Insights From 71 Winemakers And Winery Owners

In the past decade I have met and interviewed dozens of winemakers and winery owners. Below are photographs and quotes from a few, with links to articles. More photos are at my new VinoVoices Instagram site.

This article forms the second of two parts. Part I is here.

‘Most incredible for me is living the magnificence of Mount Etna through visitors. I come every day and enjoy this atmosphere and landscape. But living through other people who love wine, Mount Etna, and this peaceful terroir? It’s beautiful.’

Valérie Costanzo. Palmento Constanzo, Sicily, Italy.

Read the full story here.

‘Terroir is the conjunction of wind currents, sunshine and stability of soils linked to hydrology. I don’t see how we could change it…Of course the future will be different, but it cannot be very much different because the terroir will remain the same…A cellar and sales can be rapidly changed and adapted, but the vines take one or two generations.’

Alain Vauthier. Château Ausone, Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

‘Sometimes, when you guide a tasting, you are asked several times, ‘Who is the winemaker?’ I tell them it is me. Then they ask, ‘Who is the other winemaker?’ Because they don’t believe you can be a winemaker when you are young, and a woman.’

Vivien Ujváriof. Barta Wines, Tokaj, Hungary.

Read the full story here.

‘I’m not a quantity guy. We’re a boutique winery. Zorah is a passion, but I also have to think in a business way…This is the quintessential wine region—high and windy…Areni is the king of red varieties in Armenia, and we don’t have phylloxera here, so there is no grafting. This country has a lot to stay, and we are just starting.’

Zork Gharibian. Zorah Wines, Armenia.

Read the full story here.

‘…in this region, the rhythm of life is different. It has a human dimension. Ribolla Gialla is an important local grape variety because you can domesticate its vigor. You feel creaminess in the cheeks, as well as minerality and freshness at the same time. It makes a beautiful marriage with scallops; wine cleans the mouth but respects the food.’

Gianni Napolitano. Attems, Friuli, Italy.

Read the full story here.

‘My brother said, ‘We’re not going to be successful unless we have barrels.’ My dad said, ‘We’re not buying any.’ I said—’what about if I could come up with a way of buying barrels and not paying anything?’ Dad looked at me and said, ‘You’re crazy.’

‘I founded The Barrel Club. Got a hundred members to put up a thousand bucks each. That gave us $100,000. We bought all the barrels needed for wine. French new oak. We agreed to give barrel club members a case of wine every year as interest. They got their case. Each year we had a party, and they’d come out.’

Tony Stewart. Steward Family Estates, Okanagan Valley, Canada.

Read the full story here.

‘Working away gave me the ability to be accessible to anyone, from the neighbor who comes every Sunday morning to buy five liters, to customers from the U.S. who flew in on their private plane last month, stayed at my home for five days and loved it. Big wine châteaux don’t show the real life of people living and working in the countryside. We all want authenticity, which we still have here. We do everything—growing, picking, fermenting, marketing and going overseas to sell wine. That’s precious.’

Isabelle Chety. Château Mercier, Côtes de Bourg, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

‘The United States has a very different distribution system of wines than Europe, and the EU. And it’s consolidating. So there are fewer and fewer distributors selling more and more wines…So we’ve lost, or are losing, the personal touch through the distribution network. We now have to become more proactive, and through our sales people add that personal touch.’

Peter Mondavi Jr. Charles Krug Winery, Napa Valley, California, USA.

Read the full story here.

‘I think there’s a lot of crossover in my skill set. Also, you’re always in a team as a doctor. That helped me bring a teamwork culture to Argentina, where, when I started, it was all top down. The owner of a winery only talked to three head people. They said hello to other people, but they had no idea what anybody else was doing. That’s not how it works in a hospital. You’re talking to the nurse, to the clerk, to the EKG tech—so this culture from medicine works really well in any kind of organization.

‘I think Malbec has a kind of smoothness comparable to Pinot Noir. It’s why in the old French texts they say that Cabernet Sauvignon needs to be always blended with Malbec.’

Dr. Laura Catena. Bodega Catena Zapata, Mendoza, Argentina.

Read the full story here.

‘If you have rain during harvest it’s nearly impossible to have a great sweet wine…You need sunny and windy afternoons to obtain noble rot. If you have rains, the berries act like a sponge. Then you need to wait maybe one week until you can start the harvest again and have a good level of concentration. Semillon is like the king of white grape varieties to make sweet wine. You have the classical flavors from noble rot—honey and a bit of flowers and white fruit.’

Kilian Griaud. Château Kalian, Monbazillac, Dordogne, France.

Read the full story here.

‘There was only rocks and snakes when my father first arrived here. No roads or electricity…It took 15,000 truckloads of 10 tonnes each to move the rocks we cleared. Herodotus spoke of the wine trade here, which is why we’re calling this a wine ‘renaissance.’ But fighting nature is like fighting god; he or she will always win.’

Victoria Aslanian. ArmAs Winery, Aragatsotn, Armenia.

Read the full story here.

‘Faugères is like a UFO in the Languedoc. It’s peculiar, singular…Grenache is the Pinot Noir of the south of France. Most challenging. The devil hides in details, so we try to be consistent and make wines without bitterness or dryness. It’s not my cup of tea making standard wines.’

Julien Seydoux. Château Estanilles, Faugères, Languedoc, France.

Read the full story here.

‘[Arnsburger] is a rare, unique grape, with only small production in Madeira, Germany and New Zealand…You can see nature here. We have an ancient laurel forest above us, so we are between plants and the ocean. Our vineyard is exposed to this biodiversity. The biggest challenge to put the Cardo Valley and our brand within the international market. The biggest reward? Happiness…But here, we go slowly.’

Marco Noronha Jardim. Terra Bona Winery, Cardo Valley, Madeira, Portugal.

Read the full story here.

‘I was introduced to fine wines by a gentleman who was in the bursary of Trinity College, Cambridge. He said, ‘Well you’d better have dinner with me on the last Sunday of each month.’ And lo and behold there was a bottle of Château Haut-Brion 1959, and a Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet. I was smitten.’

Graham Nutter. Château Saint Jacques d’Albas, Minervois, Languedoc, France.

Read the full story here.

‘Nowadays it’s difficult to find any grand wine without a signature. I don’t think that’s necessary. I like the fact that our wineries are somewhat anonymous. We’re not making a big show about this or that baron associated with the wines, or properties.’

Victor Urrutia Ybarra. CVNE, Rioja, Spain.

Read the full story here.

‘Difference and diversity could be a real strength for the future of volcanic wines.’

Pierre Desprat. Desprat Saint-Verny, Auvergne, France.

‘I think that common to volcanic wines is minerality, a little bit of salt. Here we have very continental weather with cold winters. Our wines are naturally very well balanced. Vines are quite healthy because we are in the mountains, and there’s not much disease.’

Léa Desprat. Desprat Saint-Verny, Auvergne, France.

Read the full story here.

‘We started this thing bootstrapped, with our savings. To this day—no investors. Made 100 cases in 2011, when we were 22 years old. We had really to make the highest quality wine possible…With no investors, there’s no safety net. I feel I’ve gotten lucky, always balancing and paying off, and then incurring more debt and paying it off…We’re very efficient. That’s the name of the game.’

Christopher Lloyd Strieter. Senses, Occidental, California, USA.

Read the full story here.

‘What has changed winemaking worldwide is viticulture first, winemaking second…you might want to remove leaves on the morning side but not the afternoon side. It can make a huge difference…Making fruit riper, better. And then—winemaking helped shoulder that through, by understanding the thermodynamics of fermentation. Temperature controls. How yeast behave.’

Morgan Maurèze. Marciano Estate, Napa Valley, California, USA.

Read the full story here.

‘We have similar terroir [to neighbors]. This is a collective appellation for all of us. I learned that to get ahead, we all work together.’

Claude Giraud. Champagne Henri Giraud, France.

Read the full story here.

‘Biodynamics was at first a challenge, but it respects vines and biodiversity. Yet it’s also simple and we add nothing to the wines.’

Guillaume Hubert. Hubert Vignerons, Blaye, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

‘My dream was to establish a winery in Lebanon. In 1999 we started thinking. What expression of wine? What varietals could we do? We started doing the wine in our minds. In 2004 we started acquiring pieces of land, old vineyards. I did the survey of all existing vineyards in Lebanon to find where the good vines were located. Before the Turks occupied Lebanon, the mountains of Lebanon were covered in grapes…But still there were areas called kurum, which means vineyards. These special areas where grapes would excel were still available, and not planted. We went there and bought the land. This is how we started our first wine in 2008. We had six different vineyards in six separate locations.’

Etienne Debbane. IXSIR, Lebanon.

Read the full story here.

‘Corsica is the most ‘bio’ oriented wine region in France. One reason is the climate—we have less mildew than in, say, Bordeaux. Patrimonio is also the only wine appellation on the island where the herbicide Roundup is banned. And Patrimonio has a new generation of young and energetic vignerons [wine makers] who are close friends and work together. Tres solidaire, [Very united].’

Emily Seguy. Clos de Bernardi, Corsica, France.

Read the full story here.

‘My impression is that on the left bank, many winemakers are locked in the past, making wine like they used to. They are not developing. People in those big estates obviously have no interest in changing the classification. Even organizing a blind tasting between their wines and ours? Impossible. That’s unfortunate. Many would lose, clearly.’

Rémy Eymas. Château Gros Moulin, Bourg, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

“Auction Napa Valley started in 1981. The idea came from a lunch. I was working as Robert Mondavi’s assistant. [Pat Montandon] said ‘You know…I’d like to have an auction for the Napa Valley Vintners in our home…’ Bob Mondavi turned to me and said, ‘This is what your father and I have been looking for all these years!’…And Margaret [Mondavi’s Swiss born wife] said, ‘Well it could be like the Hospices de Beaune.’ ”

Robin Daniel Lail. Lail Vineyards, Napa Valley, California, USA.

Read the full story here.

‘I was born in Vougeot, and my grandparents are from Gevrey—Chambertin, two miles away…I came to the U.S. at ten and a half on a trip with my grandparents and parents. California. Monterey to Sonoma. All the missions. Fell in love with it! I said to my parents and grandparents—this is where I want to be in the future.’

Jean-Charles Boisset. Boisset Collection, France & California, USA.

Read the full story here.

‘We have 26 generations of maintaining it in the family, and maintaining values, passion, quality from generation to generation in the family is our strength. The challenge is to look ahead and try to understand what will be the future in 10, or 20 years.’

Alessia Antinori. Marchesi Antinori, Tuscany, Italy.

Read the full story here.

‘But we now see that people realize that yes, Grand crus are great—but at the end of the day, opening bottles that cost a few hundred dollars is not the kind of wine you will open every day. Therefore people worldwide are realizing that there is a pocket of great value in that region. Considering our wineries, for us the biggest shift we’ve seen is that the Côte Chalonnaise—which was really a wine meant for the French market—is now also becoming popular in the world, and the U.S.’

Erwan Faiveley. Domaine Faiveley, Burgundy, France.

Read the full story here.

‘Today I have no regrets. Everything has made me stronger as a woman. The reward for me of this work is to empower women.’

Namratha Prashanth. Solicantus, Blaye, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

‘We want Cuvée O’Byrne to be the best. Our objective is quality, not quantity. We are extremely demanding of work in the vineyard, which is why the wine is good. I’m interested not in industry but in good wine—so everything here is made by hand. No chemicals. To be successful you have to be slightly better priced than others.’

Denis Dalibot. Château Brande-Bergère, Bordeaux, France.

Read the full story here.

‘The wine actually is very good, or we would not be able to put it on the market year after year. People ask—am I making money here? No, I’m working for my second life. It is something that makes us proud. We’ve been here eight years and it’s a win-win situation.’

Lamberto Frescobaldi. Frescobaldi Gorgona, Gorgona Island Agricultural Penal Colony, Tuscany, Italy.

Read the full story here.

‘I think wind is a great component of wine, or a great ally to wine. Because wind is bringing freshness, is also drying vines after the rain. Wind is really helping, especially with warmer climates. With the warming up of the climate, we feel that the top of the slopes, especially when they are a bit windy—as in our case—are getting better expression of terroir while protecting the vines from too much warmth.’

Philippe Pascal. Domaine du Cellier aux Moines, Burgundy, France.

Read the full story here.

‘With Swedish wine, professionalism and quality is now at an international level compared to 2005. People are studying in the USA and Germany and then opening vineyards. In the past it was more people with wealth opening a vineyard as a fun project, more a hobby. Now, young people think professionally from the beginning. You see the results—the wines are getting a lot better.’

Carl-Otto Ottergren. Köpingsbergs Winery, Skåne, Sweden.

Read the full article here.

‘[My husband Eugenio’s] parents did not agree, because viticulture was not so big at the time. When he said he wanted to make wine, his parents asked me to convince him otherwise, but my own parents were farmers. He found that Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were great here. Also Merlot. He was the first wine producer in Bolgheri to make a single variety Cabernet Franc. When we started making wine, Italians did not care about this area. There were only a few wine shops that sold Bolgheri wines—in Tuscany as well as in Rome and Milan.’

Cinzia Merli. Le Macchiole, Bolgheri, Tuscany, Italy.

Read the full story here.

‘The concept of waste is a cultural concept, not a natural one. We humans are the only ones on the planet that actually waste. You want to convert waste. It must become an asset. Now I make wine and the waste—the pips and stems and skins—I feed to the cows. The cows, they produce waste I feed back to the vines again. So, the farming operation becomes completely different. It’s almost like being a conductor of an orchestra. You are trying to allow the different stuff to play together in a harmonious way, sort of within a synergistic whole.’

Johan Reyneke. Reyneke Organic Wines, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Read the full story here.

Read more at the VinoVoices Instagram site, or at Vino Voices website.