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n 2013 we launched our “20 Most Admired’ issue to shine a much-deserved spotlight on the most admired people in the North American wine industry. With the thoughtful input of our nominating committee – comprised of

respected winemakers, grapegrowers, wine writers, educators, buyers, sommeliers and consultants across North America – we cel-ebrated wine professionals from just about every aspect of the industry.

This year, we’re highlighting the 20 Most Admired Winemakers.

Our committee had just two rules to fol-low: 1) nominees must be living; 2) they must be based in North America. While some com-mittee members quickly returned short-lists of their winemaking heroes, others agonized over how to whittle down their nominees to less than 50.

Once the nominations were in, we reduced the field of contenders to 40 final-ists, based on the number of nominations each person received. Names of the finalists were then submitted to the committee for a vote (members could vote for as many peo-ple as they liked.)

The 20 winemakers who came out on top reflect a wide range of wines, styles and regions. Some produce hundreds of thou-sands of cases each year; some make only a couple thousand. While many craft some of North America’s finest wines and represent the continent’s most successful wineries, there are many other reasons to admire the men and women on our 2014 list. These are the pioneers; the innovators; the trend-buck-ers; the standard-setters and the leaders.

Here, in alphabetical order, are the Most Admired Winemakers in North America.

For going on 20 years, Peter Bell has been the winemaker at Fox Run Vineyards on Seneca Lake, turning heads not only with his artfully made Finger Lakes rieslings, but also his pinot noir, cabernet franc and lem-berger wines.

Bell’s most notable wines include Fox Run’s “Geology Series” rieslings, which highlight the ancient geological terroir of two distinctive vineyard blocks; and the cel-ebrated Tierce Dry Riesling, his collaborative effort with fellow Finger Lakes winemakers Johannes Reinhardt of Anthony Road Wine Co. (also one of 2014’s “Most Admired”) and David Whiting of Red Newt Cellars.

Born in Boston and raised in Amsterdam, Berkeley, Calif., and Toronto, Bell was the winemaker at Dr. Konstantin Frank's Vinifera Wine Cellars for five years before joining Fox Run in 1995.

It wasn’t until his late 20s, after he had already earned a degree in cultural anthro-pology, that Bell developed an academic interest in wine. He first set his sights on the enology program at UC Davis, but was discouraged from applying due to his lack of related credentials – and the $20,000 tuition

Peter BellFox Run Vineyards

fee. After visiting Australia with his wife in the early 1980s, Bell applied and was accepted to the enology program at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga.

After graduation, he found his way to the Finger Lakes – via New Zealand. Bell had been working as an assistant winemaker in Marl-borough and looking for a way out, when he met an American harvest intern at neighboring Cloudy Bay winery. When Bell confided his desire to move on, the intern sug-gested he go to the Finger Lakes, because of its potential for produc-ing world-class riesling.

Bell took the advice. When he arrived in the Finger Lakes in 1990, he contacted the only company in the region he had heard of: Tay-lor Wine Co. As it happened, Tay-lor was about to go bankrupt, but the receptionist told him that Dr. Frank’s down the road was looking for a winemaker. Bell got the job.

He stayed with the winery until 1995, when Fox Run owner Scott Osborn – whom Bell had gotten to know while judging V&WM’s Inter-national Eastern Wine Competition – asked Bell to become his wine-maker.

At Fox Run, Bell takes a science-based approach to winemaking, but doesn’t consider himself to be a hard-core traditionalist. While he likes the control of using commer-cial yeasts and prefers to filter his wines, he’s also willing to experi-ment with things like native fermen-tations – as long as they don’t get in the way of pure varietal expression.

One of the things Bell says he loves most about being a winemak-er is the sense of community. He considers his fellow Finger Lakes vintners as collaborators and co-con-spirators, rather than competitors.

“Peter’s intelligence, humble-ness, passion for great wine and willingness to share his wealth of knowledge,” enthused Reinhardt of Anthony Road, “… these quali-ties make him a man to be admired deeply.”

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Many winemakers say that it’s more difficult to make large volumes of consis-tently good, well-priced wine than it is to make small batches of expensive wine. Bob Bertheau, head winemaker at Washington state’s Chateau Ste. Michelle (CSM), over-sees the production of some 2 million cases of wine per year and 50-plus different wines, turning out both great values at the lower price-points and high-end reserve and single-vineyard bottlings, all showing remarkable quality and consistency.

Founded in 1934, Chateau Ste. Michelle is the oldest winery in Washington and owns 3,500 vineyard acres in the Columbia Val-ley. Said to be the world’s largest producer of riesling (1 million cases), CSM’s other strengths are chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. It’s the big dog in the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates pound, which includes Washington brands Columbia Crest, Northstar, Spring Valley Vineyard and Col Solare (a partnership with Tuscany’s Piero

Antinori); Erath Vineyards in Ore-gon; and Conn Creek, Villa Mount Eden and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley. Although each prop-erty has its own facilities and wine-maker, Bertheau is the overarching guiding light.

For Eroica, the riesling brand he produces in concert with Ernst Loosen of Germany's Mosel region, Bertheau said he continues to gain knowledge from Loosen on “how to protect fruit purity and produce fresh, fruit-driven rieslings.”

Bertheau arrived at CSM in 2003, after winemaking stints in Califor-nia with the Belvedere and Brad-ford Mountain labels. The UC Davis alumnus also worked with Bob Ses-sions at Hanzell Vineyards, David Ramey at Chalk Hill, and for Gallo of Sonoma. Born in Seattle, Bertheau's joining CSM in Woodinville, 15 miles northeast of Seattle, was a return home.

His latest project is Eroica Gold, made in a German botrytis style with cracking acidity and ripe, rich flavors and texture. Like the original Eroica, an off-dry riesling, Gold is produced from Washington-grown grapes and German expertise. “The idea was to do a different kind of sweet riesling," said Loosen. “Not a big, sticky dessert wine with a lot of botrytis influence, but some-thing lighter and more delicate. The wine is absolutely gorgeous, and shows that Washington riesling can achieve the same incredible range of styles as in the Old World."

According to Jim Tresize, presi-dent of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, “Bob oversees an operation that makes large volumes of consistently superb wines from all grape varieties, and cooperates with other Washington winemakers as well. Chateau Ste. Michelle is the classiest winery in North Ameri-ca in terms of products, people and industry collaboration.”

Bob BertheauChateau Ste. Michelle

This is the second year that Cathy Cori-son has graced our “Most Admired” list, and it’s no mystery why: She makes some of the Napa Valley’s finest cabernet sauvi-gnon wines.

Corison’s prized estate vineyard, Kronos, was planted in the early 1970s and is home to some of Napa Valley’s oldest cabernet vines. The 8-acre vineyard’s well-drained, bale gravelly loam soils and rare St. George rootstock combine to produce what Corison calls “pitiful quantities of delicious wines.”

With a rare combination of power and ele-gance, Corison’s flagship Kronos and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines (sourced from benchland vineyards between Ruther-ford and St. Helena) have earned her a repu-tation as a top-notch winemaker – not only among critics and trade members, but also fellow vintners.

Corison didn’t originally set out to be a winemaker. She studied biology at Pomona College in Southern California, before signing up on a whim for a wine appreciation course during her sophomore year. That life-altering

class inspired her to change her academic focus, and she went on to earn a master's degree in enology from UC Davis.

Corison spent 30 years hon-ing her skills at wineries including Chappellet Vineyard, Staglin Fam-ily Vineyard, York Creek Vineyards and Long Meadow Ranch. In 1987 she produced the first vintage of Corison cabernet, and in 1999, she broke ground on the Corison Win-ery in St. Helena.

Despite Napa Valley’s stylistic shift toward riper, higher-octane cabernets in the ’80s and ’90s, Corison refused to follow the trend. Throughout her winemaking career, her cabernets have retained their signature balance, power and ele-gance, along with alcohol levels well under 14%.

Corison achieves this style by harvesting at lower sugars, and credits a touch of redleaf virus in the Kronos vineyard with slow-ing down sugar accumulation. Her winemaking technique has remained largely the same over the years, emphasizing minimal inter-vention and gentle handling.

Despite the demand and critical acclaim for Corison’s wines, she has little interest in bumping up production. An artisan winemaker to the core, she still makes only 1,500-2,500 cases per year, divided among her two cabernets, plus an Anderson Valley gewürztraminer and a Napa Valley cabernet franc.

“Cathy Corison is widely admired by both longstanding cabernet sau-vignon aficionados and new genera-tions of wine drinkers because she has never wavered from a hoe-your-own-road work ethic and vision of making Napa Valley wines of ele-gance that also age,” said Virginie Boone, contributing editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine. “Patient and provocative, she’s known for being tireless, a bootstrapping self-made success with no time or aptitude for regrets. Look up integrity in the dic-tionary and there she’ll be.”

Cathy CorisonCorison Winery

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From the information in Paul Draper’s bio, one can easily glean that he is a man of avid intellectual curiosity and great intelligence – and not one to shy away from life’s adven-tures and opportunities.

Before becoming Ridge Vineyards’ wine-maker 45 years ago, Draper graduated with a degree in philosophy from Stanford University, then studied French at Paris-Sorbonne Uni-versity. He returned to Stanford to continue coursework in political science and Spanish, and worked in Chile for four years to help com-munities establish sustainable businesses.

While in Chile, Draper was asked to make wine for a community assistance program. Despite having no winemaking training, he accepted the challenge and produced his first wine. Once back in California, he met Dave Bennion, a Stanford research scientist, at a wine tasting. Bennion and his partners had just purchased Ridge Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and in 1969, they hired Draper as their winemaker.

Ridge was sold to Japanese business-man Akihiko Otsuka in 1987, but Draper has steered the winery and its Sonoma County

Paul DraperRidge Vineyards

sister, Ridge Lytton Springs, since the beginning.

Whether it be merlot and cabernet sauvignon from the Cupertino win-ery, or old-vine zinfandel from Lytton Springs in Dry Creek Valley, Draper’s wines have always been complex, bal-anced and elegant, signatures of the site, and beautiful agers.

Draper believes that wines that are lush and fruity when young won’t last long, and that overripeness masks vine-yard character. With special sites such as Ridge’s cool-as-Bordeaux Monte Bello Vineyard, planted in 1959, and the Geyserville Vineyard in Sonoma County, with its 80-year-old zinfandel and cari-gnane vines, he doesn’t want to mess with their personality.

With that same reasoning, Draper shuns the use of commercial yeast, micro-oxygenation and other manipula-tions. Beginning with wines from the 2011 vintage, he lists on labels the ingredients used to produce them.

Draper is a Zinfandel Advocates & Producers pioneer, a cherisher of old vines, and a proponent of single-vine-yard wines. In addition to landing a spot on our 2013 “Most Admired” list, his honors include 2000 Decanter (maga-zine) Man of the Year, 2000 Wine Spec-tator Distinguished Service Award and 2013 Winemakers’ Winemaker, from the Institute of Masters of Wine.

He is a favorite with European wine press and trade, who appreciate the Bordeaux-like structure of his wines and the flagship Ridge Monte Bello Caber-net Sauvignon’s remarkable showing in blind tastings against the world’s best.

“Despite being inextricably linked with the history of modern Californian wine, Paul is not one to rest on his lau-rels or dwell on the past,” said Tim Mar-son, MW, buyer for Global Wine Co. “Nevertheless, he has stuck doggedly to his winemaking philosophy over more than four decades, eschewing fluctu-ating fashions and changing attitudes towards ripeness levels, use of Ameri-can oak, and technological interventions in the winery. Few, if any, winemakers in North America today can lay claim to a similar legacy of highly expressive, world-class, ageworthy wines.”

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Known as California’s “Queen of Pinot Noir,” Meredith “Merry” Edwards is one of the state’s most accomplished winemakers, and a pioneer among female vintners. She is one of just three women inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame; a James Beard Award winner as Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional; and a veteran of 41 harvests. This is her second year on V&WM’s “Most Admired” list.

Her ascent wasn’t an easy one.Edwards was one of the first women to

complete UC Davis’ enology program, earning a master’s degree in 1973. She wrote her the-sis on the possible health risks posed by the use of lead capsules on wine bottles, which led to the capsules being banned. Not content to work in the lab – the employment track for women at the time – Edwards pursued and won the winemaker job at Mount Eden Vine-yards in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1974.

Since then, she has been an inspiration to women working in the production side of the industry.

Edwards left Mount Eden in 1977 to be the founding winemak-er at Matanzas Creek Winery in Sonoma County. That same year, a visit to Burgundy convinced her that clonal diversity and matching clones to sites led to more complex wines – a thoroughly foreign concept at the time. Ignoring the skepticism of her peers, she persevered, and in the 1980s finally began convincing growers to plant a mix of clones.

In 1984, Edwards left Matan-zas Creek to become a consultant and focus on her own small win-ery in the Russian River Valley. But in 1989, the bank called in its loan and Edwards’ Merry Vintners went bankrupt. The following year she joined Vintech, which had pur-chased Domaine Laurier (also in the Russian River area) and built a winery to Edwards’ specifications. Within a year, Vintech, too, had gone under, and Edwards’ prized pinot noir lots were sold on the bulk market.

She relied on consulting work until 1997, when she and her hus-band, Ken Coopersmith, found investors and purchased Russian River Valley property that would become Meredith Estate Vineyard. A winery and additional vineyard acreage would follow, and today, Edwards’ v ineyard-designated and blended pinot noirs are highly sought after. Her sauvignon blanc is one of California’s finest.

“Merry has created something that many of us, male or female, are inspired by,” said Traci Dutton, som-melier at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley. “Being a loving wife, raising children, run-ning a business that she loves with integrity, being part of the commu-nity and giving back to her industry – she does all this while being kind, fun, authentic and a heck of a baker. That she brings joy to so many peo-ple with iconic, delicious wines is a beautiful bonus.”

Merry EdwardsMerry Edwards Winery

A long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, Josh Jensen ended his search for the ideal spot in California to grow pinot noir grapes.

He spent years poring over geological maps and scouring the state for the one ele-ment he knew was crucial to the production of classic pinot noirs like those he loved from Burgundy. It was limestone in the soil, and the problem was, California has very little of it. When Jensen finally found his holy grail, it was on a god-forsaken, rugged and isolated mountain in San Benito County, a world away from where anyone else was growing wine grapes. Or living, for that matter.

Planting began in 1975 on Mt. Harlan, 25 miles inland from Monterey and not far from Hollister, the earthquake epicenter of Cali-fornia. Neither the absence of electricity and telephone service, nor the unsexy zip code,

deterred Jensen, because lime-stone was the thing, and he had it in his soils, along with chilly tem-peratures thanks to the 2,200-foot elevation.

He named his winery Calera for the masonry limekiln on the prop-erty, and first planted the Selleck, Reed and Jensen vineyard blocks; a tiny crop was produced in 1978. In 1982, Jensen purchased 300 neigh-boring acres and planted more pinot noir plus viognier – making him a California pioneer in that variety. Chardonnay went into the ground in 1984, and Jensen continued to plant more pinot noir and viognier, as well as the obscure (for Califor-nia) aligoté, Burgundy’s “other” white grape, over time.

Today, he remains the lone grapegrower on Mt. Harlan, now an AVA, and supplements produc-tion with purchased Central Coast grapes that go into a moderately priced line of wines. But it’s the estate pinot noirs that are Calera’s shining stars, consistently graceful and honest, with stony earthiness, refreshing acidity and capacity for long lives in the cellar.

When Jensen began his quest, California was considered a medi-ocre, at best, place for cultivating pinot noir, with a few exceptions. Given the abrupt turnaround in that thinking, Jensen’s 40 years of pinot devotion can be considered prescient.

“Josh Jensen’s pinot noirs are harmonious intersections of Côte d’Or-like complexity and the ripe red/black fruitiness of ‘modern’ Cal-ifornia pinot noir,” said Linda Mur-phy, V&WM’s columns editor and managing editor of Sonoma maga-zine. “He committed every nickel he had to an unproven region and made it work.”

Josh JensenCalera Wine Co.

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Daryl GroomGroom Wines

This award is one of many such acknowl-edgements for Daryl Groom. During his 30-plus years as a winemaker in his native Australia and in California, Groom has won multiple “Winemaker of the Year” awards for his work at Geyser Peak Winery in Sonoma County, and was named in 2013 as one of IntoWine.com’s 100 most influential people in the U.S. wine industry.

Groom took an interest in wine at age 12, while living with his brother in Australia. His parents had been beer drinkers, but his brother – a newly minted lawyer with some disposable income – was exploring wine. The tastes Groom was allowed on special occa-sions inspired him to attend a field day at Roseworthy Agricultural College – the only winemaking school in Australia at the time – and sign on to its enology program.

However, Groom considers the time he spent working in the cellar for Australian wine legends Peter Lehmann and Rodney Chapman to be his true wine education.

He went on to become the senior red-winemaker at Penfolds, where he oversaw

the making of Grange – Australia’s most celebrated and iconic wine. From 1990 to 2005, Groom was the executive winemaker for Peak Wines International, which owned Geyser Peak and Wild Horse Win-ery & Vineyard, and was the senior vice president of operations and winemaking for Beam Wine Estates in 2006-2007.

In 1996, he founded Groom Wines, a small Barossa Valley win-ery focusing on shiraz and sauvi-gnon blanc. In addition to his role as a “flying winemaker,” traveling back and forth from his home in Sonoma County to South Australia, Groom recently began working with Naked Wines to produce wines under the DRG label.

In Groom’s estimation, his most meaningful winemaking achieve-ment to date is a $13 blend called Colby Red, created to raise money for heart research. Launched in 2011, the wine was inspired by Groom’s son, Colby, who endured two open-heart surgeries before age 10 to repair a congenitally faulty heart valve. So far the wine has raised more than $500,000 for heart-related charities.

Groom is admired not only for his warmth and sense of humor, but also for his winemaking philosophy. He believes that producing great wine is truly a team effort, and that each person on the cellar team is equally important. Groom strives to create wines that make people say “Yum,” and then ask for another glass.

“Daryl is visionary because he never misidentifies the poten-tial of his fruit,” said Dan Berger, publisher of the newsletter “Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences.” If the fruit is exceptional, he maxi-mizes its potential by making sure it has structure to be all it can be, for early consumption as well as future enjoyment. And if the fruit is mere-ly good and not great, he makes a supreme effort to accentuate its best qualities. Daryl never makes wines without a personality.”

Jim KleinNavarro Vineyards

It could be said that Jim Klein takes the concept of humbleness a little too far. The Navarro Vineyards website barely mentions his name, there’s little information to be found on the Internet. And at press time – just as harvest was ramping up – the winery folks were just too busy to dig up anything more recent than an article published in 2002, when Klein was named the San Fran-cisco Chronicle’s “Winemaker of the Year.”

What is universally known about Klein, however, is that he makes some of Men-docino County’s – and indeed, California’s – most beautiful wines. His pinot noirs, along with Alsace-style rieslings, gewürztraminers and muscats, have earned Navarro countless medals in international wine competitions.

Klein joined Navarro as winemaker in 1992, beating out more than 100 candidates for the job. Mendocino County is a long way from the San Fernando Valley, where Klein grew up as the son of a pipe fitter and a bank teller. With no intention of pursuing the agri-cultural life, he took a job auditing the books for Bing Crosby Productions as a young man,

then earned a business degree from California State University Northridge and went to work for an accounting firm.

Had it not been for the winemak-ing hobby he started with his father, Klein might still be crunching num-bers instead of crushing grapes. In his dad’s basement, he came to realize that accounting was not his passion. Klein quit his job and went north, to UC Davis, where he stud-ied enology and viticulture, then landed a job at Brander Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley.

With two vintages at Brander under his belt, and four more as an enologist at Charles Krug Winery in the Napa Valley, Klein went over-seas in search of his next winemak-ing adventure. He found it in Israel, at Golan Heights Winery, where he launched Israel’s first methode champenoise sparkling wine – in the midst of the Gulf War.

There he met his future wife, Rinat, then a soldier in the Israeli army, and the couple moved to Cali-fornia. Soon after, Klein found his winemaking home at Navarro.

W h i l e s o m e w i n e m a k e r s denounce wine “manipulation,” Klein views the various stages of production as the tools of his pro-fession. He strives to craft wines that allow the expression of the fruit, without being overly fruity or sweet. Klein’s role at Navarro, he says, is to connect each wine from vineyard to bottle – and he does it beautifully.

“Jim Klein makes wines as they should be: precise and balanced, ageable, true to type, inventive and refined,” said Harry Peterson-Nedry, owner and winemaker at Chehalem winery in Oregon. “As for the man, there is humility, but also self-assurance, technical rigor and little need for flamboy-ance. Consider him a winemaker’s winemaker. He carries the highest respect I can give – I trade a mixed case of wine with Navarro every year; I do that with no one else.”

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Greg La FolletteLa Follette Wines

Greg La Follette decided to become a wine-maker when he realized his first career choice – bagpipe player – just wasn’t practical. That’s fortunate for the wine world, because for more than two decades La Follette has been using his scientific and artistic talents to create remarkable pinot noir and chardonnay wines.

With a natural aptitude for science and chemistry, La Follette earned a double bach-elor’s degree in plant biology and chemistry from California State University Northridge. After a stint as a staff chemist at UC San Fran-cisco, he went on to earn a master’s degree in food science and technology at UC Davis.

At Davis, La Follette found his true call-ing: seeking out the best possible winemak-ing methods and uncovering the mysteries of why they’re successful. While working in the cellar of the student winery, he became fas-cinated – some would say obsessed – with the scientific components of mouthfeel. Rid-ing a wave of interest in new production techniques in California, he received funding from the Napa Valley Vintners to study sur lies aging and battonage.

In 1991, he became a research viticulturist/

enologist at Beaulieu Vineyard, where he spent a year working with legendary wine master André Tchelistcheff. After a stint in Australia, La Follette was hired as a consultant for Kendall-Jackson, immersing himself in the company’s vineyards to analyze soils and determine the most suitable rootstocks and clones.

La Follette sealed his reputation as one of California’s premier pinot noir winemakers in 1996 when he became general manager and winemaker at Flowers Vineyard & Winery. The produc-tion facility he built at Flowers is still con-sidered a model of gravity-flow, “green” winery design. He also undertook major replanting of the vineyards, switching to a cane-pruned, double-Guyot system, which resulted in more even ripening and better soil penetration.

He left Flowers in 2001 to found Tan-dem Wines, producing small-lot chardon-nay and pinot noir from vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast and other appellations. At the same time, he embarked on a career as a vineyard and winery consultant, helping to design “green” wineries around the world. La Fol-lette also consulted on the design of the groundbreaking UC Davis teaching winery.

In 2009, Tandem Wines was pur-chased by Pete Kight, proprietor of Qui-vira Vineyards & Winery in Dry Creek Valley, who retained La Follette as wine-maker. In 2010, Kight launched a new brand called La Follette to showcase outstanding cool-climate vineyard sites in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. La Follette’s longtime obsession with mouthfeel is reflected in the wonder-ful balance and texture of his namesake pinot noirs and chardonnays.

“Greg La Follette has always put his background in biology and chemistry to the best possible use: coaxing barrels of pinot noir and chardonnay through long, wild fermentations,” said wine writer and V&WM columnist Tim Teichgraeber. “His wines are dramatic and consistently reflect their vineyard sites.”

Deborah Parker Wong, Northern California editor for The Tasting Panel, admires La Follette’s community-mind-edness. “He’s part of a group of wine-makers bound together by the Lookout Ridge ‘Wine for Wheelchairs’ campaign.”

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Jim LawLinden Vineyards

Ted LemonLittorai Wines

Admiration can be won by producing great wines, and Jim Law of Linden Vine-yards qualifies in that respect. Yet he is just as respected in Virginia winemaking circles for mentoring up-and-coming winemakers as he is for his chardonnays and Bordeaux-style blends.

Jim Dolphin of Delaplane Cellars, Jeff White of Glen Manor Vineyards and Rutger de Vink of RdV Vineyards are among those who worked at Linden before doing their own thing. A media-visitor tasting of a verti-cal of Linden chardonnays and reds included three Law employees/interns; everyone ben-efitted from the conversation.

Law, an Ohio native, served two years in the Peace Corps in the 1970s in what is now Congo. He returned home to work in a winery whose stock and trade was sweet wines. Wanting to produce drier wines, Law

Despite his deep experience making wine in Burgundy, Ted Lemon isn’t intent on mimicking the region in the pinot noirs and chardonnays he makes for his Littorai label. Burgundy is Burgundy, and the western Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley regions from which he now sources grapes have their own personalities and dictate the style of wines that will be made from them.

In every case for Lemon, that style is one of elegance and precision, restraint and ageworthy structure, and above all else, expression of vineyard character. His time in Burgundy informs his winemaking and viticul-ture decisions, yet California grapes are the key ingredient.

Lemon spent time at the University of Dijon as a study-abroad student while still in high school. He returned to France after col-lege on a fellowship to study viticulture and enology, and apprenticed for such Burgundy domaines as Dujac and Roumier, returned to the U.S to work for Josh Jensen at Calera in California, then was called back to Burgundy to be the winemaker at Guy Roulot in Meur-

relocated to Virginia’s Blue Ridge and purchased a hardscrabble farm, planting chardonnay, seyval, vidal, cabernet franc and cabernet sau-vignon in 1985. The first vintage was 1987, and the winery opened in 1988.

Only the chardonnay and vidal remain in the original, formally named “Hardscrabble” plot; red grapes are planted on the slopes above, and the nearby Avenius and Boisseau vineyards provide addition-al grapes. As old vines decline, Law replaces them, continually fine-tun-ing rootstock, clones, vine density, trellising and pruning, in an attempt to achieve fruit maturity while coun-tering vine disease, humidity and pests. He’s in a state of constant experimentation and widely known to be ahead of the curve on viticul-ture and winemaking issues.

But as Washington Post wine writer Dave McIntyre wrote in June 2014, Law is controversial. “(He) is outspoken in his belief that wineries should strive to pro-duce top-quality wine and not be venues for weddings or concerts, a view that has angered other win-ery owners. While he is often in the tasting room greeting custom-ers, he discourages casual winery hoppers looking to get a buzz on by refusing large groups and reserving the winery porch for regular cus-tomers who buy at least a case of wine per year.”

At 4,000 cases of wine per year and with the likes of Jancis Robin-son endorsing his wines, Law can afford to stand his ground.

“Jim is a pioneer now celebrat-ing 30 years in a never-ending quest to make the best wine possible,” said McIntyre. “He and Luca Pas-china of Barboursville are admired for producing a wide range of top wines in Virginia.”

sault in 1983. Not only was Lemon the first American to oversee wine-making at a Burgundy house, he was just 24 years old.

Once back in the States, Lemon made superb chardonnays for Cha-teau Woltner on Howell Mountain in Napa Valley (now Ladera), then founded Littorai Wines with his wife, Heidi, in 1993, while paying the bills as a consultant in Califor-nia, Oregon and more recently, with Burn Cottage in New Zealand. They decided to purchase grapes from Mendocino County’s Anderson Val-ley and western Sonoma, for the sites’ diverse soils and cool coastal conditions (the Latin word littorai is plural for coasts).

Littorai’s wines soon captured the interest of sommeliers seeking pinots and chardonnays that were expressive without being flam-boyant. Production grew slowly, from an initial 150 cases per year to 4,000 today. There is no public tasting room, as there simply isn’t enough wine to go around.

Devoted to sustainable and Biodynamic farming, Lemon now grows his own grapes at The Pivot Vineyard west of Sebastopol and at The Haven, farther west near Occi-dental. He also purchases fruit from several vineyards, among them B.A. Thieriot, Charles Heintz and Hirsch in the Sonoma Coast, and One Acre and Roman in Anderson Valley. A straw-bale-walled, gravity-flow winery opened in 2009.

A thoughtful, measured man, Lemon shuns the limelight despite his winemaking stature. Yes, he’s on the cover of San Francisco Chronicle wine editor Jon Bonne’s 2013 book, “The New California Wine,” though Lemon reportedly was a reluctant cover boy. At heart, he’s just a farmer and a family man and a winemaker who found his ele-ment in California pinot noir.

Wine writer Dave McIntyre suc-cinctly summed up his impact: “Ted Lemon redefined California pinot noir.”

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Dennis MartinFetzer Vineyards

Luca PaschinaBarboursville Vineyards

Dennis Martin has made wine for Men-docino County’s Fetzer Vineyards for 30 years, a streak few others can claim unless they own their own wineries. He’s endured ownership changes, filled the huge shoes of Fetzer founding winemaker Paul Dolan, and worked with hundreds upon hundreds of California vineyards to continue the flow of Fetzer’s value-priced wines while maintain-ing quality. It’s not been an easy job, and he’s done it well, if the judgment is made based on the consistently delicious wines he and his team makes at everyday-drinking prices.

Yet there is a new spring in Martin’s step, now that Fetzer’s new owner, Concha y Toro, is adding more joy to his job. The Chilean wine company acquired Fetzer in 2011 from Brown-Forman, a company more focused on spirits than wine. Concha y Toro has infused Fetzer and its affiliated brands with more grapegrowing, winemaking and sales/mar-

For 23 years, Italian native Luca Paschina has produced the wines at Virginia’s Barbo-ursville Vineyards near Charlottesville, earn-ing the winery numerous gold medals, as well as prestigious Governor’s Cup and Mon-ticello Cup awards. He’s a long way from the Piemonte vineyards in which he played as a child, yet Paschina has embraced Virginia as his home, and the state has enthusiastically embraced him back.

Before landing in Virginia, the third-gener-ation winemaker produced wine in the Finger Lakes region of New York and California’s Napa Valley. He sold wine in Switzerland for two years before returning to Italy to work in vineyards with his father and uncle.

In 1991, he officially joined Barboursville, after Gianni Zonin hired Paschina to spend a year consulting at his winery. Zonin, the heir to Italy’s largest family-owned wine company (Casa Vinacola Zonin), purchased the land in 1976 and – ignoring advice from govern-ment officials, land owners and bankers to plant tobacco on the property – developed a vineyard near Thomas Jefferson’s Monti-

keting investment, and a focus on exports. Martin couldn’t be happier.

He earned an agricultural busi-ness degree in 1973 from Califor-nia State University Fresno and a master’s degree in enology and food science there in 1975. As so many young enology graduates did in the 1970s, he worked at United Vintners in Madera, as a cellar supervisor and white and sparkling winemaker until 1982, then moved to Scott Laboratories, where he worked as a sales enologist.

Dolan hired Martin in 1985 to be his assistant winemaker. When the Fetzer family sold to Brown-Forman in 1992 and Dolan departed, Martin became director of winemaking, with a promotion to vice president of winemaking in 1996. As such, he is responsible for not only the Fetzer brand, but also oversees the organically-grown-grape producer Bonterra and, now under Concha y Toro, super-premium and “Luxury” lines of Fetzer wines that take the brand far above the lower shelves of supermarkets. Cr imson & Quartz, a new brand of low-priced, varietally labeled wines, is targeted for a younger market.

And much to Martin’s delight, some tried-and-true Fetzer wines are becoming more regional ly focused. The 2013 vintage gewürz-traminers and rieslings will shed their California appellation designa-tions in favor of Monterey County.

Dennis Martin may be an old dog in winemaking years, yet new own-ership is offering him opportunities to show off new tricks.

“Making vast amounts of wine can easily take the wind out of the sails of any winemaker, but Denny has done more to make excellence affordable than any other wine-maker who ever lived,” wine writer Dan Berger said.

cello. When Paschina returned to Zonin’s offices near Venice, his rec-ommendation was not likely one the vineyard owner wanted to hear. Paschina recommended that Zonin start over by investing in ideal trel-lising systems and farming tech-niques. Zonin agreed, and hired Pascina full time to see the project through.

Paschina made it his first priority to determine which grape varieties, clones and trellises were best suit-ed to the red clay soils and humid, often wet growing conditions of the area. Over time, he determined that the conditions favored caber-net franc, merlot and viognier, and that cabernet sauvignon can be excellent, particularly in warmer vintages. In recent years, Italian varieties nebbiolo, sangiovese and vermentino have emerged as stars, as has a moscato-style wine called Phileo, produced from traminer and muscat ottonel.

Paschina’s efforts clearly paid off. Barboursville Cabernet Franc and Bordeaux-style Octagon red blend were served at a gala the night before President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009; the toast was made with Barboursville Brut.

Paschina’s attention to detail and experience have brought out the best in Virginia grapes, and other producers have taken note. Zonin’s f inancial support hasn’t hurt , either. With more than 250 winer-ies in the state, Virginia has gained national and international praise for its wines, and Paschina deserves much of the credit.

“Luca Paschina has spent the last quarter century setting the standard – and pushing the enve-lope – for Virginia's rise in promi-nence as the most exciting region in what I call ‘The New American Wine,’” said wine writer Dave McIntyre. “He produces wine at a high quality level on a commercial scale, and as such has been Vir-ginia's leading wine ambassador to the world.”

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Joel PetersonRavenswood Winery

Ravenswood’s “No Wimpy Wines” motto isn’t just a marketing tagline; it’s Joel Peter-son’s personal winemaking philosophy. Known as the “Godfather of California Zin-fandel,” Ravenswood Winery’s founding winemaker has been a passionate preserver of the state’s ancient zinfandel, petite sirah, carignane and other old vines since he first began working with Russian River Valley zin master Joseph Swan in the early 1970s.

An old photo on the Joseph Swan Vine-yards website shows a bearded, long-haired Peterson soaking up knowledge from Swan and famed Beaulieu Vineyard winemaker André Tchelistcheff. Today, the hair is short and the beard is neatly trimmed, yet Peter-son remains driven to produce site-specific zinfandels and “mixed blacks” field blends from vines that have been in the ground for as long as a century, some of them longer.

While working as a cancer immunology researcher at a San Francisco hospital and dabbling in wine on the side, he founded Ravenswood in 1976 with little funding and an ambitious desire to produce wines that would display the distinctive characteris-

tics of the old-vine vineyards he dis-covered. His zinfandels earned such a following that the vineyard-designated bottlings – as well as the affordable county blends and state-sourced Vint-ners Blend – helped convince growers to keep their zin vines in the ground, rather than replanting them to more lucrative varieties.

Peterson’s desire to take care of Cali-fornia’s old vines led him to become a senior advisor to the Historic Vineyard Society (HVS), a nonprofit organiza-tion dedicated to honoring them with the same spirit that historic homes are preserved. His son, Morgan Twain-Peterson, owner of Bedrock Wine Co., is a founding member of HVS, with Joel offering assistance.

Peterson was also instrumental in the development and rapid growth of the ZAP organization – Zinfandel Advo-cates & Producers – formed in 1991. Promoting a single variety was novel at the time, and while other varietal groups have followed the ZAP model, none have come close to drawing the 10,000 avid tasters ZAP did at its annual event in San Francisco, until a more inti-mate format was introduced in 2014.

Although Ravenswood was sold in 2001 to Constellation Brands, and a senior vice president title has been attached to his name, Peterson contin-ues to oversee Ravenswood fruit sourc-ing and winemaking, and gives special attention to the single-vineyard zinfan-dels, which include Barricia and Old Hill in Sonoma Valley, Big River in Alexander Valley, Teldeschi in Dry Creek Valley, Belloni in Russian River Valley and Dick-erson in Napa Valley.

“Joel Peterson is someone I have looked up to for a long time and I know I'm not alone,” said Alison Crowe, winemaker for Plata Wine Partners. “Years ago when I was a winemaking student at UC Davis, I was impressed by Joel's relentless championing of zin-fandel and zinfandel quality, as well as his business and marketing acumen. No one has done more to put fine California zinfandel on the map. He also gives a lot of his time to industry organizations and to budding winemakers and students.”

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David RameyRamey Wine Cellars

David Ramey’s resume is a long and bur-nished one. It includes a UC Davis graduate degree and winemaking positions at Cha-teau Pétrus in Bordeaux, and Simi, Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Rudd Estate and Dominus in California.

At Ramey Wine Cellars, which he found-ed in 1996 with his wife, Carla, in Healds-burg, Calif., Ramey produces chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons and syrahs that are among the most acclaimed from the state, sourced from cream-of-the-crop vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast and Napa Valley.

His early work with Christian Mouiex and family at Petrus informed Ramey’s winemak-ing sensibilities. Understanding that he could not replicate Bordeaux’s typical restrained style wines in Northern California’s warmer, drier climate, he produces wines that strike an admirable balance of sunny, ripe California fruit with bracing acidity, deft oak support and that showcase vineyard character: earthiness

in one wine, minerality in another, richness in another, and lasting tan-nins in most.

"I want to balance classic ele-gance with California fruit," Ramey said. "Texture is what I want. How does the wine feel in your mouth? That’s the pleasure quotient.” They also stand the test of time. "I make chardonnay to age 10 years from vintage," he said.

Ramey is arguably best known for his sumptuous yet focused chardonnays, from superstar vine-yards such as Hyde and Hudson in Napa Carneros, and Ritchie in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. The sturdy yet supple cabs are made from Napa Valley grapes, the min-eral-laced syrahs from cool-climate Sonoma Coast.

With the 2012 vintage, Ramey began producing pinot noir, and just as the year ended, he and Carla closed on the purchase of the Westside Farms vineyard on the Middle Reach of the Russian River Valley. They are converting an old hop kiln on the property to a tasting room, and intend to add caves and a winery, relocating their operations from near downtown Healdsburg to five miles away on Westside Road.

His stature is such that Ramey is a sought-after winemaking and viti-culture consultant. Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg greatly improved its small-lot wines, thanks to Ramey’s expertise, and he has also advised clients elsewhere, including in Napa Valley, Lake Coun-ty and Virginia.

“David Ramey is both an art-ist and a craftsman, helping clients reach new heights in terms of qual-ity and managing quantity, all while consistently producing wines of great beauty and complexity under his own name,” said wine writer Virginie Boone. “The fact that he’s been doing this for so long and just keeps getting better at it is incredibly admirable and worthy of respect."

Johannes ReinhardtAnthony Road Winery and Kemmeter Wines

Johannes Reinhardt has been the wine-maker at Anthony Road Wine Co. on Seneca Lake since 2000, yet his enological history dates to 1438, when his family began pro-ducing wine in Germany. Formally trained and with years of hands-on experience, Rein-hardt sought a change of scenery and landed in New York to intern at Dr. Frank's Vinifera Wine Cellars, then joined Anthony Road.

Reinhardt was certainly not the first Ger-man to emigrate to the United States and make wine – Dr. Konstantin Frank and Her-mann Wiemer come to mind – but he may have been one of the most determined. Reinhardt spent years hacking through immi-gration red tape to remain in the U.S., and continue making wine in New York’s Finger Lakes region.

He achieved remarkable success with his rieslings, gewürztraminers, pinot blancs and pinot noirs made from Finger Lakes grapes, including winning the 2009 Governor’s Cup

as the best New York wine for a 2008 Anthony Road Semi-Dry Ries-ling. Reinhardt is one of the trio of winemakers behind the acclaimed Tierce Dry Riesling. At the 2010 Riesling du Monde in Strasbourg, France, Anthony Road was the only non-European winery to win one of the seven Trophies of Excellence.

While all this was going on, immigration crackdowns put Rein-hardt and his wife, Imelda, in peril of being deported. He toiled for seven years to earn a green card – permanent worker status – and was denied several times. The couple contemplated relocation to another country, until the volume of written testimonials to the impor-tance of and contributions made by Reinhardt won immigration officials over in 2012.

In 2013, Reinhardt real ized another long-held dream: start-ing his own wine label. Last year he launched Kemmeter Wines on Seneca Lake (named for his mater-nal grandmother) and released a handful of rieslings made from purchased grapes. In June of 2014 the Reinhardts planted 2.5 acres of pinot noir, riesling and pinot blanc on their property. Johannes will remain the Anthony Road wine-maker while he bottles a projected 2,500 cases a year of his Kemme-ter wines.

“Johannes Reinhardt has the remarkable ability to make riesling that seems more sublime elixir than ordinary wine,” said V&WM Eastern Correspondent Marguerite Thomas. “Never one to bask in the light of his own stardom, Johannes is a uniquely collegial vintner as well as an astute trailblazer. He is widely admired for his generosity, his unpretentiousness and his abso-lute dedication to the excellence of not just his own brand, but also to the success of his neighbors and the entire region.”

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Rollin SolesArgyle Winery / ROCO

Wendy StuckeyWhite Wine Maker, Chateau Ste. Michelle

The rieslings being made at Washing-ton state’s Chateau Ste Michelle – the larg-est producer of riesling in the world at more than 1 million cases per year – are better than ever, and Australian transplant Wendy Stuck-ey has had a decisive hand in that. There is a vibrancy and tension to CSM rieslings that weren’t there before Stuckey’s arrival in 2007, and her winemaking experience at Wolf Blass in Australia’s Barossa Valley has influenced her stylistic decisions.

CSM’s pre-Stuckey rieslings were mostly off-dry in style, with juicy tropical and yel-low stone fruit flavors. Under her hand – and in concert with director of winemaking Bob Bertheau and Eroica brand partner Ernst Loosen of Weingut Dr. Loosen of Germany – there is more precision in the wines today and superb balances of sweetness and acid-ity. From the Columbia Valley appellation blends to the Cold Creek Vineyard Riesling to the Ethos Reserve Late Harvest Riesling, Stuckey’s imprint shows in the scintillating personality of the wines.

Not a one-trick winemaker, she is also responsible for CSM’s sau-vignon blancs, gewürztraminers, pinot gris and chardonnays – and they mirror the rieslings in their superb balance.

Bertheau met Stuckey when she was an intern and he was the assis-tant winemaker at Chalk Hill Winery in Healdsburg, Calif. “We stayed in touch over the years and I remained a fan of her wines,” Bertheau said. “When she attended our Riesling Rendezvous event in June 2007, it led to an unexpected reunion and interesting discussions about Cha-teau Ste. Michelle and Washington winemaking. In Australia, most of the rieslings are on the drier side where a winemaker really has to pay attention to the tannin/acid/ fruit balance to make the wines har-monious. Wendy offers new and exacting ideas to keep our wines in total harmony.”

For example, she uses a variety of yeasts in the ferments, evaluat-ing the aromas and fine-tuning the wines from pressing to bottling. Growing and purchasing grapes from cooler regions in eastern Washington is paramount.

“We’ve sourced grapes from every region and the riesling style has evolved from the early days,” Stuckey said. “Where we once used fruit from warmer vineyards in the Columbia Valley, we’re now buying more fruit from cooler cli-mates, including the Ancient Lakes region near Quincy,” now an AVA.

Stuckey also has a signature wine – Waussie Riesling (Wash-ington + Australia) – that’s dry and nervy.

“After a career making stellar riesling for one of Australia’s largest wineries, Wendy was hired to work in Washington and her impact on riesling and on Washington wine’s image cannot be matched,” wine writer Dan Berger said.

Despite his Snidely Whiplash ’stache, Rollin Soles is a gregarious guy with a Texas drawl, folksy joke-telling skills and a good heart that would have him rescuing women from railroad tracks rather than tying them to them.

As a winemaker for Argyle Winery and his own ROCO Winery, Soles has the skills, per-sonality and industry respect to be a positive poster boy for Oregon wine. He founded Argyle in 1987 with famed Australian wine-maker Brian Croser, turning the Willamette Valley winery into a world-class producer of traditional-method sparkling wine, pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling. ROCO, launched in 2003 with Soles’ wife, Corby Stone-braker, makes a more personal statement with its wines.

Soles left his permanent position as Argyle’s general manager and winemaker in 2013, staying on as a consultant. He still spends time in Argyle’s vineyards and makes the blending decisions with winemaker Nate Klostermann. Shedding his managerial duties

has freed him up to devote more time to ROCO, which produces pinot noir and chardonnay. The name is the combination of Rollin and Corby.

Soles and Stonebraker planted their Chehalem Mountain property to pinot noir in 2001 and bottled their first Private Stash Pinot Noir in 2003. They built a winery in 2009 and in 2012 opened a tasting room. Purchased grapes supplement their 3,500-case production, with sev-eral vineyard-designates, including Marsh Estate and Clawson Hills pinot noirs. The Stalker is a tiny-production pinot noir made with air-dried cluster stalks.

“While I’ve never been a fan of whole-cluster fermentation for my wines, I am influenced by the way the Valpolicella region of Italy air-dries whole clusters,” Soles said. “And I have an abiding love of whole-berry fermentation. I took a bit of a ‘walk on the wild side’ to produce a unique Stalker Pinot Noir. It’s a wine with spice-laced tannin from the stalks, without the ‘green-ness’ of the fresh stalks.”

Soles is a founding member of the Oregon Chardonnay Alliance (ORCA), which works to produce distinctive chardonnays based on relatively recent rootstock and clonal knowledge; early Willamette Valley chardonnays were mostly lackluster, due to the use of Califor-nia clones and rootstocks.

As for Willamette Valley’s infa-mous rainstorms during harvest, Soles has this to say: “When it rains in California during harvest, winemakers get all worried. When it rains in Oregon, we go fishing.”

“Rollin began the best sparkling wine house in Oregon and pos-sibly in the U.S. at Argyle,” said Chehalem founder Harry Peterson-Nedry, “and has been instrumental in organizing other-than-pinot-noir varietal work on chardonnay and riesling. His ROCO is a new, strong brand.”

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Margo Van StaaverenChateau St. Jean

ASEV | AmAdor County VintErS | FrAnCiS Ford CoppolA WinES | AtlAntiC SEAboArd WinE ASSoCiAtion | AtlAS VinEyArd mAnAgEmEnt inC. | El dorAdo WinEry ASSoCiAtion | CAkEbrEAd CEllArS | idAho WinE CommiSSion | E&J gAllo | lAkE Country WinEgrApE CommiSSion | FrAnk rimErmAn + Co., llp | lodi WinEgrApE CommiSSion | uC dAViS | JACkSon FAmily WinES | liVErmorE VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | CiAtti CompAny | mEndoCino WinE groWErS, inC | yokAyo WinE CompAny | miSSouri WinE And grApE boArd | robErt young EStAtE WinEry | nEW york WinE & grApE FoundAtion | gArnEt VinEyArdS | turrEntinE brokErAgE | CAWg | ohio WinE produCErS ASSoCiAtion | AlliEd grApE groWErS | rAVEnSWood WinEry | SAn diEgo County VintnEr’S ASSoCiAtion | inglEnook | SAn JoAquin VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | trEASury WinE EStAtES | J lohr | SAntA bArbArA County VintnErS | Simi WinEry | SAntA Cruz mountAin WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | tbC group, inC | SonomA County WinEgrApE CommiSSion lAngE tWinS | SAntA ritA hillS WinEgroWErS AlliAnCE | WinE inStitutE | ASti VinEyArdS tEmECulA VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | Stipp rAnCh | ASEV | AmAdor County VintnErS FrAnCiS Ford CoppolA WinES | AtlAntiC SEAboArd WinE ASSoCiAtion | AtlAS VinEyArd mAnAgEmEnt inC | El dorAdo WinEry ASSoCiAtion | CAkEbrEAd CEllArS | idAho WinE CommiSSion | E&J gAllo | lAkE Country WinEgrApE CommiSSion | FrAnk rimErmAn + Co, llp | lodi WinEgrApE CommiSSion | uC dAViS | JACkSon FAmily WinES | liVErmorE VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | CiAtti CompAny | mEndoCino WinE groWErS, inC | yokAyo WinE CompAny | miSSouri WinE And grApE boArd | robErt young EStAtE WinEry | nEW york WinE & grApE FoundAtion gArnEt VinEyArdS | turrEntinE brokErAgE | CAWg | ohio WinE produCErS ASSoCiAtion AlliEd grApE groWErS | rAVEnSWood WinEry | SAn diEgo County VintnEr’S ASSoCiAtion inglEnook | SAn JoAquin VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | trEASury WinE EStAtES | J lohr SAntA bArbArA County VintnErS | Simi WinEry | SAntA Cruz mountAin WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion tbC group, inC | SonomA County WinEgrApE CommiSSion | lAngEtWinS | SAntA ritA hillS WinEgroWErS AlliAnCE | WinE inStitutE | ASti VinEyArdS | tEmECulA VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | Stipp rAnCh | ASEV | AmAdor County VintErS | FrAnCiS Ford CoppolA WinES AtlAntiC SEAboArd WinE ASSoCiAtion | AtlAS VinEyArd mAnAgEmEnt inC | El dorAdo WinEry ASSoCiAtion | CAkEbrEAd CEllArS | idAho WinE CommiSSion | E&J gAllo | lAkE Country WinEgrApE CommiSSion | FrAnk rimErmAn + Co, llp | lodi WinEgrApE CommiSSion | uC dAViS JACkSon FAmily WinES | liVErmorE VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | CiAtti CompAny mEndoCino WinE groWErS, inC | yokAyo WinE CompAny | miSSouri WinE And grApE boArd robErt young EStAtE WinEry | nEW york WinE & grApE FoundAtion | gArnEt VinEyArdS turrEntinE brokErAgE | CAWg | ohio WinE produCErS ASSoCiAtion | AlliEd grApE groWErS rAVEnSWood WinEry | ASEV | SAn diEgo County VintnEr’S ASSoCiAtion | inglEnook | SAn JoAquin VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | trEASury WinE EStAtES | J lohr | SAntA bArbArA County VintnErS | Simi WinEry | SAntA Cruz mountAin WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion tbC group, inC | SonomA County WinEgrApE CommiSSion | lAngEtWinS | SAntA ritA hillS WinEgroWErS AlliAnCE | WinE inStitutE | ASti VinEyArdS | tEmECulA VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | Stipp rAnCh | ASEV | AmAdor County VintErS | FrAnCiS Ford CoppolA WinES AtlAntiC SEAboArd WinE ASSoCiAtion | AtlAS VinEyArd mAnAgEmEnt inC | El dorAdo WinEry ASSoCiAtion | CAkEbrEAd CEllArS | idAho WinE CommiSSion | E&J gAllo | lAkE Country WinEgrApE CommiSSion | FrAnk rimErmAn + Co, llp | lodi WinEgrApE CommiSSion | uC dAViS JACkSon FAmily WinES | liVErmorE VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | CiAtti CompAny mEndoCino WinE groWErS, inC | yokAyo WinE CompAny | miSSouri WinE And grApE boArd robErt young EStAtE WinEry | nEW york WinE & grApE FoundAtion | gArnEt VinEyArdS turrEntinE brokErAgE | CAWg | ohio WinE produCErS ASSoCiAtion | AlliEd grApE groWErS rAVEnSWood WinEry | SAn d iEgo County V intnEr ’S ASSoC iAt ion | inglEnook | SAn JoAquin VAllEy WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion | trEASury WinE EStAtES | J lohr | SAntA bArbArA County VintnErS | Simi WinEry | SAntA Cruz mountAin WinEgroWErS ASSoCiAtion

2 0 1 5

January 27–29, 2015 exhibits: January 28 & 29Sacramento Convention Center Sacramento, California

U N I F I E DW I N E & G R A P ES Y M P O S I U M

Check our website for details on Registration, Housing, Program and Exhibitors.

Register early and save up to $200!

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one place, one time, all the answers— the Unified!

Despite its name, Sonoma’s Chateau St. Jean winery has no connection to France, nor is it a wanna-be-French affectation of some California winery owner. Its namesake is Jean Sheffield Merzoian, who married Central Val-ley table grape grower Ed Merzoian. Jean, Ed and her brother, Kenneth Sheffield, founded Chateau St. Jean in 1973 in Kenwood. It’s “St. Jeen, not “St. Jzawn.”

These days, the place is informally and affectionately known at Chateau Margo, for winemaker Margo Van Staaveren, who has had her hands on the wines for 35 har-vests. She began as a lab technician in 1980, advanced to assistant winemaker, then asso-ciate winemaker, then winemaker, following in the footsteps of Richard Arrowood, Don Van Staaveren (her husband; they met at Chateau St. Jean) and Steve Reeder. She has seen several changes in ownership in those 35 years and through it all, her wines have continued the streak of excellence estab-lished from the start by Arrowood.

Initially known as a white-wine house, Cha-teau St. Jean has, over the years, expanded its portfolio to include dozens of wines, white

and red, at several price-points, and sourced from vineyards throughout Sonoma County. Vineyard designa-tion, so important to CSJ’s early success, continues; Van Staaveren’s Robert Young, Belle Terre, Durell and Cold Creek vineyard chardon-nays are stellar examples of vine-yard-character presentation, coming from vines planted in Alexander Val-ley (Young, Belle Terre), Sonoma Val-ley (Durell) and Sonoma Coast (Cold Creek). The Le Petite Etoile (Rus-sian River Valley) and Lyon Vineyard (Alexander Valley) fumé blancs are from single vineyards as well.

On the red side, Van Staaveren’s flagship wine is Cinq Cepages, a cabernet sauvignon-based wine that demonstrates her blending skills, as the fruit comes from multiple sites. The 1996 vintage was Wine Spectator magazine’s No. 1 wine in the world in 1999. The county and appellation blends offer excel-lent value, estate-labeled bottlings are a notch up in quality, and the Reserves – merlot, cabernet sauvi-gnon and malbec among them – are the wines Van Staaveren says are her most enjoyable to assemble.

"Since no two vintages are alike, it gives us the opportunity to care-fully search for the vineyard lots that offer the biggest fruit expres-sion and the ability to age in order to create a wine that truly captures the best of the vintage," she said. And she has a particularly soft spot in her heart for malbec, a variety she fell in love with long before Argen-tina made malbec fashionable in the marketplace.

“I’ve known Margo since the mid-1990s, and she is pretty much the perfect winemaker for a compa-ny to have and a journalist to cover,” said wine writer Linda Murphy. “She combines great winemaking skill and vineyard knowledge with a warm, engaging personality. She’s confident yet without an obvious ego, and is fiercely loyal to her team. To continue to show great wine-making energy after 35 years at the same winery is pretty remarkable.”

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John WilliamsFrog’s Leap Winery

In 1981, John Williams and his family established Frog’s Leap in the heart of Napa Valley, in the so-called sacred “dust” of Ruth-erford. Surrounded by iconic wineries such as Inglenook, Beaulieu Vineyard, Caymus Vine-yards and Cakebread Cellars, Frog’s Leap took the lily pad less traveled, focusing early in its life on organic viticulture, dry farming, lower-alcohol wines and displaying a sense of humor in a most serious of winemaking regions.

The “ribbit” branding on the corks, the “time’s fun when you’re having flies” motto and clever website continue to be outra-

geously consumer-friendly. Upon learning that his property on Conn Creek Road was once a frog farm, providing legs to San Francisco restaurants around the turn of the century, Williams hit upon a marketing angle that has resonated with wine buyers for years.

More seriously, he is among the most devoted winegrowers to organic viticulture and limited, if any, irrigation, in California. His sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, zinfandel, merlot and cabernet sau-vignon wines, made in concert with winemaker Paula Moschetti, are produced from organically grown grapes, either from the estate or pur-chased.

The fruit is harvested at modest ripeness lev-els, bucking the Napa norm driven by influential critics who adore ripe, hedonistic wines. Frog’s Leap wines are lean and elegant, not ultra-ripe and massive, and tend to reflect vintage variation over homogeniety. It’s the John Williams way, to let the vineyards express themselves through the wines, with as little human intervention as possible – critics be damned.

The signature wines are those made from Rutherford estate grapes, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. They are released a year later than the Napa Valley-labeled bottlings, when Williams deems them ready. He might miss many publica-tions’ annual vintage reviews, yet again – critics be damned.

Recently, Williams’ son, Rory, has joined the Frog’s Leap business (and that of his mother’s, Julie Johnson, at Tres Sabores), and established his own brand, Calder, where he’s taken on the challenge of making such obscure varieties (for Napa) as charbono and riesling. A chip off the old block in taking the less obvious path.

“John is uncompromising when it comes to allowing the wines to display varietal and regional characters that pay homage to the history of the Napa Valley,” said wine writer Dan Berger. “The Frog's Leap style is based on organic farming, perfect balance and integrity.”

With so many worthy winemak-ers in North America, it was a diffi-cult task to narrow the field to just 20. Several nominees missed mak-ing the final list by just a handful of votes, and we feel they should be acknowledged. They include:

HONORABLE MENTIONS+ Ross Cobb, Cobb Wines+ Paul Dolan (independent) + Chris Figgins, Figgins Family Wine Estates+ Larry Mawby, L. Mawby Vineyards+ Sean O’Keefe, Chateau Grand Traverse+ Lynne Penner-Ash, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars