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 some of my 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.
The first time I drank a wine made by David Ramey was epiphanic. I recall that I took a few sips, then put down the glass, savoring the whole of the moment. “This stuff is quality,” I said to myself. It was probably early in 2003, in Brooklyn, during dinner at home. A friend had brought the bottle of Chardonnay with him, and we were cooking flounder. It was a perfect wine, a perfect fish, and a perfect evening.
Since then, I have opened and enjoyed many bottles produced by Ramey Wine Cellars, and they’ve never disappointed. Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons, Syrahs … not one was lacking.
I have written about Ramey and his wines, and I’ve read a lot about him and his approach to winemaking. This past September I met him at his winery, in Healdsburg, California. Angela, my wife, and I walked the short distance to the facility from the house in which we were staying, and Ramey, who was out front with members of his team, invited us to share their harvest-lunch food and wine. Sitting there, my mind went briefly back to that evening in Brooklyn, and the Chardonnay. It was as if a journey 17 years in the making had reached its destination.
After lunch, we went upstairs to Ramey’s office and had a comprehensive tasting. Ramey talked about his relationships with growers and other winemakers, and he enthusiastically took us through the bottles. It was a productive afternoon.
Ramey founded Ramey Wine Cellars with his wife, Carla, in 1996, and before that worked with Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Dominus Estate and Rudd Estate. He holds a graduate degree from U.C. Davis — his thesis, written in 1979, is a seminal one, and if you want to learn how aromas evolve in wine, read it.
And Ramey Wine Cellars is a family affair; Carla and the couple’s children, Claire and Alan, are integral to the enterprise, and more than a few Ramey employees have been with the winery for nearly two decades.
Ramey’s demeanor is relaxed but exact; while he guided us through the tasting that afternoon he answered my questions with directness and clarity. He is a man who clearly loves what he does for a living, and what he bottles is a delicious demonstration of that love.
We left Ramey that afternoon with a recommendation for dinner that evening, Baci in Healdsburg. The man has great taste.
Let’s see what Ramey has to say in Wine Talk:
James Brock: 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?
David Ramey: Well, I assume you’re asking about our wines, so I’ll answer to that: 1) 2017 (or 2016) Fort Ross-Seaview Chardonnay, $42, widely available — or directly from us, www.rameywine.com. 2) 2017 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, $50, somewhat available, or from us. 3) 2015 Napa Valley Cabernet, $62, fairly available, or from us. Foods, in sequence: Chard — any seafood — salmon, crab, lobster, shrimp, scallops, halibut, sea bass. Pinot — almost anything! Cab — you know the drill — beef, lamb, chicken. For all three, nothing spicy hot or sweet (except the Pinot, which goes great with Thai).
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why?
DR: A 1989 Petrus, because Carla and I were married in Montagne-Saint-Émilion while working chez Moueix, and she picked those grapes.
JB: What is your favorite grape, and why?
DR: I’m loving cool-climate Syrah these days … (plus the odd bottle of Brunello).
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?
DR: Our Pedregal Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet, any vintage.
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside your home and workplace)?
DR: Baci in Healdsburg (closely followed by Campofina, Barndiva, and Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar).
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
DR: Just as when you (or at least I) buy a car —stretch just a little — spend a little bit more than you thought you should.
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
DR: The long drive from Mexicali to Hermosillo in 1974, wondering what I was going to do next: The inspiration came to me, “Why not make wine?”
JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career?
DR: I was monitoring the top of a 12,000-gallon tank of fermenting Chenin Blanc at Simi Winery in the early ’80’s, and we wanted to mix it, so a cellar worker put a propeller mixer into the racking valve down below. We turned it on and off slowly several times — no reaction. So we left it on longer … disaster! The overflow went for minutes; the aisle was 6-inches deep in wine. We lost a thousand gallons and learned that you don’t do that to a tank of fermenting wine.
JB: What is your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?
DR: “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”
And: “I drank a bottle of wine for company. It was Château Margaux. It was pleasant to be drinking slowly and to be tasting the wine and to be drinking alone. A bottle of wine was good company.”
Both from Hemingway.
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