now is this orange wine. I find myself drinking a lot of Orange lately. And this orange gewurztraminer, favorite companion to Southeast Asian cuisines like Thai, Vietnamese does really well with it. I’ll say Indian cuisine with curries and or even Middle Eastern cuisines. The orange gewurztraminer does really well with them.
I really like to keep it simple. I love to cook with a lot of herbs and spices.
You don’t want to overwhelm it. You don’t want to ruin the taste. You want to enjoy it by keeping actually the food that goes with it simple. Just 1, 2, 3, 4 herbs or spices just to enhance the dish. and bring out the flavors of the wine.
Talking about the Vice team, you have a world class CMO and you have a genuine superhero. Can you talk a little bit about your team?
We met in 2008. We actually worked together and we’ve been together now since 2008. We’ve been married 10 years. Tori is my partner, but life partner and business partner, of course.
Her background is fashion. So she was a creative director at her last job. And she went to Parsons in New York for fashion. Her entire life she knew she wanted to be in fashion.
I wouldn’t be here today, The Vice would not exist if it wasn’t for Tori. She was crucial, especially for the creation of The Vice, the label, the marketing aspects of it. And today she’s 100% on board with The Vice. She has no other job. She’s the CMO of The Vice.
My assistant winemaker; he’s the joy of every day life. His name is Bruce Wayne and he’s an eight year old Tibetan Terrier. He’s got a better nose than any of us. He loves to be in the cellar because of the cool temperature. And as I said probably in the beginning, intertwining personal and the professional. Having him around most of the day when I’m here in the Valley, or just having him come with me, he’s a very good boy. It certainly adds a lot of happiness to what we do and it, it helps with the craft of The Vice.
You mentioned that Tori has a fashion background. What was the transition from fashion to to wine like?
Her transition was similar to mine. It was more of a hobby, part time fashion project and part time helping The Vice. And then last year, we had a baby, our first baby. After she went back to work after her maternity leave, she realized that she wanted to focus on the baby a little bit and also full time on The Vice.
Where do you see The Vice in 5 years? What can we look forward to?
Thank you for asking. The vision since day one was to be an international brand. Today we are in four international markets and 14 states in the U. S. But this secret fantasy that I’ve had since day one about creating The Vice was for the French to drink The Vice.
The French don’t drink American wine. In fact, if you are from Burgundy, you probably don’t even drink Bordeaux, or you don’t drink Sancerre, or you don’t drink Provence. They’re into their own wine regions.
Globally where we will be 5, 10, 20 years, I don’t like to really put deadlines and time limits because the passage of time does things that, it’s very subjective.
The last three years were great for our business. If anything, it spurred us to grow more than we expected. Our long term goal with The Vice is to leave a legacy in the valley and for the brand to inspire the next generation of people to be the voice for a fresh voice in Napa.
From a sales perspective, we are at 27,000 cases. We want to be at 100,000 cases. We want to be in a million cases. But most importantly, we want to maintain the quality and the integrity of the wine that we make.
Younger audiences are booking for healthier wines
There is a lot of formula wine. Wine that has probably 30 ingredients you and I can’t pronounce because it’s not FDA regulated and you know they make it taste consistent year after year and there’s a lot of chemistry that goes into it.
Our wines are very simple. There are two ingredients, grapes and a little bit of CO2 to maintain stability. So long term for us is to continue to be a true craft wine, real wine that’s good for you if you drink it in moderation.
How can we shop your wines? How can we find you?
Thank you for asking how you can help. I see myself as an ambassador of Napa Valley, so I encourage you to please discover Napa and keep it as the leading wine region in the world. We are a one stop shop for Napa Valley. We have the most diverse portfolio of Napa Valley wines at a great price point.
Please check us out, www.TheVice.com. Please follow us. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. Fun fact is that our corks have my phone number on them. You can text me, call me, DM me, FaceTime me. If I’m not in an awkward situation, I’ll pick up. But I’m very accessible. I’d love to I’d love to hear from you.
I’d love to answer your questions. I’d love to help you discover the wine industry, but specifically Napa. I’d love to help you not only discover it and enjoy it as well.
That is incredible. So thank you. I really appreciate your time.
For nearly 30 years Oregon’s Le Cadeau Vineyard has been producing amazing wines, cultivating a loyal audience and earning worldwide attention for their grapes and wine rosters.
Founders Deb and Tom Mortimer
The founders, Deb and Tom Mortimer, will tell you the secret to great wine isn’t a secret at all. It’s actually quite obvious and staring everyone in the face. It’s the grapes. Respecting the grapes and carefully protecting and supporting their process; it’s the difference between mediocre wine and the excellent wine that they strive to produce year after year.
They grew from six acres to sixteen, and planted Pommard, Dijon clones 667, 777, 113, and 115, Mariafeld (a Swiss Pinot Noir clone) starting on the south slope of Parrett Mountain, in the Chehalem Mountains AVA.
From the beginning, Le Cadeau’s location produced noticeable magic. Vibrant aromatics. Intense fruit forward flavors with glimmers of spice and earthiness usually not often found in young Pinot Noir wines.
Le Cadeau Vineyard
Find Le Cadeau Vineyard on the southern tip of Parrett Mountain near Newberg, Oregon, in the Chehalem Mountains AVA.
The 16-acre vineyard benefits from high-elevation (610’ – 725’) developed and planted with one focus – growing distinct and complex Pinot Noir.
The vineyard delivers based on a combination of soils: Jory, Nekia, and Witzel soil (a very shallow, broken basalt). On the East side, a cross between Jory and Willakenzie.
One of the wines tasted today, Merci Pinot Noir – comes from an assortment of new plantings of heirloom clones, including Mt. Eden, Calera, Swan and Jackson.
Le Cadeau Wines
2018 Merci Reserve Pinot Noir
2018 Merci Reserve Pinot Noir
From Winemaker Jim Sanders, it’s a blessing in the bottle, or as they’ve said a ‘Merci’ thank you. After a taste, with a grin on your face you might say the same as you pour your second sip.
Ruby in the glass. Red currant, red plum, blue berry, peach, orange peel on the nose. White pepper, vanilla, boysenberry. Nice, velvety medium body with medium tannin and a very pleasant finish. Perfectly paired with lamb, turkey, roasted chicken.
Blanc de Noir 2017
Winemaker Steve Ryan and his team produced a classic representation of Blanc de Noir, minimizing skin contact, fermenting in both Stainless steel and French oak.
The result is a very drinkable potion. Subtle apricot with pronounced pear on the nose. Green apple, lemon zest, pasty and flirty touch of cherry on the finish. Pair it with garden salad, light appetizers, even a light chicken dish.
Le Cadeau Wine Club
Wine club membership has three level: Platinum, Gold, Silver with tiers that include discounts per shipment, access to limited releases, invites to events and parties, and complimentary tastings at the Dundee location.
Located on Highway 99W in Dundee, just 45 minutes from Portland and 30 minutes away from their vineyard, off-site tasting room is inside The Dundee hotel.
Newberg Oregon’s Vino Vasai Pours World-Class Pinot Noir, Super Tuscan with Unique Tasting Experience – Wine Review
Potter’s Vineyard and Vino Vasai Wines offers a small lot collection of high quality wines and a memorable visit.
When you go wine tasting, what kind of experience do you want? Rushed? Crowded? In, out and onto the next place?
In some of the most popular wine regions in California and in Oregon, a visit can feel more like you’re walking through a theme park than being invited to enjoy a living, breathing winery.
Vino Vasai is a little (or a lot) different in many ways. For one, they really want you to have a calm, romantic, delicious experience.
They go out of their way to make it happen. How? They stagger their appointments, deliberately plan out the timing, they want conversations. They foster an environment that encourages visitors to ask questions, lots of questions. Really sharing about their world, their team and their wine.
As a result, you end up with a memorable, world-class wine experience. And we haven’t even gotten to talking about the actual wine yet.
The winery intentionally limits production, producing less than 1,000 cases annually. Varietals include estate Pinot Noir, and sourced Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, Sangiovese, and Syrah from single vineyard estates in Washington.
The winery goal is “to offer the very best tasting experience in Oregon”.
We’ll Always Remember Italy
Bill and Sandy Sanchez are the winemakers and owners. Bill is an example of the mix of art and science – leveraging 30 years as a PhD Nutritionist and 15 years as a professional Potter. – a common combination seen behind successful wineries.
Owners and winemakers Bill and Sandy Sanchez
Sandy brings her Italian heritage and a lifetime of passion for Italian cuisine.
Back in 2011, they were on a visit to Italy, falling deep in love with art, Michelangelo’s work and Italian cuisine.
With Italy on their mind, just a year later they met Vineyard Proprietor Laura Volkman and struck up a dynamic partnership. Bill wanted to learn everything there was to know about Pinot Noir – from farm to bottle. Laura was happy to mentor him and ended up selling her estate to him a year later.
The rest is bottled history.
Vino Vasai Family
Potters Vineyard, translated in Italian to Vinao Vasai, is a family (some biological, some not) passionate for good food, good wine, good art and who want to make an intimate product that actually makes a personal impact.
Assistant Winemaker Consultant Art Roberts joined the team exactly for that reason, to be part of a family-run winery that makes incredible, affordable small-lot wines.
Keeping with the family vibe, Sandy (tasting room and wine club manager), and Gretchen (customer service specialist). Daughter Melinda and son Eric help with harvest, tasting room, and digital support.
The family does tractor work, vineyard management, and grape sampling along with help from several friends. The family and wine club pick fruit for their Rose’ each year. Potter’s Vineyard is truly a “Grower-Producer”.
The Vino Vasai Region
The Sanchez’s purchased their 3.5-acre estate vineyard in 2012 from Laura Volkman. Laura planted the vineyard in 2001. She sold and partnered with Bill and Sandy on the 1,000 steps of growing and making premium Oregon Pinot Noir.
They were attracted to the artisan feel of the tasting room Laura created and have since transformed it into a Clay Art Gallery. Customers visit and taste wine in a fine art gallery and vineyard setting.
The wine is made in a cooperative studio of several winemakers. Bill & Sandy make all the wine themselves, sort fruit by hand, do all the punch downs and make all decisions from primary fermentation through barrel aging in French Oak. Wines are kept separated to create Reserve, Barrel Select and House labels and are bottled one to two years after harvest.
The vineyard is certified LIVE, Salmon Safe, and Bee Safe Farming with a focus on immune health.
This is a special bottle. Let’s start with the grapes. Pommard and Dijon 777 planted at 700 feet elevation in the newly established Laurelwood District, a sub-AVA of the Chehalem Mountains and Willamette Valley AVA’s. What does this tell us? Lots of cool, wetweather creating that well-known Willamette Valley elegance.
The grapes were picked at peak ripeness during a small window of perfect timing in an otherwise very fickle harvest season. As a result: lower alcohol, great acidity, complex flavors.
They chose lees aging in new French Oak to create a very classic Oregon Pinot Noir.
Deep ruby in the glass. Pronounced black cherry on the nose. Black plum, white pepper. Medium body, medium tannin, with a long finish.
With only 98 cases produced, good luck getting your hands on this bottle. But if you can, do it.
Vino Vasai Super Tuscan 2020 Columbia
Vino Vasai Super Tuscan 2020 Columbia
When a trip to Italy inspires a bottle, everyone wants to have a taste. Their goal was to share “a taste of Italy.”
The blend is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Sangiovese and 12% Merlot
This Super Tuscan is grown in high elevation vineyard sites in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA ofWashington State.
Warm days, cool nights help the grapes ripen with complex flavorsand great acidity. Aged in neutral barrelsfor 18 months.
Deep ruby in the glass. Fresh red cherry and red currant on the nose. Medium body, velvety tannins, black cherry and blueberry notes. Silky mouthfeel and a medium finish that holds on just long enough, playfully inviting you for the next sip.
Pairs well with any traditional Italian dishes – think lasagna, sausage, spicy meats, meat pizza. Very Tuscan, indeed
Vino Vasai Wine Club
The Wine Club has 2 tiers: B Club and M Club
Both offer discounts, specials, members only access, invitations and more.
Visitors are encouraged to stroll through the vines and enjoy the hilltop view of Parrett Mountain to the East, The Oregon Coast Range to the West, and Dundee Hills to the South.
The wines are available direct from the tasting room, online at www.pottersvineyard.com or in a few local wine shops near the vineyard.
Tastings are By Appointment Only at 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm and 3:30pm.
NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker shares his dinner party secrets, favorite french summer escapes and the future of the Rose’ Revolution.
In his incredible basketball career, Tony Parker earned four NBA Championships with the San Antonio Spurs, was selected for six All-Star teams and named MVP of the 2007 Finals.
But these days, his passion for food and wine is keeping him even more inspired.
Starting as a boy growing up in France, the memorable dinner parties he hosted during his NBA days, his summer escapes to French Vineyards during the off-season.
It’s no surprise that now he diving into the French wine world, buying Château La Mascaronne in Provence with legendary business partner Michel Reybier.
A magnificent adventure for the next vintage of his life’s journey.
Château La Mascaronne Rose’ COURTESY OF CHÂTEAU LA MASCARONNE
Today I sat down with Tony Parker (over audio-only speakerphone) for a conversation about dinner parties, french vacation, getting busy in vineyards, and the future of Rose’ wine.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. The full conversation can be found on our YouTube channel.
Also, the podcast version is here:
You’ve been diving into the world of winemaking with Michel Reybier and his team. Can you talk a little bit about the adventure, any surprises or lessons?
It’s been amazing. I always wanted to invest in a project like that. The first time I tried wine was when I was 17 years old. I wanted to keep learning about it and get my knowledge better around the wine world. And so when I was 19, I finally made enough money to afford all those great wines.
I was lucky enough to play for a coach who loved wine, had a huge collection, was reading wine magazines every trip. And so that’s how we bonded. As I got better, in my knowledge of wine, I started to invite all the best [people] in San Antonio to come to do a nice dinner at my house with Coach Popovich, and then the next day I would invite them to a Spurs game.
Château La Mascaronne COURTESY OF CHÂTEAU LA MASCARONNE
Then during the summer I started making trips to the vineyard. I started to know them better. Because in the wine world, obviously, you have great families. They’re super passionate. And that’s how I started; working on my allocation and the good bottles, the Reserves.
Tony Parker and Michel Reybier – SEBASTIEN CLAVEL
When I retired I wanted to be more involved. But it’s very hard to invest in the wine business because it’s either in the family for generations and generations. Those big companies buy everything. And so I was very lucky, through mutual friends I met Mr. Reybier and after talking for six or eight months, we decided to become partners. Now I’m a proud Owner / Ambassador / Everything.
You mentioned the wine dinners you had in San Antonio. Just for us massive foodies, can you help us fantasize for a moment?
What kind of food was served? What kind of wines were poured? Can you take us back to those nights?
I had a private chef. My private chef would work with the vineyard. We tell them who’s coming, how many people, which bottles and what year they will send us.
Then they will work with my staff to make sure we make a menu accordingly, to make sure that everything is matched with what we are drinking.
So when the [dinner party] came to my house, we tried [the vintages] 1969, 1982, 2000 and 2009. It was unbelievable. Great bottles, great vintages.
And for me, I’m very lucky too because I’m born in 1982 and it’s one of the best years for wine, especially in Bordeaux. So every time I visit a castle in Bordeaux, the employees are always super happy because it’s a good opportunity for them, as the owner, to open an ‘82 [vintage].
Most of the time, they’ll come and say thank you to me, saying it’s [their] first time trying an ‘82 [vintage]. Because nowadays, they don’t open those 82’s a lot.
You’ve hinted at your sports background, obviously you have become a master. Is there any lesson that you mastered in sports that you’ve brought into the wine world with you?
The passion and the work ethic. Obviously in the wine world I will never try to be and talk like a Sommelier, they studied for that. Even if I have good knowledge and I’ve been working with vineyards. And I’m learning all the time, especially since I’ve been owning vineyards. I did Harvest. I did the assemblage. Which is when you try all the possible [options], and you decide what the wine is going to be.
Tony Parker and Michel Reybier – SEBASTIEN CLAVEL
I’ve been working with great directors. Our director is unbelievable. The director at La Mascaronne, she’s great too. And so for me, it’s been great knowledge, and a great learning process to learn even more about wine.
What inspired you to choose the partner with Chateau La Mascaronne?
When I met him, I knew he was huge in the wine business and obviously it brings a lot of credibility when you work with somebody like Michel Reybier because he’s been at this for so long and he’s the owner of one of the best wines in the world with Château Cos d’Estournel.
That’s how I knew him and that was big time. When he talked about La Mascaronne, he bought it from Tom Bove.
Back in 2006, when I started going on vacation every summer, I started drinking Rose’ with my brothers and my friends. We love rose’ in the summer.
That’s when Miraval took off. Brad Pitt bought it with Angelina [Jolie]. He bought Miraval from Tom Bove.
Tony Parker at Château La Mascaronne COURTESY OF CHÂTEAU LA MASCARONNE
So [I thought] if Tom Bove hit that property perfectly with Miraval, for sure [it can happen] with La Mascaronne, it’s just a matter of time before we can do something amazing.
What’s next for you as far as the wine world goes?
Our premium rosé just came out from La Mascaronne. Only 3,000 bottles.
We’re working on more premium one’s now. I think that’s where things are going with rose’s. All these big companies and all the knowledge that they get from the red wines is coming into the Rosé world, where the Rosé is going to get better and better.
For more information on Tony Parker and La Mascaronne:
Suzanne Tracht and Jar Welcomes Raphael Lunetta for a Collaborative Dinner at Jar on July 18
Two of Los Angeles’ Seasoned Chefs/Restaurateurs Join Talents for a Best-of-Summer Menu on July 18
Chef Suzanne Tracht welcomes her long-time friend and colleague Raphael Lunetta for a first-time collaborative dinner at Jar, combining their talents and love of Southern California’s seasonal markets.
Suzanne and Raphael have been talking about doing a dinner together for months.
“We’ve known each other in the culinary community for years and share the same sensibility in our cooking,”
says Tracht.
“It’s rare for chefs to see each other unless we’re at an event, and even that is fleeting. This makes for an opportunity that we know we’ll enjoy, and it’s great for both of us because we can work off each other’s energy and inspire one another.”
The four-course dinner begins with an Amuse Bouche of Sweet Summer Melon with Dungeness Crab with Jalapeno Vinaigrette & Persian mint. Then to share for the table, guests will savor Suzanne’s signature Fried Ipswich Clams with Cocktail & Roasted Garlic Tartar Sauce. Next is Wild Striped Bass & Spot Prawn with Sweet Corn Succotash, followed by the entrée of Westholme Australian Wagyu New York Strip with Weiser Farms Baked Potato, Wild Watercress, Gorgonzola, Tomato Confit & Roasted Balsamic-Glazed Ojai Roots’ Vidalia Onions.
Finish with Raphael’s Chilled Summer Cherry Soup with Vanilla Ice Cream & Chocolate Biscotti for dessert.
Guests can pair beverages with Jar’s complete list of wines, cocktails and beers, available à la carte. The dinner is priced at $172 per person, menu only, and inclusive of taxes and gratuity. The dinner must be reserved and pre-paid via OpenTable Experience ticketing.The public may call JAR at 323.655.6566 for further information.
Summertime Wine! Trivento launches #TheFirstWhiteMalbec on Iconic NYC Sunset Cruise with Winemaker Maxi Ortiz
There’s plenty of “other” product launches and then there’s Trivento’s Sunset Cruise launch for The First White Malbec. Clearly, Trivento is very excited.
NYC wine and food experts board the luxury yacht, from 1919, at Manhattan’s North Cove Premier Mega-Yacht Club & Marina.
A handful of NYC and East Coast wine and food experts board a luxury yacht, built in 1919, at Manhattan’s North Cove Premier Mega-Yacht Club & Marina. On-board, best-selling wine authors, top wine media, and NYC’s food and wine critics.
As we set sail, our wine glasses are filled with The First White Malbec in the world, produced by Argentina’s Trivento and Winemaker Maxi Ortiz.
It’s easy to be taken by the moment. You look up and see the majestic NYC coastline. Look around the yacht, even the most local New York cynics have their jaws agape. It’s just breath-taking to see.
Moments later, the crew aboard the Ventura Sailing Team are passing out delicious seafood and chicken-based appetizers to pair with Trivento’s White Malbec.
Ventura Sailing Team are passing out delicious seafood and chicken-based appetizers
We sail through the bay, passing the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance, coming up on Governor’s Island and of course, The Statue of Liberty.
Passing along the Brooklyn Bridge
Why Trivento’s White Malbec is a world-class Innovation
For over 150 years, Malbec has been grown widely throughout Argentina. Its deep purple color, rich aromas of plums and red berries. It’s perfect for smooth, supple red wines.
The fact that Winemaker Maxi Ortiz dares to take an incredible red wine and turn it into a white wine, shows world-class innovation, confidence and vinification prowess. But as we’ll learn further below, it wasn’t an easy process.
Ortiz later explains in detail, it took 4 years of trial and error. Getting closer and closer, but not perfect enough for him. What we taste today is a culmination of his efforts and lessons.
What does Trivento’s White Malbec taste like?
By now most of us on the yacht have had a second taste of the wine. It’s opening up and blossoming beautifully.
The color is surprisingly clear, crystalline.
The nose has aromas of white peach, grapefruit, subtle hint of red fruit.
It’s a very easy-drinking wine. Especially in the summer. The mouth has a refreshing acidity, light body. Notes of green apple. Pairs beautifully well with the seafood and light chicken dishes served here. I could also see it with a garden salad, caprese or sushi. Be daring and try it with BBQ as the acid will cut into the fatty meat.
Hearing from Trivento’s Team, Juan Jose Gil
Juan Jose Gil directs the Trivento brand in the United States.
He explains that Trivento was founded in 1996 by the group Concha y Toro. It was the first time they left Chile to make an investment outside of their origin when they chose Mendoza, Argentina.
They started with a very small vineyard of 154 hectares. Today these Malbec experts have 12 vineyards in four different valleys and over 1,764 hectares of vines. They offer Malbec at every price point and every value tier.
The company has three pillars: Innovation. Sustainability. Excellence.
From Juan Jose Gil’s explanation, all 3 pillars are thriving together as we sip their most innovative wine, from grapes farmed on their sustainable vineyards, enjoying its excellent quality.
Winemaker Maxi Ortiz playfully posing with the Statue of Liberty
Winemaker Maxi Ortiz Reveals His White Malbec Process
Ortiz has been working at Trivento since 2006, helping to build it into the fourth biggest winery in Mendoza.
2019 was their first vintage of Trivento White Malbec. But it’s come a long way from what the world is tasting today.
However, for him, it’s a very special wine for more that just the innovation it represents, but also a positive impact on society:
“Sales from this wine
go to a scholarship program that helps students
with low economic resources and high academic performance to finish schooling.”
How did he create the white Malbec?
He revealed parts of his 4-year process. He picked the grapes the last week of January, 40 days earlier than regular. Then they quickly pressed the grapes in order to separate the skin from the pulp. However it’s not “white” yet. Then it was more of a rose.
Then he revealed the biggest secret of the process. A winemaking method that is common with red wines, but not whites. Ortiz got creative, invented and daring – and it worked. And unfortunately, we’re not going to share it here today. As competition is already growing!
“We were the first winery [back in 2019] to make a white wine with a red grape, which is the Malbec.
And it’s fantastic because nowadays you can see at least 10 different wineries making White Malbec.
So this is the first White Malbec and
in a way Trivento creates a new category of wine in Argentina.”
The quality is clearly there, As Ortiz explains further:
“The grapes came from the same region, from the same vineyard,
from the same places that we use for our [traditional Malbec] Reserve.”
For those who follow NYC weather, it was supposed to be thunderstorms the day of the Sunset Cruise. Bravely and happily, the launch decided to move forward anyway!
The weather was dramatic and cloudy (but dry) all throughout the cruise. Then, as if anointed by a higher power, just as Ortiz finished speaking, the rain started.
A slow, steady rinse that grew stronger. By the time we returned to dock, it was a heavy downpour. But no one was complaining. Wet smiles all around.
If Trivento White Malbec has a way of brightening your day even amidst a heavy thunderstorm, imagine what it can do for your backyard barbecue?
LA is Ready for a New Champagne, Give Champagne Jeeper a taste.
It’s easy to fall in love with champagne. Life celebrations. Work success. Life’s best memories (hello weddings, anniversaries, babies, birthdays). If you’re ready to try a new champagne, this is for you.
Today we had the amazing opportunity to talk (via zoom) with Jeeper Champagne’s Camille Cox. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, visit our YouTube channel.
Can you share a favorite memory where you celebrated with champagne?
Oh, there’s, God, there’s so many. I can’t even begin to tell you. But the one thing I can say is that you always should carry champagne because in victory you deserve champagne and in defeat you need it. That was Napoleon Bonaparte, if I’m not mistaken?
I think my most memorable toast with champagne are personal victories And, of course, business victories as you can imagine. I’ve been selling champagne for a very long time, and I can name a couple that come to mind. One of them a few years back was getting business at the Delta Airlines lounges. Putting another maison there. At the time, the house that I was working for at the time that was a big victory in itself. And just little victories in life each and every day. Every day is a celebration.
It’s all relative in how you look at it and how you live your life, but I think every day calls for champagne, to be completely honest with you.
I love that, ‘Everyday calls for champagne’. Jeeper has an interesting story behind it based on the end of World War II.
Can you give us just a very brief history lesson of Jeeper that brings us up to present day?
So, as you know, many champagne houses have great stories, and that’s the great thing about Champagne. Every Maison has their story and the fact that you get to go back and find out how it became is super fascinating to me.
When I had the chance to join Jeeper, I went back to look at the story. A family started making champagne in the 1800s. It had its heyday and then it floundered. It changed hands for quite some time. Then a gentleman by the name of Armand Goutorbe, who was working his family vineyards, had to be called to war and ended up in a house in an undisclosed location because everybody was fighting against the resistance at that time.
He happened to be holed up in a place with some American soldiers and they were being bombed and consequently they were all trying to help save each other’s lives. History tells us that Armand was a gentleman who took it upon himself to risk his own life, to pull some American GIs away from the building that was going to be bombed, possibly losing their lives.
In doing so, he impeded his leg and went back to looking over his vineyards in Champagne. The hills aren’t high, but they’re steep. His leg impeded his day-to-day operations. The US army got ahold of the story and some of the soldiers that he saved wanted to pay tribute to him and in all humbleness to thank him for saving their lives. So the US military gave him a Willie’s Jeep, and he rode around in the villages and he became known as “Mr. Jeeper Man”. Two years later, he said, I think I’m just gonna name my vineyards Jeeper. So there it was born Jeeper in 1949 because of a wonderful gift that the US Army bequeathed to him.
We still have the Jeep today on property.
Can we talk about the terroir of the region?
We are located in Faverolles et Coëmy, a commune near Reims in the north-west of the Champagne region. In the Montagne de Reims, the Côte des Blancs and the Marne Valley.
We are mostly a chardonnay house and we use Chardonnay as our primary grape.
We make eight different wines under the Jeeper label. We have two great certifications for being biodynamic and organic. Our flagship for the winery is our Blanc de Blanc. Our bottles are color coded in terms of the labels so that they stand out significantly to consumers.
That area has cool nights. A little bit of frost, but beautiful, pristine, crisp grapes from those regions, from the sub regions in Champagne. We own about 80 hectares. We don’t buy any grapes. We use our own grapes. We have the capacity to make 3.5 million bottles, but we hope to make more with some partnerships that we’ve kind of acquired.
Having Michel Reybier as a new partner with Nicholas, the current owner of and partner, who makes the wines too. Nicholas Dubois makes us stand apart from that we’re not right in the middle of Reims. We’re out there, believe it or not.
So when you come to Reims, you’re not gonna see us. You’re gonna have to get on the train or take a little cab and make it to Jeeper.
I love talking about process. Our audience is a mix of very basic drinkers up to connoisseurs.
So can you share a little bit of the process and how, how, what, what makes your champagne so unique?
What makes us a little bit more unique is a lot of champagne houses only use steel vats. We’re still kind of old school. We do use some Burgundy barrels. We have one of the biggest barrel rooms behind Krug and Bollinger. We have about 1200 barrels that we use. So for instance, our Grande Assemblage, which happens to be our brut non vintage, we age 20% of the chardonnay that we use in that blend for two years in used burgundy oak barrels and then we do the aging of the lees. We lay it down for about four years. So that’s two years for the 20% Chardonnay laying down for two years. Then the four years makes it a total of six years. So you get a totally different taste. There’s a little bit of maturity there with the oak barrels.
It’s something completely different. I’ve worked for houses that were stainless steel, so this is something new for me as well too. The aging process, there is some lactic, it just depends on which cuvee we’re speaking about.
Withholding our wines a little bit longer. We’re not big production, we’re not a grower champagne house by any means. We’re just over the hump as a boutique champagne house. We’re just getting started here in the United States. Our biggest production and where we sell the most champagne is in France.
But opening up the United States, it’s tough to build a champagne brand in the US, believe it or not. It’s super tough.
You have to find a way to differentiate yourself, what makes you stand out. I think that’s Jeeper having the name and the story and the total difference of not having stainless steel aging, and that we’re malolactic and that we do use oak barrels in some of our cuvee’s.
One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is a few weeks ago when I had the chance to actually taste through the bottles, they did have such a unique taste.
So let’s talk about the actual bottles.
I’ve mentioned the Grande Assemblage, which is our brut non-vintage. It’s a green label, and I just told you a little bit about that. But the one that is our flagship is our Blanc De Blanc.
I think our bottles are beautiful. We have a patent on the bottle. People notice how easy it was to take off the foil.
So there’s still a little label underneath the foil that says Jeeper, which is kind of neat for us and it speaks volumes because it doesn’t leave you a mess or end up getting paper cuts from the foil cuts.
The Blanc de Blanc is big, full-bodied, rich. Also super elegant. It’s clean. It’s crisp, even though it has a big mouthful.
Our champagnes are the categories in the last 7 to 10 years that have really ended up getting some traction. I think people are walking away from the norm. They’re walking away from big commercial houses because they wanna see what else is out there.
Their curious is curiosity’s sake and I think it’s really helped the champagne business. I think the champagne business has always been cyclical, but in the last 7 to 10 years, it’s really gotten a hold and people are really embracing champagne to great success
Because there’s so many beautiful wines out there, so many different styles and so many cool things that you can learn. I think the more the people, because of the terroir, I always say that champagne is a reflection of the mood of the terroir.
Champagne, the terroir from where we are, its chalky soil limestone. It lends itself to so many different characteristics in the wine. We’re not a big vintage champagne house. 2008 was probably one of the best vintages of the century. It was gone in a flash. With our 2008, we age it for 12 years on the lees. It’s 88% Chardonnay and 12% Pinot Noir. So there’s that wonderful characteristic and it has a little maturity on it, a little oxidation.
I’m a vintage champagne girl and a no dousage champagne girl so this one fits the bill for me, but it may not be for everyone’s taste profile.
I can always tell at the beginning when I’m doing a tasting with the two lead wines that you start off with in Champagne, what someone is gonna like in the rest of the range. It never fails me. It’s always about 95% full proof.
It’s so subjective. The 2008 for me is interesting. We’re getting ready to release a new release of Blanc de Blanc coming in May, which I’m super excited about. It’ll be no dousage.
We also now have a partnership, as I mentioned, one of our owners, Michel Repier. There’s a gentleman by the name of Tony Parker, who’s a former four-time NBA champion. A hall of famer. I was just with him a couple weeks ago. Super, super person. He told us his story about where he came from and how much he loves gastronomy. He’s French. A lot of people don’t realize that. He’s from Lyon, and I’m sure the Parisians would beg to differ, but Lyon is supposedly now the gastronomy capital of Paris. So we have him as an ambassador; a gentleman who really loves wine and is very enamored with it, wants to roll his sleeves up.
He’s helped us with our Rose project that we have in Provence, but helping me with Jeeper as well. It’s a great collaboration. It’s been great for me, for the brand, for helping us build the brand here in the US because we’re building our distribution network.
Which is not an easy thing to do, as I can tell you having done it for many years. So we’re looking for new partners that want to build a brand with us who we want to be on the ground floor with. I feel like the people that bring you to the party are the people you need to stick to.
It’s easy to be a fair weather friend, but I am all about loyalty and building a brand with someone. And making it happen. The wine business is exploding, so there’s a lot of opportunities out there. It’s just finding our niche and letting people know the story and taste the wines.
I don’t know that champagne gets enough love when it comes to food. Let’s talk about food pairings.
A previous maison I worked for didn’t want us to suggest pairing champagne with chocolate or strawberries. I think that fallacy of Pretty Woman when she’s having her “floor picnic” as she called it in the movie. She’s drinking champagne and having strawberries – they are very acidic. But I think it’s really what you want to do.
Do I think it’s the best pairing? Absolutely not.
I’ve gone through this with many chefs in the past where I’ve asked them not to use chocolate or strawberries, and [while they weren’t happy with that] luckily they did talk to me at the very end of it, but they weren’t very happy. But there’s so many great things out there that you can pair champagne with and the new thing is, Champagne and chicken fried chicken.
As a southerner, I’m a fried chicken lover. It’s an incredible pairing.
I also think sea salt potato chips with a non-dosage champagne are absolutely fabulous. But let’s look at the classics. What about ratatouille from France? You know, something that you don’t really ever think about. It’s always the ones that are there that you can think about.
Gratin potatoes are an amazing pairing if you’re a big potato lover as I am. It’s just great. So I think the sky’s the limit depending on what it is you’re drinking. Of course, no dosage champagnes aren’t gonna be great with everything. I also love Dim Sum and champagne, to be completely honest with you.
So all the pairings that are non-traditional, if you will, kind of thinking outside the box. Really making it an opportunity to see: where you can take it? Are you gonna push the limit? I’m all about pushing the limits on a lot of things. Nobody should be chastised for that on any level.
So if somebody likes what they like, they like what they like. I think the traditional [concept] many years ago: Are you having chicken for dinner? You can only have white [wine]. I love the fact that that’s out the door now.
People learn more and more about wine every day. They’re so enamored with it. I think the pandemic gave us all an opportunity to stop, take a minute, take a breath, slow down, maybe enjoy things or get into things that we didn’t have the time to do. I think gastronomy is one of them.
People now love to make food at home. People love to drink wine at home. We saw that with the pandemic. There’s a lot of opportunity, everywhere you look. I like the classics. I’m a foodie.
But I love food and I think drinking it the way you want to drink it and the way you want to enjoy is paramount. Paramount. I don’t think there should be any rules put around that on any level.
As everyone’s hearing the Jeeper story and getting to know your bottles, what can our audience do for Jeeper Champagne?
Helping Jeeper is to buy some [bottles] where we’re distributed. Give something new a chance. Wherever you buy wine, take an opportunity to just treat yourself to something completely different because you never know what’s gonna happen.
It could end up being your favorite wine and you just don’t realize it. Expand your opportunity and your horizons, and that’s what life is all about.
Think outside the box. Live a little, okay. You, you bought a bottle, but there’s some great champagnes out there that are really economical. We know we’ve taken a little bit of a price increase, but treat yourself, you’ll be glad that you did. I think it, it expands your horizons and makes you see so many other things you didn’t see
Where can we find Jeeper Champagne on social media to follow?
