The California wine industry, from the inside out

It’s been almost three weeks now that I’ve been part of the “big American wine industry”. I finally got a job at a small, family-run winery called Derbés. As soon I was offered the job, we moved up to northern California from Los Angeles, where we’d been staying. We set up camp here in Santa Rosa, the biggest city in the Russian River Valley, about the size of Pécs. There are many wineries in the area, and it won’t be easy, but we plan on visiting them all. If I take Napa and Sonoma under one hat, and why wouldn’t I when there’s only a "measly" little mountain range separating the two, then this is the biggest interconnected wine region in the U.S. We’ve heard both good stories and bad about region, but let’s see what’s the truth. …

We’ve spent a lot of time in Sonoma over the past two months familiarizing ourselves with the area, visiting wineries, and going to job interviews. We are very thankful to our friends Amanda McPhee (wine consultant at Sauska winery in Villány until January this year) and Ryan O'Donnelll, a winemaker at Kosta Browne (number four on this year’s Wine Spectator Top 100 list) who’ve been a huge help, teaching us the lay of the land and explaining to us how things work around here. By the way, we’re are staying with them here in Santa Rosa until we find a place of our own. This living arrangement comes with a lot of perks, one of which is all the fabulous wine we drink day after day, wines that simple mortals don’t get to easily!

So, it’s been three weeks since I’ve started working at this small winery doing a little bit of everything. Cecilé, the French owner/winemaker, started the winery in 2001 with her husband, Billy. Previously, she worked at Opus One as the Director of Production, which isn’t saying much in Hungarian, but it is the position right under the head winemaker. Cecilé and her husband started making their own wine nine years ago and, until now, solely from grapes purchased from other vineyards. In the meantime, they’ve been busy planting their own two-hectare vineyard, which stretches out in front of their house. This vineyard is now four years old and this year will be its first harvest. They’ve planted four varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Syrah.

The main building of the winery is not finished yet and is still waiting on a few permits, so until then, we’re working in a rented custom crush winery. A custom crush winery is a winery, about the size of Malatinsky winery, that has all the equipment needed to run a winery and rents it out to about ten winemakers that don’t have a winery of their own. This is a great concept because if someone has passion and dedication, but not the resources to make their own wine, they can still do so without having to invest millions. You can buy the grapes—even the best grapes, though you’ll have to reach deeper into your pocket—and rent the winery where your grapes will be processed and the wine stored and bottled. It’s not by accident they call this the land of opportunity. The technology they use here has also been the source of pleasant surprises. I appreciate the amount of care and attention given to their wines, consciously avoiding anything that could cause harm. For example, we’ve racked wine a few times since I’ve been here, but I haven’t yet used a pump. I was a bit surprised to hear that they don’t really use pumps around here, not wanting to overwork the wine. We rack the wines by pumping nitrogen gas into the barrels to get the wine out and use simple gravity to get the wine back in. Wineries choose their barrels with great care and tend to have a greater selection of barrels than they do in Hungary. This has a huge impact on the wine’s quality. And seeing the winery equipment, the hydraulic press, the open oak and steel tanks etc., harvest will also carry a few surprises—that I’m sure of.

But that’s a little bit away. Now, we’re in the middle of bud break. We’ve completely finished pruning and I’ll finish tying up the vines this week. You can already see the little shoots peeking out from the vines and in just a few weeks, the grapes will begin to flower. The weather is gorgeous with cool nights, thick morning fogs, and sunny, warm days about 25 degrees. Life here is very peaceful; can’t imagine anyone ever having a heart attack in these parts. I think you’ll see this in the pictures I took. Check them out in the gallery!

And what will the 2010 vintage be like? Outstanding of course! This vintage has my hand in it and my heart! To be continued!

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