Culinary and Hospitality

Feb. 18, 2022 – For centuries, vineyards that dot gently rolling hills overlooking some of the world’s most beautiful vistas have gifted generations of families with not only a livelihood but also life itself. Embracing known and unknown risks, toiling towards perfection, and facing adversity head on are deeply-rooted, viticultural traditions. Eléni (Helen) and Big Papa (Daniel) Ferrelli, co-founders of EFESTE, an award-winning winery in Washington State, and their family are no exception.

Daniel’s father, the original Big Papa, learned how to make wine from his ancestors who lived in Italy’s Calabria region, located in the toe of the boot. His family immigrated to Chicago during the Great Depression and Prohibition. Passing down the family’s Italian and American heritage, as a young boy, Daniel helped his grandfather make wine in their basement using his old wine press. Burnished in Daniel’s memory were also the Ferrelli family Sunday dinners, really Sunday feasts to which neighbors were invited with just one request to bring a fork.

The family moved west to the Seattle area in 1959, bringing their passion for food and wine with them. When Daniel married Helen Stylianoplous, their future as vintners was sealed as Eléni and Big Papa although the leap into full-time winemaking waited a few years while they raised a family of three children.

However, Daniel never stopped making wine at home, an annual family tradition. With assistance from his father, brother, uncles and cousins, Daniel produced and bottled wine for family and friends from his garage. When his daughter Angela was in high school, Kevin Taylor, her boyfriend, offered to help. The garage proved to be just as good as a marriage made in heaven. The high school sweethearts graduated from Washington State University, married and began nurturing the next generation.

In 2005, Angela and Eléni traveled together to Italy to celebrate Eléni’s retirement and Angela’s decision to put her marketing/advertising career on hold to stay home with their two young boys. Big Papa and Kevin watched the boys while they were gone. What a surprise when Angela and Eléni returned home to learn their garage winery was now going commercial!

“Dad and Kevin told us they met a guy, got some grapes, and decided to make real wine,” Angela said to Chaîne during a Feb. 9, 2022 telephone interview. “They said it was just going to be a couple of barrels but it was A LOT more.”

In 2005, the Ferrelli family and the Taylor family founded EFESTE (Ferrelli, Stylianoplous and Taylor) with an oenological philosophy to let nature take the lead. Purchasing grapes grown in Eastern Washington, they hired a full-time winemaker with expertise in native fermentation.

The first two years were relatively calm as they waited for the 2005 vintage to age. The two families leveraged each other’s unique skill sets to plan their first release in 2007. Kevin has a background in land development and finance; Big Papa is a natural salesman; and Eléni is an amazing cook, Angela said. With her marketing/advertising expertise, the nascent company was already laying a solid foundation for growth. That growth came quickly after they crushed it with their 2007 release. But along with instant success came adversity.

Joe, Angela and Kevin’s five-year-old son, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). On the day of their first release in 2007, Joe started his low-dose chemotherapy treatments that would last for the next three and one-half years, the standard pediatric protocol to defeat the blood cancer. Once his treatments ended, Joe internalized his doctor’s advice to make healthy choices as he grew. Today Joe is enthusiastically learning the wine business through real world experience and, as a student, is working on his acceptance into the Viticulture and Enology Program at Washington State University. He is also a member of the Cougar’s football team. “My son is absolutely amazing. He’s very much appreciative of his cure and acts that way,” Angela said.

EFESTE’s Tough Guy, a high end Red Blend, is named after Joe. A portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold is donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Pacific Northwest. EFESTE’s annual Rockin’ Sips is a charitable fundraiser for the LLS and Joe is the spokesperson to the media and at the event. Usually held each February, this year the fundraiser will take place in June or July because of the pandemic.

Washington State Vineyards and EFESTE

Tough Guy is made from grapes grown in Eastern Washington in the Red Mountain American Viticultural Area (AVA). It’s one of 19 AVAs in the state, according to the Washington State Wine Commission (WSWC).

As of 2020, there were 1,050 wineries in the state producing more than 17 million cases, according to WSWC data. More than 99 percent of Washington wines are made from grapes grown on about 59,000 acres in the Columbia Valley AVA, nested within the Columbia River Valley. Geographically, the state is traversed by the 46th parallel and 47th parallel, which also defines France’s famous Bordeaux and Burgundy winemaking regions.

Mark Fiore, EFESTE’s principal winemaker, joined the company almost five years ago. “I met Kevin, drank two beers, met the rest of the family, had dinner and it was done,” Mark said during the Feb. 9 telephone interview. Angela said they knew immediately Mark was the perfect fit.

In 2008, EFESTE planted their first vines in Eastern Washington within the Red Mountain AVA, which encompasses about 2,300 acres.

Just as Mark came on board in 2017, the vines reached maturity. His first recommendation to the family was to harvest the grapes for their estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Because their vineyard has a rare north-facing slope, Mark said the grapes have unique characteristics. Designated as an AVA in 2001, Red Mountain’s terroir is defined by warm temperatures, persistent winds and an average rainfall of five inches. EFESTE’s Tough Guy is also made from grapes grown in the Red Mountain AVA.

In tribute to the family’s heritage, EFESTE’s Big Papa wine is made from grapes grown on old vines planted 35 years ago in the newly formed White Bluffs AVA, Mark said.

Sourced from a single grower, the Bacchus, Sagemoor and Dionysus vineyards all sit on the banks of the Columbia River. Mark added that the Bacchus and Dionysus vineyards sit on sloping land close to one another with elevations from 550 to 900 feet. The climate is ideal with warm temperatures, which are never too hot or too cool. The Sagemoor vineyard is farther south and also has a beautiful view of the Columbia River and the Rattlesnake Mountains. The soil is comprised of a very sandy loam, an ideal composition of clay, silt and organic material for grapevines.

In 2021, EFESTE expanded into sparkling wine, a dream for many years. EFESTE crushed it again when Mark produced Angie, a delicious Champagne made from grapes grown in the Clos Chevalle vineyard located within the Lake Chelan AVA. The vineyard is EFESTE’s most northern vineyard with a higher elevation of 1,250 to 1,600 feet and sits along the south shore of Lake Chelan, Mark explained. The grapes ripen late so it’s a perfect site for their sparkling wine.

Mark will begin traveling to the vineyards in March to first check to see how everyone handled the winter weather. Because the climate varies dramatically from Western to Eastern Washington, Mark keeps a close eye on the weather. “It’s different every year,” Mark said. Two years ago, wildfires tainted some of their grapes so they decided not to make their Paulie varietal. “Every harvest has its own challenges. That’s why I love what I do.”

As harvest approaches, Mark will make weekly visits to the vineyards. But deciding when to pick the grapes is only the beginning of a tense yet exciting fall season for Mark and the winery.

As a Seattle-based winery using grapes grown in Eastern Washington, there is a major logistics component to EFESTE’s operation. Grapes are transported by truck but Mother Nature determines optimal time for picking and transport.

“Bad things can happen if the grapes are picked in the morning and sit in the sun all day,” Mark explained. “Trucking grapes has become more difficult,” Angela added. With a total production of 13,000 cases, Angela said if they expand to producing 20,000 or more cases per year, they will consider installing a crush pad in Eastern Washington.

For their red wine production, after harvest, Mark lets the grapes start the fermentation process on their own. There can be a seven to eight day lag period as that bubbly process begins. “We just have to protect the grapes from oxygen. We use a lot of carbon dioxide and dry ice to protect the wine,” Mark said.

“It’s a glorious process,” Angela commented.

Mark then tastes the wine daily to determine when to press. They have the luxury of being able to wait 30-40 days if necessary. He is tasting for flaws so his palate can easily handle a tray of 16 samples.

A few years ago EFESTE purchased state-of-the-art concrete tanks sourced in France’s Bordeaux region. “They’re gorgeous. They look like five UFO spaceships,” Angela said. Mark added that people still fondly remember the day the tanks came. “It was a fun day when they arrived,” he said.

Their commitment to excellence has earned EFESTE many awards. Most recently, the 2021 Seattle Wine Awards for Washington State Wines honored four EFESTE wines: 2019 EFESTE ‘James Vineyard’ Malbec (92 pts); 2019 EFESTE ‘Taylor Mag’ Cabernet Sauvignon (92 pts); 2019 EFESTE ‘Estate Grenache’ (93 pts); and the 2020 EFESTE ‘Penelope’ Rousanne (92 pts).

Pandemic
The family’s entrepreneurial expertise proved invaluable during the pandemic. The shock of closing their two tasting rooms, one in Woodinville and one in Seattle, was a seismic one. “We couldn’t cry. Everyone was in the same boat,” Angela said. It was another adversity the family met head on.

To her staff, Angela said: “Listen, here’s the deal. We’re not selling Armani suits. We’re selling wine and everyone is still going to want a glass of wine so let’s get creative.”

Eléni and Big Papa had always made food for EFESTE’s big events with rave reviews from attendees. “My mom could still cater an event for 500 people if she wanted to,” Angela said.

As they pondered how to operate in the midst of a pandemic, they added food to become a one-stop shop for customers.

“We just stayed true to our roots. We stayed entrepreneurial and tried to figure out ways to sell and be there for people,” Angela said. They opened a tent selling food, wine, T-shirts and gift items. People came out in droves. Now they offer pizza each day, which has been very popular.

Angela said 2021 was one of their best years ever. She was deeply touched during the pandemic as their customers worried about them. “It was really a beautiful thing,” Angela said.

The family feels a bit of pressure to duplicate the stellar year they had in 2021 but they are standing on the shoulders of generations of winemakers who have passed down their skills and commitment to excellence. And as heir apparent to EFESTE, Joe Taylor is there to eagerly receive the torch in time. “It’s just a perfect fit for our family so we’re pretty excited,” Angela said.

LINKS

EFESTE

EFESTE WINE CLUB

WASHINGTON STATE WINE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY VITICULTURE AND ENOLOGY PROGRAM

LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY (Pacific Northwest)

Dec. 17, 2021 – Anticipation is sky-high around the globe and could reach stratospheric levels as New Year’s Eve revelers plan parties to say good riddance, wish a fond farewell or combine the two to cap off the year. Whether the party will be a large raucous gathering with all of the bells, whistles and noisemakers or a more intimate, more subdued get together, millions of people will be clinking glasses in person at the stroke of midnight this year instead of clicking a computer to celebrate. Pure joy! Hope springs eternal that people will be clinking glasses in person throughout the year at venues far and wide. With its trio of deuces, 2022 might just be a lucky one in that regard!

Hand in hand with looking forward as the calendar flips to a new year is also taking a brief pause to look back. The Cuvée Team appreciates the many wine and culinary professionals who allowed us to learn of their fascinating, fast-paced world through an interview for a 2021 Cuvée Spotlight.

We thought readers would enjoy an update about the vintners and wineries featured in 2021 since grapes have been harvested in the United States. The magic has begun for the 2021 vintage. But first, let’s look at a few fast facts about wine production in the United States and in Australia to wrap our arms around the scope and scale of the industry so many people closely follow and love.

DID YOU KNOW?
According to Wine America (The National Association of American Wineries):
• As of January 2019, there were 10,043 wineries in the United States.
• More than 900 million gallons of wine were produced in the U.S. in 2017.
• Wineries in California account for 85% of American wine production.

According to Wine Australia:
• There are more than 2,000 wine businesses in Australia.
• For the 2020 vintage, 1.52 million tons of grapes were crushed producing 1.2 billion litres of wine.
• About two-thirds of annual production is exported with 26% shipped to the United States.

Cuvée Spotlight Updates (Wineries)

The wineries and vintners featured in 2021 are listed in alphabetical order with a brief update and link to their Cuvée Spotlight.

Boisset Collection
Boisset Collection announced on Dec. 8, 2021 that the Elizabeth Spencer Winery in Rutherford in Napa Valley is now in its family of wineries. Boisset’s purchase includes the Elizabeth Spencer wine portfolio of small-production wines from Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino, and its location on the Rutherford Cross Road, where the historic 1872 Post Office building welcomes guests into a boutique tasting room, outdoor gardens, and studio.

“For more than twenty years, Elizabeth and Spencer have pursued their passion to create a community of loyal wine lovers with Elizabeth’s exquisite hospitality and generosity of spirit and Spencer’s viticultural curiosity. The destination they have created in the heart of Rutherford speaks to their vision, steeped in history with a welcoming environment at the crossroads of history. We are honored to be entrusted to carry forward with their vision and look forward to contributing our inspiration to the phenomenal journey they began,” Jean-Charles Boisset, Proprietor of Boisset Collection, said in a press release. “We are enthralled with the dynamic site they created, imbued with history at the vital crossroads of Napa Valley and their strong family culture, from growers to customers.”

   Cuvée Spotlight: Raise a Glass of JCB No 39 to Toast the World

Brooks Winery – from Janie Brooks Heuck, managing director

“Vintage 2021 was stellar in the Willamette Valley. While we experienced some rain during fruit set in June that led to lower yields, the berries we did get were concentrated and full of tension and acidity. Harvest brought mild weather that allowed us to pick when the fruit was at the perfect point of flavor and sugar development. The wines are beautiful and resting in the cellar. 2022 will bring lots of new bottling including our 2019 Dry Sparkling Muscat and 2017 Dry Sparkling Riesling, both made in the traditional method.”

To innovate during the pandemic, Janie and her team started “Beyond Brooks,” a monthly, educational webinar. Thinking beyond wine, each session pairs Brooks wine with a company producing a complementary product, such as cheese and chocolate, or a company with a similar mission of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Participants receive the monthly bundle before the webinar to ensure an engaging experience.

Now in Season Two, the first three sessions in 2022 are:
1. January: Brooks and Camas Country Mill (sustainably farmed grains and mill products from the heart of Willamette Valley)
2. February: Brooks and Woodblock Chocolate from Portland
3. March: Brooks and Kiss the Ground, a nonprofit devoted to regenerative agriculture

   Cuvée Spotlight: Janie Brooks Heuck Approaches Life with a Wine Glass Half Full 

Lagier Meredith Vineyard – from Carole Meredith, Ph.D., co-owner, geneticist, oenologist
“2021 has been a lovely year for us here at Lagier Meredith. The growing season went smoothly and we picked our grapes at a typical time for us. Not too early, not too late, right on time. The 2021 wines are now all in neutral oak barrels and will rest there peacefully until we bottle them in 2023. And, although it is still 2021, our vines are already working on their 2022 crop. The dormant buds already contain the tiny clusters that will become next year’s grapes. The hugely beneficial rain that we’ve already had here (more than 21 inches since late October!) will serve the vines well when they start their growing season next spring.”

   Cuvée Spotlight: Carole Meredith, Ph.D., a Wine Expert from Code to Cork

Mollydooker Wines – from Luke Marquis, global sales manager
“G’day, Down in McLaren Vale, South Australia, the home of Mollydooker Wines, it has been a phenomenal lead up to our growing season with winter bringing great rain each month before budburst. A perfect temperature rise throughout spring with vigorous growth and fruit set on all varieties. December 1st being the first day of Summer and warmer weather really kicking in. Growth of the vines have taken off again with the warmer weather and so has flowering, leading into Christmas we are now seeing the fruit developing into well established bunches and the crop looking healthy again after a large 2021 harvest in April this year. With all this, we are excited to see version in January and the developments of intense color and flavors for another beautiful McLaren Vale harvest in Mar/April 2022.”

   Cuvée Spotlight: Mollydooker Wines: Down Under, Never Out, Now on Top

Ramey Wines – from Claire Ramey
“Harvest 2021 was extremely satisfying, but not without challenge. We were tight on labor, as travel restrictions kept the harvest intern we were expecting in France, though lower overall yields alleviated some of the strain. A combination of drought, unusual heat and unusual cold early in the growing season resulted in highly variable bloom and set, which made accurate sampling essential before scheduling picks. Yields were also highly variable, ranging from 80% below to 140% above average. Weather leading into harvest was fairly even, leading to unhurried pick dates. We did have to push back one pick due to some isolated rain toward the coast. Wine quality appears to be exceptional this year with accentuated varietal character, and particularly deep color in the reds. Twenty-twenty-one is looking like a team favorite.”

Cuvée Spotlight: David Ramey Offers Words of Wisdom on Wine and Life

SAMsARA – from Matt Brady, winemaker (owners, Dave and Joan Szkutak)
“2021 has been an exceptional vintage! It has all the potential to be a standout vintage of the decade. I’ve lived in Santa Barbara for 20 years now, and 2021 was the coolest year I can remember. Late bud-break, a cool spring, a very moderate summer, and a total absence of the (now normal) Labor Day heat waves. As a result, we had a very long growing season, with lots of hangtime, and pick dates that were 2-3 weeks later than ‘normal’ (particularly with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir). This extra hangtime gave us really big flavors, without the excessive sugar (ie alcohol). We also saw higher than average acidity across the board with all varietals and vineyards. Yields were balanced yet slightly below average at most sites (the lower yields are a good thing in a cold year as a higher crop level would require more heat to fully ripen).”

Dave Szkutak wrote a beautiful end of the year reflection. Below are the first three paragraphs of that reflection:
“It’s early on Sunday morning and the winery is quiet. For the first time in a great while, I am able to reflect on life over the last 2 years; my overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude. I am grateful that the entire SAMsARA Wine Co. team has been able to remain healthy and intact despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our team’s hard work and dedication has been extraordinary, and our business today is as healthy as it can be given all we’ve endured. Like most of you and the businesses you work in, we faced huge challenges and difficult questions brought on by the pandemic and we are thankful to still be here, making stellar wines for you to enjoy. Frankly, without your support we might not even still be heremaking wine this Fall!
“Joan and I are especially grateful to you, our customers! Despite the pandemic, you continued your incredible support of SAMsARA wines. Because of your patronage, we were able to keep ALL of our incredible staff and to shift our attention to finding new ways to stay “digitally connected” to our loyal customers. Many of you took advantage of our Zoom tastings, our e-mail offers, and have found the ease with which you can order wines from our website and have them delivered to your door.”

   Cuvée Spotlight: SAMsARA puts Pinot Noir and Cool Climate Chardonnay on the Map and in a Glass

It’s a Wrap!
Whether it’s raucous or reserved, the Cuvée Team wishes everyone a fantastic New Year’s Eve filled with fine wine, food, family and friends. And then 2022 is on! We look forward to another year of highlighting amazing wine and culinary professionals.

Image: From left, Holly, Sarah and Luke Marquis at the Mollydooker winery in McLaren Vale, South Australia.

Oct. 8, 2021 – Sarah and Sparky Marquis, acclaimed winemakers in South Australia since 1994, had $17 left in their bank account after a business partnership with a wine importer to whom they had shipped 120,000 cases was not honored. Literally and figuratively “down under” with two young children to raise, they channeled their rugged Aussie spirit to forge a future. A meeting with their 11 employees in 2005 gave birth to their award winning Mollydooker brand. “I am blessed every day to put the Mollydooker shirt on,” Luke Marquis, 25, Sarah and Sparky’s son, Mollydooker global sales manager, and Chaîne member, said to Chaîne during a March 3, 2021 interview.

After meeting in college and getting married in 1991, Sarah and Sparky produced their first vintage in 1994 under the Fox Creek label. That vintage and those that followed burnished their reputation for consistently producing superior wines. While making wine under seven different labels, they were three time winners of “Best Wine of Show” at Australia’s McLaren Vale Wine Show, a prestigious annual event with traditions from medieval times to celebrate the year’s best wines.

In 2003, Robert Parker Jr., famous wine critic responsible for the numerical rating system, told his readers to “run, don’t walk to get these wines made by Sarah and Sparky Marquis,” Luke explained. Parker would have a pivotal role in the success of the first Mollydooker vintage three years later.

Sarah and Sparky turned the shock of not getting paid for 120,000 cases of wine in 2004 into action to control their destiny from that point forward.

Mollydooker Wines

They discussed many names for their wine business before settling on Mollydooker, Aussie slang for a left-handed person. Leigh, Sparky’s father-in-law who was their viticulture manager, suggested the name at that fateful 2005 meeting since both Sarah and Sparky are left-handed. There was no doubt the perfect name had been chosen when seven of the 11 employees at the meeting were also left-handed, an uncanny number of lefties. On average, only about 12 percent of the world’s population use their left hand as their dominant hand.

The Mollydooker team solidified their brand identity and began marketing. Sarah and Sparky remembered Robert Parker was also left-handed so they asked to meet with him in the United States. Financing the airline fares on a credit card, they took Parker two cases of wine for his review. He had just been released from the hospital with a broken leg but held off taking any pain medication so he could taste their wines. Sarah and Sparky returned to Australia with no indication of Parker’s review.

Looking to finance bottling the 2005 vintage for a 2006 release, Sarah and Sparky sought a bank loan but were declined. Bootstrapping a winemaking operation is a daunting challenge so it was back to the drawing board to scrape up enough capital to continue. They routinely paid their bills early but in 2006, they owed tens of thousands of dollars to many contractors and vendors.

Then a miracle happened. Neil Brine, a member of the Board of Directors from the bank that had turned them down, asked to come for coffee at their Adelaide office. Thinking it was a social visit, Sarah and Sparky were more than gobsmacked when Neil asked them how much money they needed to pay all of their bills and bottle their 2005 vintage. After a few calculations, they told Neil they needed $300,000. Neil walked out to his car and returned with a check for that amount without asking for any control of the business or even a contract. He was leaving for an extended stay in Japan so he simply shook their hands and said, “Good luck. Go have fun. I know you’re going to succeed.”

And succeed they did. It takes about four weeks to ship wine from Adelaide to Oakland, California. Two weeks into the trip across the ocean, Robert Parker published his article, rating many Mollydooker labels at the top or near the top of his lists. He awarded Mollydooker’s The Boxer as the “Best Value Red Wine in the World” and their The Violinist as the “Best Value White Wine in the World.” In addition, their Carnival of Love received 99 points. “So now we had every distributor and every buyer in the U.S. screaming for this product,” Luke said. When the ship docked, all 70,000 cases sold in 17 days.

“We started with $17 in our bank account and in 17 days, we sold out of our first ever vintage,” Luke said. “It’s a very emotional story because if it wasn’t for Neil Brine, I would not be here. We would not be here as a business. It was a miracle, a Mollydooker miracle that that situation happened to my family.”

In the busy years that followed, Luke remembers listening to his parents talk about all facets of the business at dinner each evening. Luke and Holly, his younger sister, grew up as Mollydooker matured into a highly regarded and popular international brand that included Gigglepot, named after Holly, and Blue Eyed Boy, named after Luke.

In 2007, Sarah and Sparky purchased a winery and 115 acres of vineyards in McLaren Vale while contracting for grapes on another 150 acres about 22 miles (35km) south of Adelaide. The vineyards and the business continue to blossom year after year.

Current Production and Key Points of Differentiation

Mollydooker today produces about 80,000 cases so they haven’t increased annual production significantly since 2006. That’s just fine with them. Their grapes are in the driver’s seat but the engine is the Mollydooker team, which is led by Sarah, sole owner since 2016 and chief winemaker.

Peter Constantine, vineyard manager, and Peter Tavella, senior winemaker, have been with Mollydooker for more than 15 years.

As global sales manager, Luke has the big picture. About 50 percent of their annual production is shipped to the United States, he said. Leveraging his parents early and lasting innovations in the vineyards and in the winery, Luke is proud to explain to distributors and customers Mollydooker’s three key points of differentiation – use of nitrogen, irrigation, and fruit weight.

Nitrogen
Nitrogen is added to preserve their wine to minimize the amount of sulfites needed. They advise customers to give their bottles a Mollydooker Shake once opened to allow nitrogen to escape before pouring.

Irrigation
During peak growing season, they irrigate their vineyards up to eight hours per day so they keep fruit on vines about four weeks longer than other vineyards. This practice gives grapes natural time to develop color, flavor, fruit weight and quality.

Fruit Weight
Their winemaking team carefully analyzes fruit weight to grade grapes throughout the growing season and winemaking process. They harvest when data on acidity and sugars tells them they have achieved the “Sweet Spot.” On their website, they state, “The Marquis Fruit Weight is our measure of quality. It’s the percentage of your palate (from the tip to the very back of your tongue) that is covered by the velvety sensation of fruit that occurs when a wine’s tannins, alcohol, and acid are all perfectly balanced.”

At 95 percent and higher, the entire tongue is coated with a silky sensation, a rating reserved for Mollydooker’s Velvet Glove label. Their popular Carnival of Love is rated from 85 to 95 percent Fruit Weight.

“We are not guessing. It’s 100 percent consistent,” Luke added. If grapes do not meet established standards, the wine variety is not made that year.

Sip It Forward
Grateful for their own miracle, the Marquis family and business are facilitating miracles for others in need around the world. Cheer and goodwill are bottled with the wine. Mollydooker extends that goodwill to financial support for three charitable organizations – Transform Cambodia that has opened three education centers for children; Mercy Multiplied in the United States to help women break free of controlling or abusive situations; and Hutt Street Centre, which serves the homeless population in Adelaide. Mollydooker donates 30 percent of its group tasting fees to the Centre.

Pandemic Challenges
In an Oct. 1 email exchange, Luke said while they are not yet back to a pre-pandemic normal, their MollyClub (Wine Club) has experienced significant growth in the United States and Australia with more than 200 sign ups per month. They just sent the September shipment with a special gift to members.

Supply chain issues have been a problem. Luke reported longer shipping times and even difficulty getting containers booked to the United States. Mollydooker distributes their wine from two warehouses in the United States, one in Ohio and one in California. With supply chain disruption, some labels are out of stock, which is never ideal. Overall, Luke remains optimistic though as restaurant and retail segments of the business begin to come back.

Having survived business and natural disasters to build a brand that Luke occasionally sees tattooed on people’s bodies, the Marquis family and Mollydooker team have forged a very bright future for both left-handed and right-handed wine lovers!

“We make make wines that make people go WOW through attention to detail and commitment to excellence,” Luke said.

LINKS

Mollydooker MollyClub (Wine Club)

Transform Cambodia

Mercy Multiplied

Hutt Street Centre (Adelaide)

Sept. 3, 2021 — Do you know the parents of the Chardonnay grape? Did you even know the Chardonnay grape, and all grape varieties for that matter, have parents? Carole Meredith, professor emerita at the University of California at Davis, co-founder and co-owner of Lagier Meredith Vineyard in northern California and 2009 inductee into the Vintners Hall of Fame, does. In 1997, she and her genetics research team at the university discovered, with a little sip of serendipity, that Chardonnay’s mom is Gouais blanc and Chardonnay’s dad is Pinot noir. “That was a wonderful discovery,” Carole said during a March 2, 2021 telephone interview with Chaîne.

Carole’s esoteric work as a grape geneticist and sequence sleuth from the 1990s through 2003 rivals that of Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew and James Bond all rolled into one. At least those famous sleuths had other cases from which to draw inspiration. Carole and a few other scientists around the world had to make their case that advances in the 1990s in DNA technology used to solve crimes could also be instrumental in determining identities of wine varieties. The idea represented a bold and daring leap, one that proved prescient and practical as winemakers were able to confirm their varieties.

Finding grape DNA markers naturally leads to delving into history too. Carole explained the Gouais blanc variety, Chardonnay’s mom, originated in central Europe and was most likely brought to France during the Roman era.

After Carole’s years as a genetics sleuth, she retired from academia in 2003 to devote full time to the vineyard she and her husband, Steve Lagier, planted on Mount Veeder in the Napa Valley after purchasing the land in 1986.

Few vineyard owners can walk their vineyard as Carole can with such deep understanding of their fruit.

Human and Grape DNA

With 23 chromosomes made up of 3.2 billion base pairs of A-T (adenine and thymine) and C-G (cytosine and guanine) nucleotides, humans are vastly similar but also different to the point that relationships can be deduced simply by matching DNA segments, or markers.

Carole pondered that application to confirming the identity of grape varieties being grown in New World countries from Old World cultivars that may have been present in Europe for thousands of years. She explained that names of grape varieties were often lost when vines were transported to other parts of the world. The only way to prove a grape being grown in a New World country, such as Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Argentina, is an authentic Old World cultivar is proving its genetic identity.

In the 1990s, her research lab at UC Davis began the laborious work of identifying DNA markers in grapes, sequences of the same base pairs present in human DNA. It’s an area of research historically not well funded but one she felt would provide valuable scientific knowledge and practical application to vintners and the wine industry in general.

“Our initial thought was that if we could develop genetic markers for grapes similar to the kind of genetic markers that were being used in humans, that we could use those markers to try to match a New World grapevine to a proposed Old World counterpart,” Carole said.

She and her research team began sequencing grapevine DNA to identify regions on the grape genome that would be useful to deduce relationships. They approached it methodically by following a step-by-step process that became increasingly more sophisticated.

After referencing authentic Old World samples, they first discovered a California grape being grown as Pinot blanc was actually Melon de Bourgogne. While UC Davis had a reference collection of European grapevines, it did not include Melon so they obtained one from French colleagues to match the markers between the two samples.

After identifying this grape variety, they expanded their efforts to look at relationships. Carole is quick to point out that research labs in Australia and Vienna were also developing grape genome markers at the same time. The labs agreed to share results to advance the science more quickly.

Having developed a small number of genetic markers, Carole’s lab made an exciting discovery about the parents of the Cabernet sauvignon grape. Its mom was Sauvignon blanc and its dad was Cabernet franc. To prove the relationship, her team tested their findings with robust statistical tools to determine not only that was it possible but also it was probable that the grapes were a family. Similar to a court of law, Carole said they proved the relationship “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

With these successes and most likely a few toasts of Cabernet sauvignon and Chardonnay for their efforts, they kept advancing the science. In the late 1990s at a meeting of the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference, held annually in San Diego, Carole proposed a consortium of international researchers to share their results. After legal documents were signed, 20 entities participated in expanding the grape genome marker database. Through their collaboration, the consortium identified more than 400 markers for grapes.

John Bowers, one of Carole’s graduate students, wrote his doctoral dissertation in 1998 after working in France with Jean-Michel Boursiquot, an internationally known expert in cultivated grape varieties, to identify genetic relationships among grape varieties associated with northeastern France. John found the parents of 26 varieties, including the Chardonnay grape.

Carole and her team made a few landmark discoveries early on in the partnership. Eventually the consortium, called the Vitis Microsatellite Consortium, identified enough genetic markers to develop a genome map of a grape. The map is not an entirely sequenced genome but a linear arrangement of hundreds of genetic markers along the 19 chromosomes grapes have. It’s useful in identifying and isolating genes and is still relevant today. “Having a genome map is a necessary prerequisite to isolating genes,” Carole said.

Lagier Meredith Vineyard
During this time, Carole had the perfect location when she needed a break from her laborious yet exciting lab work. In 1986, she and Steve purchased 84 acres of mountainous property in the Napa Valley. Steve has been a winemaker for 40 years, leaving Robert Mondavi in 1999 as their own business developed.

The legal definition of the Napa Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) includes surrounding mountains. At 1300 feet above sea level, their property is not high enough for elevation to be a major factor in growing grapes but its shallow mountain soil is a key factor, Carole said. Shallow soil can only hold a minimal amount of water and nutrients so the vines are not excessively vigorous, she explained. Because the vines are not vigorous, the grapes are smaller but not shaded so they develop deep color with complex flavors. It took Carole and Steve eight years to prepare about four acres of land for their vineyard.

Their location near San Francisco Bay allows marine air to bask the vineyard in cooler air, which allows the grapes to ripen more slowly than vineyards in warmer locations. Their knowledge of grapes and wine led them to believe their vineyard would produce great wine but they did not set out to open a commercial winery. They wanted to produce wine to enjoy. After planting their first vines in 1994, they added other grape varieties. Their 1998 vintage, released in 2000, was their first commercial vintage following rave reviews of their wine through word of mouth. Today they produce a total of 800-900 cases with four varieties with marketing efforts focused on social media.

Carole commuted back and forth between UC Davis and Napa but as the business blossomed, she was stretched too thin and decided to retire from academia in 2003 but certainly not from work. She is the first to admit growing grapes and making wine involves a lot of work but it’s a life she and Steve embrace wholeheartedly. They have not taken a vacation in 20 years. Standing in their vineyard overlooking the Napa Valley is a vista they love each and every day.

Their daily life is their vacation. She enjoys being her own boss but most of all, Carole said making a living off the land, a tradition vintners have done for hundreds and even thousands of years, is very rewarding.

Informed decisions, along with serendipity that has followed Carole since her genetic sleuthing days, have helped them recently through wildfires and the pandemic. When they built their house on the property, they used fire resistant materials and have kept the brush low and cleared away from the house. A devastating set of wildfires in 2017, called the Wine Country fires, encircled their house but stopped when the fire ran out of fuel – brush. The 2020 wildfires did not affect them but they are looking ahead.

“Now we’re just preparing for the next one and there will be a next one,” Carole said.

Although they sell a small amount of wine to restaurants, most of their business has been and remains direct-to-consumer, a definite advantage during the pandemic. It was another sip of serendipity when they decided to produce their first commercial vintage in 1998 just as the internet was redefining retailing. They became early adopters and now have a full eCommerce platform. The pandemic had no effect on their business. “We’ve been very, very fortunate in that regard,” Carole said.

There is no need for a sleuth to unravel the mystery of why Lagier Meredith wines have had a loyal following for many years. With their hands-on, heads-up and hearts-in approach and their deep understanding of the fruit, the soil, the climate, the winemaking process and the business, Carole and Steve have the unique combination to unlock the potential of those grape genetic markers Carole identified in her lab years ago.

“It’s very, very satisfying to have bought this property and to have initially started with the idea to just make a little wine for ourselves and then finding that people liked it,” Carole said.

Links

Lagier Meredith Vineyard

University of California at Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology

July 9, 2021 – On most summer evenings, a blanket of fog gently covers vineyards hugging the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara County in southern California, Mother Nature’s gift to local growers, local vintners and wine aficionados around the world. And Mother Nature keeps on giving. Transverse mountain ranges positioned west to east, instead of north to south, and a Mediterranean climate of cool nights, warm days, and arid summers converge to create vistas professional photographers crave and terroir winemakers cherish.

Dave and Joan Szkutak, Chaîne members and owners of SAMsARA Wine Co. in Santa Barbara, California, discovered the region in 2005 when a friend suggested they visit Santa Barbara. “We were frankly blown away by how good the wines were. We think it’s still a hidden gem of an area in the world for wine, particularly in the United States,” Dave said to Chaîne during a Jan. 27, 2021 telephone interview.

Central Coast AVA

All of Santa Barbara County is in the Central Coast American Viticultural Area (AVA), the largest AVA in California that includes 10 counties. In Santa Rita Hills, a Central Coast sub AVA (officially Sta. Rita Hills), fog rolls in at night and lifts late morning the following day. SAMsARA contracts all of its vineyards with dedicated rows of vines, most in Sta. Rita Hills and the rest from cool climate vineyards in Santa Barbara County.

Once the fog dissipates in the area, the sun takes over. “Then the wind picks up, the fruit dries off, it gets warm and sunny and then at night, this happens again. These high diurnal shifts gives the grapes great acidity,” Joan Szkutak said to Chaîne in a second telephone interview on June 23, 2021.

Vintners have different opinions on optimal times to pick grapes, one of the most critical steps in making great wine, Dave said. “Some like to pick later because they want higher alcohol wines and very ripe fruit. We pick on the earlier side once the phenolics (flavors) are right and the pH is still low. The acidity in wines is what makes your mouth water (think lemon juice!) and higher acid wines generally pair better with foods,” he explained.

In Sta. Rita Hills, expert vintners paired with Mother Nature is a dream come to fruition.

“In our opinion, it’s hands down the best region in the United States for cool climate varietals.” Joan said. The Sta. Rita Hills sub AVA is one of the coolest climate AVA in the Americas, she added.

SAMsARA Wine Co.

Dave and Joan nurtured their interest in and knowledge of wine over many years, bringing deep business experience to their second careers as vintners. They were introduced to wine as a leisure activity while traveling around the world as corporate executives. Their memorable experiences visiting international wineries prompted them to think about getting into some aspect of the wine industry. Home base was Cincinnati so between business trips, they took advantage of educational opportunities at The Wine Merchant, a local wine shop owned by Kathee Van Kirk, a Chaîne and Mondiale member, and at formal Chaîne events. That base of knowledge prompted Dave to enroll in wine classes through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Begun in 1969 in the United Kingdom, WSET began offering classes in the United States in the 1990s and in 2019, opened a permanent office in Hartford, Connecticut. Completing the required coursework and tests over a period of five years, Dave recently earned a Level 4 Diploma.

In 2017, Dave and Joan were not looking to purchase a winery when they visited Santa Barbara with Mark and Gina Torkos, dear friends and fellow Chaîne members from St. Augustine, Florida who were interested in learning about the Santa Barbara wines they had enjoyed with the Szkutaks. While there, the opportunity to purchase SAMsARA presented itself. Started in 2002 by Chad and Mary Melville, SAMsARA produced Pinot Noir, Syrah and Grenache varietals. The Szkutaks were already loyal customers and wine club members so it was a natural fit.

One of the key reasons they went forward with the purchase was having Matt Brady as their Winemaker.

Matt, like Dave and Joan, fell in love with Santa Barbara wine country. As a college student at the University of California Santa Barbara in the early 2000s, he spent weekends exploring wineries. After graduation, he secured a job at a winery and by 2015, was named its Head Winemaker. In 2017, he took over winemaking duties at SAMsARA. With a philosophy of minimum intervention and maximum patience to make wine, he was a perfect fit with the Szkutaks.

Old world winemaking techniques, such as native yeast, whole cluster fermentation and longer macerations to extract flavors from the stems and skins, are core to Matt’s minimal intervention style. “Healthy grapes tend to have healthy loads of yeast and that allows them to complete the fermentation,” Joan said. Matt works closely with the farmers and vineyard managers at their contract vineyards to optimally leverage Mother Nature’s gifts.

“It’s a great place to be a grape,” Joan said Matt likes to say.

Having a perfect climate and an expert winemaker though is only part of the equation to successfully operate a winery. The order of operations is well known. But there are variables on the business side that require a unique skill set to solve.

“It’s difficult to make great wines but it’s a lot harder to sell great wines because there’s so much competition out there, particularly for small wineries,” Joan said. SAMsARA fits into the very small winery category with production between 3,500 to 4,000 cases per year.

Dave explains that a 2005 Supreme Court ruling dramatically changed wine industry sales and marketing. In Granholm v. Heald, the court ruled in a narrow decision that preventing out-of-state wineries from selling direct to consumers was unconstitutional since in-state wineries were selling direct to consumers.

Today almost every state allows out-of-state wine sales direct to their residents but there are a few exceptions. And selling to retail stores and restaurants still requires wineries go through a distributor.

Keeping track of 50 different sets of regulations governing the sale of wine directly to consumers is reason enough to uncork a bottle of SAMsARA Zotovich Chardonnay, one of the wines Dave, Joan and Matt are especially proud of since they started producing their cool climate Chardonnay. Joan likes to challenge people who are ABC wine drinkers – Anything But Chardonnay – to sample their varietal. Joan said a majority of people who try it like it. SAMsARA has converted ABC drinkers to CCC (Cool Climate Chardonnay) fans! Through their wine club, members get access to a limited supply of some of their single vineyard vintages, select barrels of their cool climate Chardonnay, and other varietal reserved wines.

SAMsARA’s LOTUS and OM wines are bottled annually from the best one or two barrels of their Pinot Noir and Syrah varietals respectively, a tradition begun by the previous owners. In 2017, the first vintage the Szkutaks produced, they reserved one barrel of each for their LOTUS and OM brands. “It’s what we feel best represents our style of wine. It best showcases what we do,” Joan said. Normally available to wine club members only, they will soon be releasing the 2017 vintage with special hand-dipped caps instead of foil and beautiful labels.

As they pondered label designs for these special wines, they only had to call Gina Torkos, their dear friend who is an award winning artist specializing in oil painting and collage. On her website, Gina’s love of the natural world is on display with beautiful collages of shorebirds of which she has endless opportunities to observe living in St. Augustine. For the SAMsARA LOTUS label, Gina created a Lotus flower collage from magazines and existing SAMsARA labels. Upon close inspection of the label, the words “fun” and “joy” are clearly seen. “It ties into our theme of enjoyment and friendship with wines,” Joan said. For the OM label, Gina took inspiration from an oil painting hanging in her home that she painted following her travels to Cambodia. Today the LOTUS and OM originals are proudly displayed in the SAMsARA winery tasting room.

Joan is excited friends can again share wine face-to-face. The pandemic was a variable nobody saw coming. SAMsARA has two tasting rooms, one in Goleta where their winery is located and one in Los Olivos.

Both rooms were closed from March 2020 to June 2020 and then again in December 2020 and January 2021 with outside tasting available the other months. As of June 15, 2021, both inside and outside are at full capacity although Joan said people are preferring seated tastings instead of traditional standing at their bar tastings.

“It’s been incredibly challenging in particular because we never quite knew what was going to happen the next week or the next month. But we have an amazing team that pulled together and we just, as everyone likes to use the word, pivot. We quickly pivoted,” Joan said. Lily Hays, certified sommelier and SAMsARA Hospitality and Education director, planned a successful June 9, 2020 virtual tasting for Chaîne members, the type of event the winery will continue to offer.

In addition to virtual consumer tastings, they also conducted virtual events for their sales network and corporate clients, growing their business slightly during the unprecedented time. Going forward, they are looking to balance each sales channel, especially keeping their customers who found them online during the pandemic to ensure they continue to feel part of the winery.

While one cannot generalize about demographic groups, clear trends with young wine drinkers are concerns about brand identity and sustainability. With their philosophy of minimal intervention, by next year SAMsARA’s plan is to harvest 100 percent of their grapes from organic vineyards.

Dave references an annual report by Silicon Valley Bank that is a treasure trove of information about 2020 and future trends. In Silicon Valley Bank’s “State of the Wine Industry 2021,” the report reveals that in 2020, wineries were able to sell wine a new way by simply calling customers via cell phone lists, something some wineries did not even have at the start of the pandemic. And digital video sales became a new channel during the pandemic to connect with customers. (p. 5 – see link below). The millennial cohort (ages 24-39) will be incredibly important for wineries to nurture in 2021 and beyond if the industry can expect to match the robust growth it experienced from 1994-2014, the report said. (p. 39)

For all of their customers, Dave and Joan are focused on offering them the same memorable experiences they have had around the world. As the grapes were coming in during their first harvest in 2017, it dawned on Dave they were actually making something people would consume and hopefully, love. “Intellectually, there was nothing new there. But emotionally, it was very different,” Dave said. To affect people’s lives in such a personal way drives their dedication. Dave encourages Chaîne members to come to Santa Barbara to visit and to try Santa Barbara wines.

Joan said all signs are pointing to 2021 being one of their best vintages. Harvest will likely start in late August or the beginning of September for their early varietals, such as Chardonnay, and extend into late October or early November for their later varietals of Syrah and Grenache. Joan and Dave are the first to admit owning and operating a winery is a lot of hard work but with their dedicated team and their partnership with Mother Nature, SAMsARA is flourishing.

“Those Transverse Mountain Ranges are really magic,” Joan said.

Check back for an update on the 2021 vintage as their harvest progresses in the fall.

LINKS
SAMsARA Wine Co.
SAMsARA Wine Clubs
WSET 
The Wine Merchant (Cincinnati)
Gina Torkos Art
Silicon Valley Bank report: State of the Wine Industry 2021
Santa Barbara Vintners