Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Christian & Nadia Charmasson (Rhone)

Christian & Nadia Charmasson

Tavel, Rhone valley
Nadia and Christian Charmasson at Balazu des Vaussières are making wine in Tavel in the southern Rhône but don't look for the Tavel wines found in the supermarkets for analogy because they work on a very artisanal way and tend their parcel without harming both the soil and the vines (and they label their wines as Vin de France meaning table wine anyway, which doesn't suit well the AOC-loving supermarkets...). They have been farming along the procedures of biodynamy and also Maria Thun, starting in 2007 after a few years on this property and their cuvée range is very simple, they make a white, a rosé and a red, all blends. While we visited their farm we realized how different are the wines when all is done along these procedures, planet cycles calendar, herb tea spraying and letting literally the wine by its own in the cellar, it yields wines that feel so much better and alive. No surprise that with Pfifferling of L'Anglore they're considered the Natural Giants of Tavel...

The Charmasson farm is located just outside Tavel, it's a modest one-level house with a side building that was converted into a chai, the vines being just in the back with view over the first hills in the far. Like elsewhere in the region there's a push for more construction from both families and village administrations hungry for new payers of yearly local taxes, and on the other side of the small road there's already an encroachment of new houses, the village having allowed for more agricultural land to be turned constructible. Farmers usually don't resist especially when they sell their grapes to the local Coop, and they often end up dividing their parcels into as many individual lot for multiple residential units.

Ordinaire, Oakland (California)

Vibrant crowd in the afternoon

Oakland, California
Last but not the least of my U.S. stories - While located in Oakland on the other side of the Oakland-Bay Bridge, Ordinaire can be considered as one of the prominent wine bars/shops in San Francisco. Oakland is not that far from downtown San Francisco, even by car, that's where many people relocated along the years because the rents have become so expensive on the other side of the bridge in San Francisco proper.
The wine bar was created 5 years ago this month by Bradford Taylor while pursuing a Ph.D at the University of California, Berkeley with a dissertation on the sense of taste in early 20th century modernist literature (I quote the Wikipedia page for the bar which is pretty exhaustive). I met Bradford in Paris about 5 years ago if I remember, when he had probably just opened the bar. In addition to the wine bar side, Ordinaire organizes on a yearly basis a natural-wine fair, the Brumaire Natural Wine Festival (just say Brumaire, it's on its way to become an established wine fair) where you can meet daring winemakers like Julie Balagny.

I drove there from downtown San Francisco before giving the rental back on Post street. Didn't see really what Oakland looks like, I just saw this amazing building a short distance from Ordinaire, the Grand Lake Theater which was opened in 1926 and remains managed by the descendants of the original founders.While we're at Oakland there's another wine bar dealing with natural wine there, it's Punchdown, and speaking of San Francisco proper there's of course Terroir which I visited a few years ago and also Ruby which I alas didn't have time to visit this time and about which I heard very appreciative comments from people in the know.

Absentee Winery, Point Reyes, CA

Avi Deixler with an intriguing bubbly

Point Reyes, California Avi Deixler who started Absentee in 2016 is a rising star in the world of artisan wines made without additives and intervention. After living in Marin County in his youth he moved to New York State, studied there and eventually discovered wine by working in a wine shop. Along his training and job experiences working in wineries in California, Oregon, Australia and France, he discovered natural wine and ended up starting his own production here in the very coastal region where he spent his childhood years.

Setting up a winery in this corner of Marin County north of San Francisco bay was a challenge, as this is not precisely a wine producing area. Of course Avi Deixler's project wasn't about the usual commercial winery, it was small scale and most important he wanted to make wines that were made only with grapes, that is no additives, no nutrients nothing, no SO2, but this wasn't enough to get the green light from the County Planning office. Avi wanted to sit his winery in the dairy building of an old ranch or farm outside Point Reyes, which is a beautiful, rugged coastline along the coast where preservation is important and where visitors come to see the hundred seals resting on the rocks. Avi pleaded his cause, he said his product will eschew the additives and preservatives that are commonplace in the industry.“True wine, with grapes as the only ingredient, does not give you a headache if you have a second glass. It’s a journey of flavor that you just fall into,” said Mr. Deixler, who named his winery “Absentee” to reflect his stripped-down approach. After a legal battle and some press coverage Avi won, thanks to the support of some commissioners who understood the artisan quality of his approach.

Martha Stoumen, California

Martha Stoumen at Venturi vineyards

Ukiah, California
Martha Stoumen started her winery relatively recently in 2014 after initially studying Geography and Environmental matters in UCLA with Professor Judith Carney and she pursued her Italian heritage by travelling there, doing apprenticeship in a farm in Tuscany working with endangered farm species and breeds. Over there each intern (there were 9) were put in a specific part of the farm and hers was the vineyard and the olive orchard. She hadn't made ever wine before, but happilly it was small scale, not commercial, just for friends and family. She loved it and after the few months spent there she felt she'd like to do this as a job when back home. She indeed found a job in California but the conditions were very different, it was very structured, she'd not go to the vineyard at all, it was great because she was learning a lot but she definitely wanted to be in a smaller winery. She then went to Australia to work in a small winery, then to Germany (Heymann-Lowenstein in Mosel) where she only worked in the vineyard and this was her initial exposure to totally native fermentation, nothing added. The vines were standing on a stick the old way the canes on the shape of a heart, the picking was old fashion, it took a whole day for the pickers to fill a one-ton bin, the grapes would begin to oxidize but still no sulfur on the grapes, and they would press them the following day. She stayed 6 months.

After this in 2010-2012 she went to UC Davis to learn the microbiology, picking what she wanted to learn also. With friends she was beginning to make wine in their backyard in Davis and she was beginning to drink a lot of natural wines as well. There were few people working with native yeast back then, she remembers Matthew Rorick at Forlorn Hope, also Broc Cellars which she visited back then in Berkeley, but they were mostly drinking European wine at the time. They were learning all the correction methods at UC Davis but there was also a teacher there, Junichi Fujita who was an early guy to bring all these European natural wines under the spotlight at UC Davis (he since has planted a vineyard of his own in Oregon near McMinnville). Enriched with these new discoveries she went to work at Cos in Italy, Giusto Occhipinti being an early player in well-farmed grapes & natural wine (his niece has also started her own winery). They were the ones that pushed her to start her own thing in California. And she did after a stay in a biodynamic winery in New Zealand, this was 2014, working with 3 friends on a cooperative mode (Living Wines Collective), then she started her independant winery in 2016. At the beginning she also worked on the side as assistant winemaker at Broc Cellars from 2014 to march 2017, Chris Brockway being very supportive all the time for her project. She now works from dryfarmed vineyards, most being trained on sticks the old way (pic on left) without trellising system.

Ceritas (California)

Phoebe Bass & John Raytek

Healdsburg, California
Ceritas is a Sonoma winery that is around since 2005, it is managed by John Raytek and his wife Phoebe Bass, both make wine in their facility in Healdsburg from contracted grapes, all in carefully selected terroirs and from growers who farm organic and without irrigation. Started small scale, the winery now makes 48 000 bottles and with its uncompromising no-intervention winemaking from dryfarmed organic parcels won a prominent place among the most sought-after new generation wines in the best restaurants of the country (at least the ones with the most demanding wine list).

John came from the sommelier scene and walked the line to the winemaking world, becoming at one point assistant winemaker at Copain and consultant from many wineries while Phoebe his wife comes from the farming side of the trade, her training is very interesting, like China Tresemer of Hiyu Wine Farm, she spent her youth in a biodynamic farm near Guerneville, 18 miles by road west of Healdsburg with woods all around, at Porter-Bass to be precise. Her parents who were from the East Coast had purchased this farm with a century-old vineyard in the early 1980s' and revived it with their organic, then biodynamic farming, growing three grape varieties including what is considered one of the best Chardonnays in California in this cool climate area between Healdsburg and the ocean. Phoebe and John are also close friends with the same-minded people at Arnot-Roberts, doing outdoors with their families.

Hiyu Wine Farm (Oregon)

China Tresemer & Nate Ready

Hood River, Oregon
Nate and China started Hiyu Wine Farm after buying a property, Pheasant Valley Winery near Hood River east of Portland and south of the Columbia river. There was a small vineyard surface in the estate and they expanded it later, replanting parcels on the slope. They now manage a whole and living farm complete with, in addition to vineyards, all kind of vegetables, hens, pigs, ducks and cows (I probably forget a few of them). Here is another living farm making real wines.

The name of this small estate comes from the indigenous Chinook tribe and means big party or abundance. And abundance there is, in this wine farm, beginning with the number of varieties Nate works with, about 80 of them according to Nate, often complanted and grafted on other varieties (most unrooted), Nate Ready is speaking with excitement about all those different varieties, some of them we French hardly recognize the name of, especially when he lists them quickly one after the other... Speaking of the cuvées made from all these grapes Nate and China are making about 30 of them right now and quietly head in the future to 50, from a total surface of 40 acres (16 hectares) including the 14 acres (6 hectares) of the estate vineyard, that's lots of different wines, most being complex blends, as Nate Ready is one of the rare growers and winemakers to reinvent the grape diversity of viticulture (and winemaking) like it was commonly found in Europe a few centuries ago, before wine became trendy.

Frenchtown Farms, Oregon House (California)

Aaron & Cara Mockrish

Oregon House, California Sierra Foothills
Aaron and Cara Mockrish who now run Frenchtown Farms are of a new generation of winemakers who spend most of their attention and care in the vineyard. They're passionate about the vineyard and the farming, Aaron says that they want to do it all by themselves because they love it, and if he begins to have to manage people for the vineyard work and do some saleswork, he'll lose the fun and excitement of his job. Both of them had been managing a farm in the area before getting in contact with wine in 2014. At the time they were living 30 minutes from here, growing vegetables and raising sheep, and ended up growing vines too although they had no experience in that part of agriculture or with winemaking. One friend brought them one day a bottle of Clos Saron which he told them was made nearby and this was an awakening experience, that such a wine of this quality was made right here in Oregon House, it shifted something in them, Cara says... That's how they came in contact with Gideon Beinstock (the winemaker behind this wine) who has an extensive experience in the region for both viticulture and winemaking. This region is the North Yuba AVA in central California north of Sacramento, a tiny wine region where natural winemaking and organic viticulture thrives. Aaron is from New York and Cara from Connecticut, But Cara's grandmother grew up in Placerville 2 hours from here and she came over here quite a few times, it's funny, she says, that her grandmother moved to connecticut to get married and she (Cara) did it samely but the other way around, moving here in Oregon House to get married (this took place shortly after our visit).

Aaron and Cara have a lot of friends in the restaurant industry, they were interested in wine but lacked the experience, so they began working with Gideon to learn, which led them unexpectedly to have the opportunity to harvest the fruit next door at Renaissance, where a large surface of vineyard was sitting idle with no one getting the fruit. In 2016 they moved closer to Renaissance to a place named Frenchtown on the outskirts of Oregon House (itself a very small place) where they lived in a large house and worked with a partner. They didn't follow a formal training at a wine school, all they learned was from working with Gideon. They also learn from their friend Dani Rozman (La Onda) who makes wines not far from here and has also a good experience

Lo-Fi Wines, Buellton (California)

Mike Roth pouring

Buellton, California
Here is a small winery in the Santa Barbara County,
Lo-Fi, it makes its wine from purchased grapes in a cooperative-style facility housing some 8 boutique wineries under its roof on the outskirts of Buellton, on US 101 in the Santa Ynez Valley. Mike Roth and associate Craig Winchester are making wines naturally using wild yeast and little or no sulfites, with the aim to make easy-drinking wines. I found the square grey building with ease, and we skipped inside where it was enjoyingly cool and the light more bearable. Inside was Mike Roth who greated us warmly, Mike was listed in 2015 by John Bonné of the San Francisco Chronicle in the 10 young winemakers to watch.

I asked Mike, who is born in New Jersey, about how he ended up making wine, he says he initially wanted to be a chef, a cook, since he was interested by food as a kid already. Family pressure (father as often) pushed him to the university but after college he went back to the restaurants, this was around 1995/96 in North Carolina and through food he discovered wine, which made him move eventually to California. Now Mike even has a vineyard of his own in Los Alamos where they opended recently a tasting room and he buys grapes from Coquelicot while also making their wine. It's more contracted acreage than grape purchase and he can dictate the farming, and anyway he controls their farming in general because he makes their wine too. Mike Roth and Craig winchester (they know each other since they were teenagers) make wine under the Lo-Fi label since 2012, before that Mike was making wine for other people.

Peter Martin Ray vineyards (California)

Frédéric Ballario in the vineyard

Saratoga, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Here in California it's pretty common to have the growers on one side and the winery/winemaker on the other side as because or land price it's easier for wineries to buy fruit to growers. The issue with this type of relation is often that wineries aren't controlling the farming and get fruit that is grown with productivity and volume in mind, not quality. Here is Peter Martin Ray Vineyards [not to mistake with the Martin Ray Winery which is a conventional winery], a grower which is sought-after for its demanding vineyard management and excellent location in this part of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The parcels are located at the top of a hill next to the one with the historic Montebello-Ridge vineyards, and thanks to the farming, the altitude and terroir they grow beautiful grapes for a short list of wineries - Welcome to the uncharted vineyards of California... The grapes of Peter Martin Ray Vineyards are purchased by wineries like Ceritas and also Arnot-Roberts, which says it all by itself, and also by young winemakers like Jaimee Motley and the two guys behind Birichino Wines. I discovered this grower thanks to Frédéric Ballario who previously worked for AmByth, another exceptionnal domaine in that regard for its dry farming and non-interventionist winemaking in the very dry region south of Paso Robles (he now works for this little-known grower).

You know that what makes the quality of a wine is basically the grapes and vineyard behind it, it's now obvious for everyone that you can't make good wine with improperly-managed vines and at the opposite, you almost can't but make good wine if the balance is there in the vineyard side. What is fully understandable for artisan winemakers is a problem for commercial-minded wineries where volume is considered as an imperative in their business. For the same price they'd rather buy high-yield, irrigated fruit to growers and do afterwards all sort of corrections in the cellar to get something their oenologist deem drinkable. It is encouraging to see both in the Old World and the New World that more and more rebels shrug off this mainstream approach and get back to the fundamentals of winemaking : the grapes.

Visit at Nicolas Renard (Loire)

Nicolas Renard with Alex Bernardo

Amboise, Touraine (Loire)
This was an impromptu visit at the cellar of Nicolas Renard, we didn't know if the elusive cult vigneron was there on a saturday but as Alex Bernardo was visiting me in my Loire retreat for the weekend we gave it a try and drove over there. you know from my story about Nicolas that he's having his own surface here in the Loir-et-Cher and very hopeful on the recovery of his large parcel in the middle of the woods. Alex Bernardo at Vineyard Gate in San Francisco is the only one (along with Mrs Yasuko Goda for Japan) to got to export his wines and for the American wine lovers (shipment soon on its way) who knew Nicolas from his years at Lemaire Fournier that is a rare priviledge. I'm not overdoing it because Alex has a banner on my site but he was indeed a precursor more than once, he was the first to sell Clos Roche Blanche on the West Coast back in 1999 and at the time it was a hard sell, people in the region weren't aware of CBR wines, he also discovered Jolly Ferriol for the California wine lovers.