Mise en Place

Month: May 2021

Dan Petroski, whose Massican wines have a loyal following, also makes wine for Larkmead Vineyards.

Dan Petroski Talks Soil, T.S. Eliot, and Making Wine in Napa Valley

May 28, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.

In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well. 

Dan Petroski is the man behind some of my favorite white wines made in California. His Massican flagship Annia is on my always-have-around list — it’s a blend of Tocai Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Chardonnay, and I love its versatility with food and its fetching minerality. If you’ve never experienced a bottle of it, find one today.

Dan Petroski named this expressive wine after his mother. (Courtesy Massican)

Petroski is also in charge of the winemaking at Larkmead Vineyards, and I recently had the pleasure of participating in a virtual session with him and others that took a deep dive into the soils at Larkmead and their effect on the estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon. We tasted three barrel samples and examined some of the estate’s soils. Petroski — who graduated from Columbia University with a degree in history (minor in ancient Greek and Roman history) and played football at the school — spoke eloquently and with authority about the topic.

Any semi-serious wine drinker knows that what a vine (or its rootstock) grows in has (or should have) profound effect on what it produces. But listening to Petroski and Brenna J. Quigley, a geologist who is working with Larkmead (among other clients), talk about that relationship was a valuable way to spend an hour.

The Larkmead Estate: Though it is a valley-floor property, its diversity of soils are more typical of hillside parcels.

Petroski has stated that “Larkmead is blessed with a diverse estate that based on soil profile alone is a snapshot of the entire Napa Valley” and he and Quigley conveyed that in an illuminating manner during the online session. The estate comprises 110 acres planted to vines (69.4 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 12.4 acres of Sauvignon Blanc, 11.5 acres of Merlot, 8 acres of Cabernet Franc, 6.6 acres of Petit Verdot, 1.2 acres of Malbec, and 1.1 acres of Tocai Friulano), and the soil profiles include Pleasanton loam, Cortina gravelly loam, Bale clay loam, Bale loam, Clear Lake clay and Cole Silt loam. (If geology turns you on, I recommend John McPhee’s Annals of the Former World. It’s a fascinating masterpiece, written by a master.)

There’s treasure in these soils.

Larkmead was founded in 1895, making it one of the oldest family-owned estates in Napa Valley. While the original owners did make wine for a period of time after its founding, during the second half of the 20th century Larkmead grew grapes for other wineries and winemakers only. Beginning in 1997 that changed, and wine was once again being made under the Larkmead name. (Larkmead still sells 50 percent of its fruit to other entities).

Petroski joined the team as winemaker in 2007 — current owners Cam and Kate Solari Baker know talent when they see it — and in 2020 the estate established and planted a research block (I’ll have more on that in a later article).

Petroski’s style is enthusiastic, thoughtful and engaging. I’m glad he left his career in publishing at Time Inc. to pursue his passion, because he’s making wines I admire and look forward to drinking and sharing.

Let’s get to Dan Petroski in his own words.

James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?

Dan Petroski: The shelter-in-place conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic slowed my life down for sure, but it also opened a world of virtual meet-ups and cocktail hours to get to know some of our direct customers a little better.

As wine professionals, historically our relationship building has been with our trade partners — wholesale, restaurant and retail buyers — but 2020 turned that upside down a bit and put us directly, virtually in front of the people who drink our wine. That was special.

JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one? 

DP: I really love drinking our wines young in fine wine terms — the current release vintages of Larkmead have such great vibrancy that the wines are a joy to drink. I am talking about the 2018, 2016, 2014, 2013 and 2010 vintages specifically for red wines at Larkmead. On a white wine side, I really appreciate our Sauvignon Blanc style, which is a little weightier than a classic table-friendly Sancerre.

A Sauvignon Blanc that “acts like a Chardonnay.”

If I had to host a Larkmead dinner tonight, I would choose our 2018 Lillie Sauvignon Blanc paired with anchovies in butter with crusty bread and maybe a fennel salad. A 2013 Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon paired with a Zuni-style roasted chicken. And a 2010 Larkmead Solari Cabernet Sauvignon with a selection of hard and soft cheeses to finish the night.

Cortina and Pleasanton soils drive this wine.

JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.

DP: I never drink wine alone, so there is no cost (high or low) that I wouldn’t pay to share a glass of wine with someone. And we all know that a glass of Champagne brings the most joy, so I would love to add as many bottles of my favorite Champagne, Philipponnat Clos des Goisses to my cellar.

JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?

DP: Chardonnay in all its forms is one of my favorite grapes. I will go to my grave extolling the beauty of Sauvignon Blanc, and Tocai Friulano is my favorite wine grape that makes the most versatile food-pairing wine. But Cabernet and its sibling Merlot will always haunt me. My top bottles consumed all-time remain Bordeaux blends.

JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day? 

DP: Larkmead or any Napa Valley Cabernet from 2013 or 2016.

Dan Petroski at work in the Larkmead research block. (Photo by Bob McClenahan)

JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?

DP: When in Napa, it is great to sit at a bar at all my neighborhood haunts — DM me for a list. When traveling to my hometown, NYC, I love spending time at the bar at all of Danny Meyer’s restaurants, whether Gramercy Tavern, Maialino or more.

JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?

DP: Drink what makes you feel good — the story, the deliciousness, the price point, the moment. . . whatever makes you enjoy it the most.

JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?

DP: Probably the story I was told of Sean Thackrey and his wines when sitting at Le Bernardin in 1999. To hear the story of a former art gallery owner who moved out to the far Sonoma Coast and studied the history of wine growing back to ancient Greek and Rome. Sean went on to name his flagship wine after the constellation Pleiades because his blend was of seven grape varieties. This was the story that made me change my life five or six years later and pursue a career in wine.

JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career thus far?

DP: Strangest would probably be when I taste a wine that I made and say, “Wow, did I make that?” I am very hard on myself and my winemaking. I always say, the best is yet to come, and I hope you come for the ride with me.

JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?

DP: When T.S. Eliot wrote in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, “Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels, And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells.”

Eliot didn’t mention wine in those lines, but I want a cigarette and a glass of Chablis every time I read them.

Want more wine? Read on:

Bouchaine’s Chris Kajani Tackles the Challenges of a Pandemic
A Bosnian Winemaker Finds a Home in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA
From a Michigan Backyard Vineyard to Sonoma
Paul Hobbs Knew She Had Talent
Ian Cauble: From ‘Somm’ to SommSelect
Eric Sigmund is High on Texas Wine
Jeff Cole, Sullivan Estate’s Winemaker
Jon McPherson Talks Tokay and His Mentor Father
Two Reds From Chile
An Italian Chardonnay From the Cesare Stable
Mi Sueño’s 2016 Napa Valley Syrah
Joshua Maloney on Riesling and Manfred Krankl
Brothers in Wine
Two Bottles From Priest Ranch
A Derby Day Cocktail
Nate Klostermann is Making Some Great Sparkling Wines in Oregon
Matt Dees and the Electric Acidity of Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay
Baudelaire, Pinot Noir, and Rosé: Kathleen Inman’s Passions
Colombia, France, and California: This Winemaker is a Complex Woman
Michael Kennedy Talks Sailing and Zinfandel
Spain Opened the World of Wine for Spottswoode’s Aron Weinkauf
Alta Colina’s Molly Lonborg Wants a Bottle of Château Rayas
Mumm Napa’s Tami Lotz Talks Wine and Oysters
James MacPhail on Pinot Noir, White Burgundy, and Russell Crowe
A Very Proper Sparkling Wine
Talking With David Ramey
A Merlot That Your Snob Friend Will Love
French Couple Make a Sauvignon Blanc in California
A Perfect Afternoon Chardonnay
Terry Theise Talks Reisling
A New Wine Wonderland
Paris Wine Goddess Tells All
Rice Village Wine Bar Has a Cleveland Touch
A Texas White Blend for Your Table
A Pinot Noir Full of Flavor
This Pinot Gris From Oregon Pairs Well With Cheese
Willamette, Dammit!
A Value Rioja
Drink Pink!
Underbelly Veteran Goes for Grenache
A Man of Letters and Wine
Ms. Champagne Wants a Nebuchadnezzar
The Wine Artist Goes for Chardonnay
This American Loves Spain and Its Wines
Houston’s Wine Whisperer Has a Soft Touch
Blackberry Farm’s Somm Pours in Splendor
Mr. Pinot Noir: Donald Patz of Patz & Hall
A Cork Dork Wants to Spend More Time in Tuscany
Sommelier Turned Restaurateur Daringly Goes Greek
Texas Master Sommelier Debunks Wine Geeks
A Bottle From Gigondas Changed This Houston Man’s Life
Oil Man Falls in Love, and the Rest is Good-Taste History
Ryan Cooper of Camerata is a Riesling Man
Mixing It Up With Jeremy Parzen, an Ambassador of Italy
Sommelier at One of Houston’s Top Wine Bars Loves Underdogs

Pork meatballs that I'd happily eat every six days.

A Near-Perfect Meal: Ronan Delivers

May 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Ordering the focaccia was an afterthought, a recommendation proffered by the waiter to accompany our burrata Genovese. It was, however, a beautiful piece of bread, among the best I’ve had in a long, long time.

It’s served in a shallow bowl, on top of wax paper. The paper prevents the bread from sitting in the copious amount of olive oil that’s been drizzled over the focaccia, quality oil that I, once the bread was gone, spooned into my mouth.

The bread has a crisp exterior, one to which large flakes of salt adhere — some of the salt melts into the (in parts) charred surface of the bread, and a few pieces of fresh rosemary are also there.

A focaccia of supreme quality.

The interior is another story. Moist, warm, chewy, a touch of smoke. This bread’s crisp/chewy ratio is sublime. It’s cooked in Ronan’s wood-fired oven, as are the pizzas — Angela ordered The Brooklyn (shaved mushroom, Parmigiana, red pepper flakes, and oregano) — and the char on the crust is exactly as I like it: fully blackened in some areas, partially at other spots. Prime ingredients, ample olive oil applied after cooking.

The Brooklyn pie at Ronan, more than worthy of that great NYC borough.

It was Mother’s Day, a fine Sunday in Los Angeles, and since we were unable to celebrate with our mothers in person (one lives near Houston, Texas, the other in Jupiter, Florida), this was the next best thing: A meal outdoors, to honor our mothers, at a restaurant that had been on my to-experience list since we moved to LA.

The outdoor patio runs along one side of the restaurant, and it’s a pleasant place, made more exciting on the day because we had the honor of sharing the space with Norman Lear.

Burrata, basil pesto, toasted pine nuts, basil leaves, black pepper, olive oil … and this was a great pair to the focaccia.

We brought a bottle of wine from home, a Vietti Perbacco (2018) — Ronan’s corkage fee is $25 for the first two bottles, $40 per each after that — and began with the burrata Genovese. (I’m looking forward to having a meal at Ronan on a Wednesday, when all wines on the list made by women winemakers are offered at 30 percent off regular price.)

The burrata was the way to start. The inclusion of whole basil leaves injects a spark of additional freshness to the dish, and the cheese is as good as you want from burrata. Slicing into the ball of dairy and gathering a spoon of solid and liquid approaches a magical experience, and the toasted pine nuts and basil pesto and olive oil and salt that completed this course left nothing out in flavor and pleasure. The focaccia, yes, is advised, because you can sop up the olive oil and cheese with pieces of it. You won’t leave anything uneaten.

I like everything from Vietti.

The pork meatballs were my choice. I love meatballs, and make them often. I generally use a recipe I adapted from this one by Michael White, and it’s a good one. Ronan’s version of meatballs has a new admirer, and if they are on the menu when I’m next at the restaurant I’ll be tempted to order them.

lt’s difficult to find meatballs better than these.

A lesson in cooking meatballs: If using a skillet on top of the oven, leave the meat alone long enough to form a crust all around; they do this at Ronan, and the result is a satisfying mixture of textures that, for a moment, will make you feel all is well in the world. The meatballs are served in a small bowl along with a tomato sauce, a liberal amount of Parmigiana, olive oil, and basil leaves. Comforting, yes, and that’s good. But the cooking technique is worthy of adoration.

On this saucer is butter that will make you rethink butter.

I have to mention the butter. It’s listed as “Housemade Cultured Butter” on the menu, and that it certainly is. It’s presented at the table on a small saucer, a saucer that it shares with a pool of olive oil and coarse black pepper and salt. The culture is rich, almost too rich — if such a concept exists. Is it needed on the focaccia? That is debatable. But I applied plenty of that culture to my bread, and I’ll do it again.

Alex MacGregor, a former bartender, is the head winemaker at Saracina Vineyards. No, his actual skin tone does not veer toward magenta.

Alex MacGregor and Saracina: An Unfinished Novel of Craft and Passion

May 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.

In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well. 

It was a good virtual tasting, the one with Saracina Vineyards in which I participated back in early April. We opened a few bottles, including a 2019 unoaked Chardonnay that I liked very much, and the conversation was witty and engaging.

Alex MacGregor, the winemaker at the Mendocino County-based estate, a man I had never met before the tasting, is now someone with whom I want to share a table, a table reserved for a long meal, because the conversation would, I am confident, be a wide-ranging, eclectic, gratifying adventure. And the wines we open would be just as moving.

MacGregor is a fine conversationalist, an individual who knows how to convey a lot without relying on the feeble crutch of logorrhea. (In addition, David Ramey had a hand in teaching him winemaking, so there’s that.)

He’s a Canadian, and he fell into wine while working at a restaurant in Toronto, one with a stellar list. (His career in the Canadian city included stints at Olivier’s Bistro and Le Select Bistro; he also worked under Héctor Vergara, Canada’s only Master of Wine at the time.) And though he hails from Canada, Mendocino is his home, the land in which he thrives. He made his way to California in 1989 and took a job as an enologist in the Dry Creek Valley. In 2001, John Fetzer and Patty Rock founded Saracina Vineyards, and MacGregor was hired as the first winemaker there (Ramey was consulting with Saracina at the time).

The entrance to Saracina Ranch, in Mendocino County, is a welcoming sight.

MacGregor’s enthusiasm and passion for old vines and family-owned estates is palpable, and there was definitely no reason for Marc Taub (of Palm Bay International and Taub Family Selections), who purchased Saracina from Fetzer and Rock in 2018, to make any changes to the winemaking personnel at the 250-acre property, which, by the way, is Certified California Sustainable. MacGregor is in charge, and I imagine he will be for a long time.

Let’s see what he has to say in Wine Talk.

James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?

Alex MacGregor: It’s been unpleasant and stressful on both counts. I’m hopeful we will have learned from this. 

JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one? 

AM: I’m going local value here. Skylark 2019 Pinot Blanc Orsi Vineyard, Mendocino County ($20). Streamlined, austere in all the right ways. Shellfish city. It’s in limited distribution and direct from their website. 

McGregor recommends Skylark.

Saracina 2019 Unoaked Chardonnay, Mendocino County ($20). Cleansing, pure, unadulterated Chard, stone fruits. Great value if I do say so myself. Pair with anything you want (maybe your significant other), though BBQ might be a stretch. It’s in distribution and available on our website and at the winery.

Boonville Road 2018 Mourvedre Alder Springs, Mendocino County, around $30? Super cool, nervy, slightly green, delicious. I’ve had a few bottles paired with owner Ed Donovan’s smoked brisket (his smoker has a license plate, that’s how serious it is). Amazing pairing. Available direct from the website. 

JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.

AM: 1998 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Ermitage Cuvée Cathelin. It’s transcendent, beyond wine. I was speechless. 

Not much of this is made. If you can afford a bottle, and find one available, do not hesitate.

JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?

AM: Old-vine field blends, like Casa Verde in Mendocino County; Grenache, Carignane, a mystery red and French Colombard, head pruned, 76-year-old dry-farmed vines grown organically. Sum is greater than the parts, crunchy wines. (Plus no trellis or wires so I can walk in any direction I please,which suits me)

JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day? 

AM: The 2019 Saracina Sauvignon Blanc Lolonis Vineyard will be neat in 10 years. Oldest Sauvignon Blanc in the country, planted in ’42. Tons of depth with acid and length. Our older SBs from this vineyard go to a great place with age.

A 2019, and at least one individual recommends that you cellar this until 2029. Give it a go.

JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?

AM: With my good friends John Lancaster (wine director at Boulevard) and Robert Perkins (artist, Skylark Wine Co.) in either of their dining rooms. They are both generous, knowledgeable and charming (most of the time). Raveneau, Leflaive, Chave, Huet, Alban, Sine Qua Non, Le Pergole Torte, Quintarelli, always great bottles.

JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?

AM: Buy more?

JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?

AM: Sailing (floating?) down the Guadiana between Spain and Portugal, 1986. We would get our flagon filled at the local bodega after throwing anchor, mostly great fino, buy some fresh fish, good to go. Lovely, simple food and wine experience nightly. I remember it like it was yesterday.  

Allen Ginsberg took this photo, in 1996, in North Beach San Francisco.

JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?

AM: Cliché: War, “Spill the Wine”
Cooler: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Drinking French Wine in Middle America”

Bought a bottle of Vouvray
and poured out its bouquet
of the French countryside
on the plains of Middle America
and that fragrance
floods over me
wafts me back
to that rainy hillside
by the banks of the Loire
Vouvray tiny village
where I sat with rucksack
twenty-eight years old
seafarer student
uncorking the local bottle
with its captured scent of spring
fresh wet flowers
in first spring rain
falling lightly now
upon me-

Where gone that lonesome hiker
fugace fugitive
blindfold romantic
wanderer traumatic
in some Rimbaud illusionation-

The spring rain falls
upon the hillside flowers
lavande and coquelicots
the grey light upon them
in time’s pearly gloaming-
Where gone now
and to what homing-
Beardless ghost come back again!

How to Paint Sunlight: Lyric Poems and Others (New Directions).

Want more wine? Read on:

Bouchaine’s Chris Kajani Tackles the Challenges of a Pandemic
A Bosnian Winemaker Finds a Home in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA
From a Michigan Backyard Vineyard to Sonoma
Paul Hobbs Knew She Had Talent
Ian Cauble: From ‘Somm’ to SommSelect
Eric Sigmund is High on Texas Wine
Jeff Cole, Sullivan Estate’s Winemaker
Jon McPherson Talks Tokay and His Mentor Father
Two Reds From Chile
An Italian Chardonnay From the Cesare Stable
Mi Sueño’s 2016 Napa Valley Syrah
Joshua Maloney on Riesling and Manfred Krankl
Brothers in Wine
Two Bottles From Priest Ranch
A Derby Day Cocktail
Nate Klostermann is Making Some Great Sparkling Wines in Oregon
Matt Dees and the Electric Acidity of Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay
Baudelaire, Pinot Noir, and Rosé: Kathleen Inman’s Passions
Colombia, France, and California: This Winemaker is a Complex Woman
Michael Kennedy Talks Sailing and Zinfandel
Spain Opened the World of Wine for Spottswoode’s Aron Weinkauf
Alta Colina’s Molly Lonborg Wants a Bottle of Château Rayas
Mumm Napa’s Tami Lotz Talks Wine and Oysters
James MacPhail on Pinot Noir, White Burgundy, and Russell Crowe
A Very Proper Sparkling Wine
Talking With David Ramey
A Merlot That Your Snob Friend Will Love
French Couple Make a Sauvignon Blanc in California
A Perfect Afternoon Chardonnay
Terry Theise Talks Reisling
A New Wine Wonderland
Paris Wine Goddess Tells All
Rice Village Wine Bar Has a Cleveland Touch
A Texas White Blend for Your Table
A Pinot Noir Full of Flavor
This Pinot Gris From Oregon Pairs Well With Cheese
Willamette, Dammit!
A Value Rioja
Drink Pink!
Underbelly Veteran Goes for Grenache
A Man of Letters and Wine
Ms. Champagne Wants a Nebuchadnezzar
The Wine Artist Goes for Chardonnay
This American Loves Spain and Its Wines
Houston’s Wine Whisperer Has a Soft Touch
Blackberry Farm’s Somm Pours in Splendor
Mr. Pinot Noir: Donald Patz of Patz & Hall
A Cork Dork Wants to Spend More Time in Tuscany
Sommelier Turned Restaurateur Daringly Goes Greek
Texas Master Sommelier Debunks Wine Geeks
A Bottle From Gigondas Changed This Houston Man’s Life
Oil Man Falls in Love, and the Rest is Good-Taste History
Ryan Cooper of Camerata is a Riesling Man
Mixing It Up With Jeremy Parzen, an Ambassador of Italy
Sommelier at One of Houston’s Top Wine Bars Loves Underdogs

Chris Kajani took over at Bouchaine Vineyards in 2015. (Photo by Bob McClenehan)

Pandemic Pivot: Chris Kajani Has Bouchaine Vineyards in Fine Form

May 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.

In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well. 

I was already planning to visit Bouchaine Vineyards this year (as soon as possible) when I heard about the falcons.

It was during a recent Zoom tasting with Chris Kajani, the estate’s winemaker and general manager, and the images of the raptors — I am a hopeless and indefatigable admirer of birds — transported me.

We tasted some delicious Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier with Kajani that day, who was stationed in Bouchaine’s well-appointed kitchen, and I was impressed with the wines and Kajani’s stories of her father’s wine collection, as well as the way she and rest of the Bouchaine team responded to the demands and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This kitchen is usually full of activity.

Bouchine took the now-universal Zoom tastings to new heights, and featured chefs and cooking classes and dining, as well as live music and falconry demonstrations, all paired with Bouchaine wines, of course. (These programs continue today, and have proved popular with individuals, groups, and corporations.)

A Bouchaine initiative I find especially appealing is called B-Together, a collection of recipes and videos featuring chefs including Martin Slavin, Scott Warner, and Joey Altman (along with tours of the estate’s vineyards and some musical performances). You’ll find recipes for, among other dishes, Mongolian lamb, Serbian sun bread, Dan Dan noodles, and Shangai-style pork belly sliders.

And those falcons. In addition to scaring away pesky birds, the raptors, overseen by Kate Marden, owner of West Coast Falconry, star in demonstrations that visitors to the estate can experience.

“Falconry helps us maintain our commitment to sustainable farming, but it’s also just an amazing thing to witness,“ says Kajani.

Kajani has a background in biotech, the field in which her career began, but journeys to Europe worked their way on her already strong passion for wine — which had been kindled and nurtured by her Napa upbringing — and she enrolled at UC Davis and earned a master’s degree in viticulture and enology.

She began working at Saintsbury in 2006 as associate winemaker, and in 2013 became the winemaker there. In 2015, she moved to Bouchaine, accepting the position that she holds today.

This Carneros AVA estate was founded in 1981 by Tatiana and Gerret Copeland.

Bouchaine is one of the oldest continuously operating family-run properties in the Carneros AVA. Of the estate’s 87 planted acres, 46 are dedicated to Pinot Noir and 31 to Chardonnay; the remaining 10 acres grow Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Meunier, and Syrah.

Let’s talk to Kajani, and hear what she has to say about, among other things, sneaking a bottle of Riesling into a movie theater.

James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?

Chris Kajani: Professionally, it was incredibly lonely. No guests at the winery, no travel to enjoy winemaker dinners with fans or at events, and a constant anxiety over the health of our team, our families, our community, and our industry. Personally, I was strengthened by family and community bonds. I drew, and continue to draw, a deep satisfaction from working with a team that is world class in the wine business. 

Our team pivoted with grace and seized a moment to cultivate a robust virtual tasting program that has propelled our business forward. Bouchaine was one of the first wineries to introduce virtual tastings that offer guests a variety of different experiences, from a tasting of Pinot Noir blends versus single clones, to wine and chocolate or cheese pairings, and even virtual falconry demonstrations. Upcoming — wine and bourbon tastings, and also pairing Bouchaine wines with music selections from the Philadelphia Orchestra. Because of our team’s hard work we are hosting corporate and group virtual tastings multiple times a day, which has allowed Bouchaine to thrive throughout a challenging time.

JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?

CK: 2020 Bouchaine Vin Gris of Pinot Noir ($29): Just released and bursting with guava, watermelon, and nectarine flavors. The bright acidity and tangy mouthfeel work with a multitude of dishes but sings with anything off the grill (scallops, chicken, salmon). It can be purchased on our website.

A beautiful shade of Pinot Noir.

2018 Bouchaine Pommard Clone Pinot Noir, Estate Selection ($65):  All blue fruit (plum, blueberry) with hints of mocha and cigar tobacco. The Pommard clone showcases a lush creamier palate, a huge crowd-pleaser. Try with lamb chops, or cocoa/espresso-rubbed hangar steak.

The 2013 Domaine Carneros Le Reve Blanc de Blancs ($120): A favorite of Team Bouchaine. Their winemaker, Zak Miller, was one of my interns when I was making wine at Saintsbury, and he is gifted in the magic of crafting sparkling wine. We love the nutty character, texture, and play on beautiful fruit layers and ginger spice.  

This one is worthy of cellaring until 2035, at least.

JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.

CK: I need a bottle of the 170-year-old Champagne that was discovered in the shipwreck off the coast of Finland in 2015. As a Champagne junkie, that would be the ultimate wine experience.

JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?

CK: Pinot Noir is my first love; I like the yin/yang of its character. It’s a shapeshifter — so intoxicating, yet fickle. Pinot Noir showcases layers of depth and intrigue, but it’s also thin-skinned. It grows more succulent over time and also has a legitimate reputation for being difficult. There is no shortage of personality in great Pinot Noir.  

Chris Kajani working in a Bouchaine vineyard. (Photo by Bob McClenehan)

JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day? 

CK: Pick a cooler vintage full of tension, texture, and bright acidity. The 2008, 2009, and 2010 Pinot Noirs from Carneros are gorgeous right now. For more current releases, try the 2018 Bouchaine Swan Clone Pinot Noir, Estate Selection, which is bright and graceful, but with an underlying current of strength and ageability.

JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?

CK: I love the Carneros Resort and Spa and spend as much time as I can on the lovely patio outside of FARM restaurant. FARM has an amazing wine list (thanks to the über talented Zion Curiel) and delectable food (Chef Aaron Meneghelli rocks) I am also devoted to Bistro Don Giovanni (Chef Scott Warner’s pastas and salmon!).

Bouchaine Vineyards, where the views are things of beauty.

JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?

CK: Drink what you like. Then find a local wine shop and link up with someone who can recommend wines based on what you enjoy. This opens up another exciting dimension of wine when you can taste what is happening across the wine world.  And travel! Visiting wine regions brings not only the wine, but the culture, people, and history into your muscle memory when you open those bottles. Every bottle of wine tells a story; the more you know about where it comes from or who made it, the greater the enjoyment.

JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?

CK: My dad’s wine cellar, circa 1990. Napa Valley showing off beautiful wines from the 1970s and 1980s.

JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career?

CK: We snuck a bottle of Riesling into a movie once and during one of those quiet emotional scenes we knocked it over — with the entire theater listening to it roll down many rows (screw top, thankfully). The people that caught it handed it back to us and the entire theater cheered.

Unoaked and ready for a new season in the EPL.

JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?

CK: “In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it.”

― Napoleon Bonaparte

Or when our 2018 Bouchaine Unoaked Estate Chardonnay was compared to Ted Lasso by R.H. Drexel – I fell on the floor laughing.  So perfect.

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