Producers
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Francois Villard was not born into wine; he started out his career as a chef. He grew up between Vienne and Grenoble, in the French countryside. He made his first Condrieu in 1991, a whopping 400 bottles. Today, makes wine from 64 hectares, of which he owns 40 hectares, purchasing fruit from the balance. He makes wine from Côte-Rôtie down to Saint Peray, and a little of everything between: four Condrieu, five Saint-Joseph (red and white), three Crozes-Hermitage, a Cornas, and four Vin de France (Marsanne-Roussanne, Viognier, and two Syrah).
Villard farms sustainably and hopes to be certified organic by 2022. He works his soils and uses organic fertilizers and organic treatments for disease as needed. He’s working with spontaneous fermentations and he’s begun experiments with making wine with very minimal sulfur during vinification and it’s gone well, so he’ll expand on that in the coming years. He has no intention of eliminating sulfur altogether and plans to continue to use a minimum amount of sulfur at bottling. He filters the wines if he needs too, but tries to avoid it.
In terms of style, Villard tends to harvest later than his neighbors, optimizing ripeness. He uses whole clusters during vinification as the stems give freshness to the wine. For his Condrieu, he likes to work with botrytis if possible, but he will only wait if the potential alcohol does not get too high, balance being the key. Villard never chaptalizes his whites (and very rarely the reds) and will make several passes in the vineyards to wait for the fruit to ripen. He’s using barrels and foudres for aging, some new depending on the cuvée. The whites are bounding with succulent fruit, a rich texture, and have a deft balance. The reds strike a nice harmony between red fruit notes and spicy earth, classic Northern Rhône. —Michele Peters, French Portfolio Manager
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Brothers Xabi, Iñaki and Mikel Sanz created Viña Zorzal in 2007, taking advantage of their long history and tradition as a winemaking family in Correla, Navarra. Their family winery, Bodegas Correlana, had been run by their grandfather and father to great success in the region, and they became a reference point in the industry. But while the older generation had been more preoccupied with having a viable and commercial trade, the current one decided to take a holistic approach to agriculture, and make artisanal wines, focusing on single-parcels and single-vineyards, and on the terroir of Fitero, this subzone of the D.O. Navarra.
Their landscape differs from the much flatter areas of Navarra where Garnacha and Tempranillo are cropped in high volumes. Their vines grow on rocky and stony soils with variegated clays (heterogeneous), and limestone and composite soils. The fact that the clay-based soils are non-homogeneous makes them much more permeable and resistant to erosion than the soils of the Ebro Basin.
They own 40 hectares, 25 of which planted with the traditional Garnacha of the land. The wild bush vines are old, many centenarian, and are farmed organically. The remaining land is planted with Graciano (which quickly made their fame), Tempranillo, and some Garnacha Blanca and Chardonnay.
The wines are made in a remodeled part of the family’s old winery, and the work in the cellar follows the work on the land, which they summarize here: “We practice low intervention, environmentally-friendly viticulture; we do not till the vineyards, and all processes are carried out manually; we use selected native plants for ground cover fertilizing with compost to improve the vine’s resistance to diseases. This philosophy is carried through to the winery, where our wines ferment spontaneously. We avoid racking, and don’t filter nor clarify. No additives are used, only a sufficient, moderate amount of sulphur.”
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Juan Jesus is a proud native of Tenerife and the fourth generation of growers in the island. During the twenty-five years that he’s overseen Bodegas Viñátigo, he has considerably increased its holdings, planting varieties that he and his team recuperated. During these years he has also juggled the classes he teaches as a professor of viticulture and enology at the Ciclo Superior de Vitivinicultura. Juan Jesus and his wife Elena Batista – who has helped along the way, dealing in all aspects of production, from the vineyard to the cellar – have worked closely with Fernando Zamora from the famous Rovira I Virgili Universtiy in Tarragona, to study, catalog, preserve, and vinify imperiled indigenous grape varieties.
Varieties such as Baboso Negro and Vijariego Negro are known to us now by these names mainly because of the work of this duo who identified more than eighty different varieties in the Canary Islands. They recovered those varieties from the island of El Pinar and have since propagated them in Tenerife.
Now however, the new generation slowly started taking over, and his son Jorge Mendez, who studied viticulture in Madrid is in charge of the farming. While the work in the vineyard and winery has always been sustainable, now with Jorge all of Viñátigo’s holdings are farmed organically, and many are being treated biodynamically. Another addition to the team has been Juan Jesus’ daughter, Celia Mendez, who is in charge of marketing and other business aspects such as educational work and sales. The family works collaboratively, constantly exchanging ideas and viewpoints.
The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented using indigenous yeasts. Grapes go through two triages, first in the fields and then again in the winery. Minimal sulfur is used in the winery and no synthetic materials are used in the winemaking.
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Vinca Minor is a Sonoma-based winery founded and run by winemaker Jason Charles. Since its founding over a decade ago, the focus has remained on old-vine, coastal-influenced sites stretching from Sonoma Valley to Mendocino, partnering with a small group of growers, many of whom Charles has worked with since the start.
Jason came to wine through his travels as a photojournalist and a stint in the New York City restaurant industry before relocating to Northern California to pursue it full-time. Prior to launching his own project, he worked in Napa and spent time in Pomerol, gaining experience across all facets of the business, from cellar work and vineyard management to sales, before founding Vinca Minor in 2013.
Today, production remains small, with a focus on the old Carignane field-blend plantings that began the project, Mendocino Coast Chardonnay, and a nod to his winemaking roots in Napa and Bordeaux through Cabernet Sauvignon made in an old-California style. All are produced at modest alcohol levels, aged in neutral vessels, and made with minimal sulfur additions. These are wines with a clear voice, crafted for the table and for time.
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At a time in history when great value in wine is more important than ever, these wines are some of the best "hidden gems" of the Bowler portfolio. Vinified exclusively for us by a fantastic family-owned estate in Abruzzo (which must remain nameless here), the Montepulciano and Pinot Grigio under the Politici label are actually small production wines, estate grown, and EU certified Sustainable, Certified Vegan and Certified "low carbon footprint" in Italy. The wines are bottled in liters as a nod to the tradition of casual "country wines" poured in Italy at parties, holidays, and family gatherings. Fruity, lively, and pure, they are wines to celebrate with--even if it's only on a Tuesday night with pepperoni pizza.
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In July of 2014 Joseph Voillot died in the house he grew up in, just in front of Volnay’s thirteenth-century church. Joseph was a vigneron through and through, the fourth generation of his family to manage the estate, and he represented the old breed of Burgundian growers. On the day of his funeral, Volnay overflowed with those paying homage.
He wasn’t the first Joseph Voillot, however; that honor goes to his great-great-grandfather, the Joseph who founded the domaine in the 1840s, farming various crops, sharecropping vineyard parcels, and maintaining a few vines of his own. His son Jean-Baptiste subsequently added several parcels, including Clos Micault in 1870, increasing the total to over seven acres. The third generation, Marius, added Volnay Fremiets, Pommard Rugiens, and Meursault Les Cras (and probably inherited vines through his marriage to Céline Rossignol). Their son was the second Joseph Voillot, who added yet more parcels to the stable. By 1957, one-third of the production was domaine-bottled, the rest sold to the négoce.
The second Joseph had three daughters, none of whom wanted to follow in his footsteps. Thus his son-in-law Jean-Pierre Charlot (photo to the right) came to join him. Like Joseph, Jean-Pierre was steeped in Burgundian culture. His father managed grower relations and wine selections for the then family négociante firm of Bouchard Père et Fils. Jean-Pierre got a degree in enology, embarked on a stint as a courtier, or local broker, of wine in Beaune, and fell in love with one of Joseph’s three daughters. He went on to teach winemaking at Beaune’s viticultural school while working with Joseph for fifteen years until the latter’s retirement in 1995, at which point Jean-Pierre took over. During his tenure, additional fermenting tanks were purchased, all of the domaine’s production was bottled, export markets were opened, and the parcel of Beaune Coucherias was acquired. Above all, he refined his father-in-law’s style, earning the domaine an enduring reputation for wines of traditional elegance and breed. Jean-Pierre retired in 2019.
Like Joseph before him, Jean-Pierre had no heirs. The uncertainty of what might happen ended when his nephew Etienne Chaix (photo to the right) joined him in 2016. Etienne is Joseph’s grandson and represents the 6th generation of the family. He stopped all use of herbicides in the vines and went to using Diam corks, but beyond that hasn’t changed much. The farming is sustainable, with cover crop allowed over winter and weed control undertaken by shallow plowing in summer. All vines are hand harvested and all the grapes are de-stemmed. Initial fermentations happen without yeast additions in concrete and stainless steel tanks, and the use of new wood during élevage remains 10-20% for the premier crus; less for villages; none for the Bourgogne (but which is raised in barrel). The wines are not fined and are only lightly filtered, if at all, at bottling.
Today the domaine farms vines spread across Volnay and Pommard, along with the parcel in Beaune Coucherias. All of the Villages parcels are farmed the same, and all of the premier cru parcels are treated the same; ditto for how these wines are treated in the cellar. The differences come from the sites.
In 2001 and 2004, many of those parcels were badly hailed, and this was repeated, stunningly, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Those last three years saw hail coming in June or July and flaying the same swath of land from Meursault to Beaune, a consecutive cataclysm never before recorded. Crop loss averaged as high as fifty percent. Following that third hailstorm, Jean-Pierre sold the family holding in Volnay’s Les Brouillards, and now the domaine’s total vineyard surface is nine hectares, or just over twenty-two acres.
In the early morning of April 27, 2016, the worst frost in seventeen years descended upon Burgundy and the domaine lost well over 50% of its crop. What kept morale up was Etienne’s coming on board, thus ensuring that the domaine would remain in the family.
Etienne’s first “official” vintage was the 2019, which, although short in crop, was quite an auspicious start for this dedicated young man.
-Roy Cloud, owner of Vintage '59, www.vintage59.com
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Silke Mayr’s family purchased the winery and cellar in Dross in 1898. Dross is in the Kremstal, one of the first places that grapes were cultivated in Austria in the Middle Ages. The family home dates to the 15th century and was once used as a waystation for changing horses so that they had the horsepower to continue the ascent into the Waldwiertal region. The original property had two cellars, a press house, a stable, a ballroom, and two dining rooms. Silke’s father Anton moved the family business away from agriculture and towards viticulture and Silke’s mother ran a very successful inn until her retirement in 2012. Now Silke manages the vineyards and winery.
Vorspannhof-Mayr makes an assortment of single-vineyard wines, mostly Gruner Veltliner and Riesling, but since we sell Weingut Buchegger, the winery from Silke’s late husband Walter Buchegger, we have focused on selling the Gruner Veltliner and Zweigelt in the liter bottle format. The quality is exceptional since half of the fruit for each bottling comes from the Mayr family vineyards and the other half is purchased from neighboring growers in Dross and Krems. It’s rare to have a liter bottle that is sourced entirely from fruit in the Kremstal region!
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Christoph Wachter began working at his family winery in 2008 when he was just twenty years old. He took over full responsibility in 2010, and now farms sixteen hectares of vineyards in Südburgenland, in the towns of Eisenberg and Deutsch Schützen. His credo, “Wine is the most interesting, natural and authentic when you recognize its origin. After that, all of our efforts are aligned - and so our grapes grow as close to nature and with as little outside influence as possible. The character comes entirely from the soils of Deutsch-Schützen and Eisenberg.”
When Wachter started in 2010, he stopped using herbicides and pesticides entirely. Today, he is one of only three producers in Südburgenland who is farming organically and is certified as of the 2018 vintage. In 2012, he studied biodynamic farming for two years and he applies some biodynamic techniques today. He allows the weeds to grow in his vineyards, as they attract beneficial insects and eventually return to the soil as nutrients themselves. Rather than add fertilizer, he leaves the vines to extract what they need from the soil itself, thus instilling the wines with minerality and allowing them to express their unique terroir. Only native yeasts are used in the cellar. Wachter ferments his wines twenty to thirty percent whole-cluster, and ages in large barrels that allow the wines to mature gracefully without obscuring them with oak flavors.
The wines of Eisenberg / Sudburgenland are very unique expressions of Blaufrankisch grown on green schist; most Blaufrankisch comes from the limestone soils of Mittelburgenland. The biggest difference between Burgenland and Südburgenland is the soil and micro-climate. In Südburgenland, the vines grow in primary rock, and the most prized terroir is the green schist of the Eisenberg hill, regarded as one of the finest sites for producing Blaufränkisch in Austria, giving wines of great finesse and focus. The Eisenberg DAC includes wines from the surrounding villages, including Deutsch-Schutzen, where you find iron rich loam and clay on top of the green schist subsoil. Deutsch-Schützen’s soils are dense with a deep layer of loam, resulting in dark and spicy wines with soft tannins. Südburgenland is cooler than Mittelburgenland and there are rolling hillsides, small mountains really, called the pre-Alps, topped with forest; this regulates the temperature, another aspect of the micro-climate of Südburgenland. Harvest here tends to start two weeks after Mittelburgenland. Sudburgenland, with 500 hectares planted is considerably smaller compared to Mittelburgenland with 2,100 hectares.
With the 2017 vintage, Christoph launced an idea that he'd had in mind for a few years. In addition to his single vineyard wines, he now bottles two village level wines, one from Deutsch Schützen and one from Eisenberg. And he makes four single-vineyard wines: Weinberg, Ratschen, Eisenberg Saybritz, and Eisenberg Reihberg. His cuvee Bela-Joska remains the flagship of the winery. It's named after his two grand-fathers and the cuvee was first bottled in 1992. The Wachter-Wiesler wines are some of the most exciting red wines made in Austria today. Wachter-Wiesler wines have silky texture, floral aromatics, great energy, and elegance - truly Blaufränkisch at its finest.
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The Obermosel is the southernmost part of the Mosel river, south of the Saar near the border of Luxembourg. Just next door is the Sauer Valley, where Michael Fürst operates his small family estate, one of the area's last surviving wineries. The Fürst family has grown grapes and other crops at their estate since the 13th century, and Michael is the third generation to make wine under the family name. From his rolling slopes of limestone, he offers a slew of light-bodied, fun-spirited whites and reds. We are enthralled by his delicious, single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, a rare sighting in Germany, and a revelation for fans of this grape. But the main focus here is on the historic Elbling grape, a great old Germanic variety once planted more widely than Riesling in Germany. Today its range is limited to the cool, steep banks of the Obermosel, Sauer, and neighboring Luxembourg. There are 12 hectares of Elbling planted at Fürst, 70% of which are old vines, 25% between 10-20 years old, and 5% young. His total Elbling production is under 10,000 cases and the quality is high, vintage after vintage. We are very proud to represent one of the few small family wineries still working with this fascinating grape variety.
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The history at White Rock Vineyards extends back to the 1870s, when one Dr. Pettingill established one of the earliest vineyard plantings in Napa Valley. Like many seminal California wineries, it changed ownership several times over the years, endured prohibition, fell out of production, had the vineyards pulled out, and finally ended up used for something else entirely (horse training grounds). Luckily, this was not the end of the White Rock story.
In 1977, over 100 years after its founding, Henri and Claire Vandendriessche purchased the property; they replanted the vineyards soon after and spent nearly a decade selling their fruit to other wineries. In 1986, however, they produced their first vintage and have produced continually since then. In the late 1990s, the second generation took up the reins — their son Michael—who, after studying viticulture in Napa, spent two years in France exploring other passions before returning to White Rock to take over vineyard management. In 1999 he was joined by his brother Christopher, who took over winemaking after working in Bordeaux, Rioja, and Mendoza, and spending two years learning under Napa legend John Kongsgaard as assistant winemaker at Luna.
Situated on the eastern side of the valley at 300 feet elevation, the vines grow in the austere, white volcanic soils that are responsible for their distinctive wines, and are also the winery’s namesake. The 35-acre vineyard has always been farmed naturally, without chemical treatments and using cover crops such as bell beans, rye, and clover to enrich the soils. Today the vines are an average age of 30 years, comprised of 14 acres of Chardonnay on the cooler benchland and 22 acres of terraced Bordeaux varieties on the slopes above.
Winemaking favors minimal new oak and native fermentations. Their goal has, from the start, been to produce the kind balanced, age-worthy wines that Napa Valley was once legendary for, and time has shown that they’ve succeeded; the wines are elegant and classic. They have persisted and thrived independently of the trends that have come and gone over the past three decades; they are the embodiment of a singular place. Such careful stewards as the Vandendriessche family are a rare thing indeed, and we are extremely excited to have White Rock Vineyards in our portfolio.
White Rock Vineyards is a Napa Green Certified Vineyard and Winery.
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