Winemakers and Their Muses

November 8, 2022 – A somewhat ragged and admittedly hungover panel of six winemakers gathered to share their stories and their inspirations at The Loft at Ventana, on a clear and restorative Friday morning, that just happened to be the day after the big opening night party for Big Sur Food & Wine 2022.

Always energetic and beaming good vibes, BSFW foundation president Aengus Wagner breezed in to introduce the session. “We’re so fortunate to have this esteemed group here today, especially considering the epic party we had last night!” he began. He thanked the team from The Sommelier Gang, many of them also having participated in the glorious excesses of the previous evening, who had gotten up early to prepare the room, polish and lay out the glassware and pour the 12 wines we had before us to contemplate. Each winemaker chose two wines: one they had produced under their own label and one from Europe that represented the muse behind their particular wine. A fascinating concept that gave us all a window into what makes these very different, yet simpatico dudes fire up their engines every day.

“This is the most exciting kind of wine seminar we do,” Wagner told us. “Our inspiration comes from the idea of the land as muse. We’ve done Chardonnay and the Muse and Pinot Noir and the Muse. At the Chardonnay Muse seminar, Pax Mahle sat next to Paul Draper, which blew me away because Paul really wanted to be on the panel, but you don’t think of Ridge for Chardonnay. It turned out that Paul brought his favorite Chardonnay, which just happened to be from his neighbor, Mount Eden. What a moment! The most magical and special moments ever occur during Big Sur Food and Wine. It’s why we love creating this event!”

With that, he was off. First up was Baron Ziegler of Marine Layer Wines, who echoed the introduction saying, “We are all hung over, so ask us real questions and we will answer honestly with what is in our heads, as we can’t think of anything else!”

Tasting his muse wine, which was a 2020 Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc ($100), he noted he was drawn to the minerality of it. He described the wine as very chalky with buttered corn from the oak, and yet it was wrapped in a fresh layer of lemon. Next to it, the 2019 Marine Layer Durrell Vineyard Chardonnay was a bright, intense wine of considerable depth and persistence, showing Bosc pear, quince and flamed Meyer lemon peel. It was far more minerally and complex than the Leflaive. Marine Layer wines are made strictly from coastal vineyards from Annapolis to Petaluma Gap. Ziegler—who bankrolled the brand after selling Banshee wines—says he aims to make cool climate wines that defy California’s sunny high alcohol reputation. “You can make 12.5% and 13% wines with crazy depth and intensity.”

He also pointed out, “All the Muse wines here today are from Europe: but we are not trying to make European wine. In fact, we can’t make European wine, nor would we try! However, with climate change, it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between California and European wines in blind tastings.”

Next up was Mike Giugni of Scar of the Sea, whose winemaker wife, Gina, also in attendance at the seminar, has her own brand, Lady of the Sunshine. He is fascinated by Solera wines, and was inspired by the wines of the Jura, which shares the exact same soils as Burgundy, 200 miles away. Once connected, they were separated by geological forces. Both have lots of marl and limestone, and instead of being relatively flat, Jura is up against the hills in a rather dramatic fashion, reminscent of many Central Coast vineyards.

Guigni says it’s easier to make low pH in the natural style he espouses. “Jura teaches you about long elevage to gain stability, which will allow the wine to age OK in the bottle.”

His Jura wine muse was a 2019 Domaine des Marnes Blanches “En Quatre Vis” Cotes du Jura Chardonnay, which is done with very low sulfur, but is not oxidative in style. This was quite sweet on the top with a deep richness beneath, like a baked meringue with toasted marshmallow atop a banana and chestnut pudding.

Guigni’s NV Scar of the Sea Solera Chardonnay hailed from Rancho Tepusquet in the Santa Maria Valley. His initial foray into Solera was with sparkling in 2014. This proved quite perfumey and complex, with pretty golden apple and Comice pear.

Patrick Cappiello would stand out in any crowd, including this one. Lanky and tall, he manages to tower ever so slightly above Pax Mahle and Andy Peay, neither of whom is vertically challenged. “Without a doubt, I am the biggest degenerate here,” admitted the knit cap wearing New Yorker and self-professed aspiring winemaker. “I’m also the most hung over.” His honesty and black fingernail polish endeared him to the crowd. Introducing his muse wine, a racy and peppery 2020 Burlotto Verduna Pelaverga from Piedmont, one got a sense he is a food person above all. This is lovely and lively, reminiscent of Trousseau. It’s definitely one of those chillable quaffable reds that sells for around $30.

Cappiello, a renowned and decorated sommelier (“Sommelier of the Year 2014” by Food & Wine Magazine, “Wine Person of the Year 2014” by Imbibe Magazine, and “Sommelier of the Year 2015” by Eater National), has worked for over 26 years in hospitality. He got his start at TriBeca Grill as their first sommelier. He’s also worked at Veritas, Pearl & Ash and G1LT in New York City. After a restaurant he got involved in tanked, he found himself at a crossroads at age 45. “I called my buddy Pax (Mahle, seated next to him on the panel), moved to Sonoma and crashed on his couch. I decided just like every Somm I’ve met lately that I wanted to make wine. Except I decided to live in Occidental, which is the worst place you can live if you are a single guy.”

His brand name is Monte Rio, a town along the Russian River that has an old theater. He aims to make wines in the pre-Robert Parker style, preferring 1970s BV and Charles Krug, meaning low alcohol and no heavy oak, and his label is a throwback to that old school era. He chose as his grape something his mentor and buddy Tegan Passalacqua discovered in Lodi and fell in love with: Mission.

Originally from the Canary Islands, the grape made its way to South America, where it came to be known as Pais in Chile and Criolla Chica in Argentina. As the Spanish colonized North America using the Franciscan missionaries as chief installers of culture, it became the grape used for making communion wine. Planted around the missions, the grape took on that name. It was typically made in a fortified sweet style, called Angelica.

Cappiello’s 2020 Monte Rio Cellars Mission wine comes from vines that are essentially 10½ foot trees. The grape tends to be tannic, so Cappiello was advised “Don’t do carbonic! De-stem!” Heeding this advice by ash-canning it, he decided to do whole cluster, which resulted in a wine that has plum skin tannins and flavors of sweet cherry and sweet-sour red plums. It sells for around $23, because he wants his wines to be affordable.

Half joking, he took his buddy Pax to task for helping to elevate the popularity of the Mission grape, which is seeing a renaissance as the next gen winemakers seek out non-mainstream varieties, by raising its price from $600/ton to $1k. “Young winemakers are going to Lodi to buy grapes. It’s the only place they can afford.” One wonders how long this will be the case.

It was time to move from the tale of one aspiring winemaker to someone who has been making his mark for well over two decades now, first with Syrah and now with Pinot Noir: Bradley Brown of Big Basin Vineyards. Never have I seen Bradley be the poster boy for the cleanest cut, most un-hungover winemaker on a panel. He looked like he stepped right out of GQ, sans the cologne. He explained how he bought this rugged piece of land a few miles from Big Basin Park over 24 years ago, finding remnants of grapevines climbing the trees. They had been planted by the Frenchman who owned the property in the 1800s. Initially committed to setting the world ablaze with Syrah, a passion still shared by panelists Pax Mahle and Andy Peay, Brown was bucking the wagon in the Santa Cruz Mountains at the time, which was all about Pinot Noir. His first encounter with the grape came courtesy of local legend, Jeff Emery, who needed a place to crush his fruit after the sale of the Jarvis Road property he had farmed with Ken Burnap. “Do you want some Pinot Noir?” Emery asked Brown. “In trade for Syrah?” And thus Pinot Noir became part of the Big Basin Vineyards lexicon and legacy. A doctor friend who was a Burgundy collector turned Brown onto the style of Pinot Noir that he chose to emulate, a 1970s Domaine Dujac Bonnes Mares, made with a fair amount of whole cluster.

“I could not get my nose out of the glass!” says Brown. “That exotic perfume! It showed me what Pinot could be.” He loved how wines like that were so transparent to the site.

After working with Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir from vineyards like Alfaro, Lester and Woodruff (now Ferrari Ranch), he knew it was time to sacrifice some of his Syrah for Pinot Noir, and grafted over a section of the old homestead that faces east, overlooking the San Lorenzo Valley watershed as it slopes towards Silicon Valley.

Tasting Bradley’s current muse was a surprisingly clear lens into his current style. The 2019 Stephane Magnien “Les Sentiers” Chambolle-Musigny Premiere Cru (around $100) was a revelation. Aromatically generous with rose petals, olives, violets and plum blossoms, the texture was sublime, ever changing, nuanced and classic. Something to swing for. Of all the Muse wines poured at the panel, this was a standout. As was the 2019 Big Basin Vineyards Old Corral Pinot Noir ($65), a stunner with its floral bouquet, accented by orange peel and yuzu. Made from Swan and Mt. Eden clones, this wine is ballerina graceful, showing off cinnamon, forest floor, green olive and pepperberry. Complex yet ethereal, it’s hard to believe it is 100% whole cluster and spends two winters – deux hivers, as the French say – in barrel. “We use very, very light toast,” says Brown. “This yields transparent wines.”

He also uses a basket press, for gentle processing, using only native yeast and adding a small bit of SO2: just enough to preserve the vineyard, says Brown. After all that work, he has no intention of bottling a wine that might go sideways.

Cappiello then introduced his buddy Pax Mahle, saying that he had taken a huge gamble by making Syrah his Muse and focus from the outset of his winemaking career, during which he has proved a mentor to so many. He also praised Mahle for being “kind and generous, and a bit of a dick at times.” Mahle demonstrated the veracity of that dichotomy by gesturing towards his fellow panelists who had preceded him, saying, “Thanks for the amuse bouche, guys! Now it’s time for the meal! We’re all here to drink Syrah!” He then introduced his Muse wine, the 2020 Domaine de Gouye Saint Joseph Villes Vignes ($35), calling it “the epitome of what this panel is all about.” The wine, which hails from the northern Rhone, where the soils are heavy granite, mica and shale, was all that: white pepper, strawberry jam, rhubarb, bay leaf and a wonderful texture, almost chewy, like an olive oil polenta cake. Mahle explained that in France, granitic soils are naturally high pH, so they yield wines quite plentiful in acid. Indeed, it was, and so incredibly fresh. Although this particular wine, sourced only from hillside vineyards, was done in foudre, Mahle uses no new wood in the making of his own Syrah.

Mahle got his start in the wine business as an 18-year old bus boy at a Michelin-starred restaurant on Nantucket, where he served fine wines to a tony clientele and found himself drinking Bordeaux before he was 21. In 2000, having never worked in a winery, and not knowing how to turn on a pump or use a press, he teamed up with a couple of winemakers for his first foray into grapeland. When he heard them talking about what they intended to add to the wine, he realized he had to take matters in hand. “As soon as the fruit arrived, I bought a case of beer and a bottle of tequila for the cellar crew. I crushed with my feet and it turned out pretty good!” Cappiello added, “Yeah, his winemaking formula hasn’t changed much, except now it’s a case of Modelo and 2 bottles of tequila.”

The example Mahle poured, the 2021 Pax “Sonoma Hillsides” Syrah ($55), was made from organic grapes from many hillside vineyards, 100% whole cluster and foot trod in concrete, as it is easier to keep the must wet. Bottled in August, this is young kickass Syrah that practically takes the top of your head off with the abundance of pepper, both black and white. It’s a mighty mélange of blueberry, bay leaf, sumac, huckleberry and rosemary: the perfect pairing for fall and winter stews. “Yes, it can age,” said Mahle. “But please, drink it now!” One of the things he loves about Syrah as the complexity it gains from its eternal hangtime. Which is one of the things that is also a challenge with Syrah. He was still picking Syrah this year on October 28.

Finishing out the panel discussion was Andy Peay, whose vineyard property in Annapolis on the Western Sonoma coast, which he farms with his brother, is 53 acres, of which 35 are Pinot Noir. Andy credits his brother, Nick, with turning him on to wine and to Syrah in particular. After attending Dartmouth, working on Wall Street for a spell, and toying with the idea of being a chef, Andy says a bottle of Syrah blew their collective minds when paired with lamb. He decided to pursue wine, took classes at UC Davis, worked a harvest at Cain, did a stint at The Jug Shop in San Francisco and in 1996, he and his brother bought an old sheep ranch in Annapolis. Home to many apple and pear trees, it was idyllic and fog-blessed. It seemed a perfect site for two guys and a gal — Nick’s wife Vanessa Wong is the winemaker—who wanted to make wines that demonstrated transparency of site. After getting an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Andy and Nick began planting the first 30 acres in 1998. You never know when an MBA might come in handy when picking Syrah on a cold damp day right before Thanksgiving. Their first vintage was 2001. Not bad. “We’re from the famous winegrowing region of Cleveland, Ohio,” said Peay. It appears they’ve found their true calling, above the Pacific.

Peay brought the oldest wines to the seminar, both 2016s and both Syrahs. The 2016 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie ($200+), showed aromas of strong tea, licorice, bacon and dark cherry, with exotic spices pervading. On the silky but still firm palate, huckleberry, black cherry and olives made an appearance, along with red chile pepper. Intriguing and holding many layers like a good novel, it was done 100% whole cluster.

So, too, was the 2016 Peay “Les Titans” Estate Syrah, an homage to the towering giant redwoods of the northern California coast. “Our yields are terribly low. We just planted two more acres of Syrah.” They have 8 different clones of Syrah there, something he feels is really important to the complexity. The 2016 showed the beautiful concentration you’d expect from a low-yielding site. It’s pure blueberry and huckleberry pie, redolent of nutmeg and cinnamon, and delivering pretty much everything the bouquet suggested. Just beautiful.

The whole cluster topic generated much discussion among the panelists as we wrapped up. Some started out hating it, but have come to appreciate it. Not every clone of Pinot Noir might be a candidate, for example. Peay says he thinks Calera, Pommard and 667 are often good choices for some whole cluster, but he’s found Swan, Mount Eden and 777 don’t benefit from this treatment.

Bradley Brown says he thinks Grenache needs to be foot tread and fermented cooler to give it an aromatic lift and perfume. “The stems deliver a very fine dense tannin when lignified.”

Peay might not use as much whole cluster as others, but he told us, “I think whole cluster adds an extra texture, a bit of smoke and a definite lift to Syrah where we are. The wines are dense and this adds a bit of perfume.”

Pax Mahle offered an intriguing analogy. He said that using whole cluster in winemaking was like “cooking a fish on the bone and steak on the bone: it adds intensity and wildness.”

Personally, I will never look at whole cluster without that image in my mind.

Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.