Doug
Hey, everybody. Doug Shafer, welcome to another episode of The Taste. Real pleasure today to have a promising up and comer Napa Valley winemaker. I first met her. Well, I didn't meet her, at the time. I watched her playing youth sports in St. Helena alongside my kids. back in the mid-2000s. Naturally lost track of her, then reacquainted a few months ago, Chelsea, we were doing a premiere Napa Valley Zoom webinar deal and at that point, it's like, I got to get Chelsea on the podcast. So Chelsea Barrett, winemaker, Napa Valley, welcome to The Taste.
Chelsea
Thank you for having me.
Doug
It's so good to have you here. I've really been looking forward to this because, as you know, we've had most your family on this podcast. Your granddad Richard Peterson, your mom, Heidi Barrett, and your dad, Bo Barrett. And now you, I think -
Chelsea
Yes, I've listened to all those episodes and they're all really fun to hear. All their stories.
Doug
I'm sure you've heard them a few times, but, maybe some new ones.
Chelsea
Some new ones. Yeah.
Doug
So anyway, obviously born here in Napa Valley, I'm assuming. Early memories about growing up here in the valley and Chateau Montelena, Calistoga. Talk to me about that.
Chelsea
Yeah. So I grew up in Calistoga. my parents live, in a house that is, their their property is near the Montelena property. So there's they adjoin through. So it was a very rural place to grow up. And so it was just, me and my sister. So it was really a make your own fun sort of place and we were always very into, making different art projects, working in the garden with my mom. And we had, we had horses also so we were always, you know, riding in the vineyards and, spent a lot of time going to work with both my parents. We hung out at Montelena a lot. And any time as a kid, if you if you need money, there's always a job to do in a winery.
So we really spent a lot of time, at, at both of their jobs.
Doug
Cool. So you were, you're out in the country. That's what you're into. And, and and, when you got into school and activity sports or anything like that.
Chelsea
Yeah. So, so my sister and I, yeah, we both played softball, growing up and so through, through in high school, that was, I would say, like my main organized activity, but mostly we did, yeah, a lot of different art projects.
We were always, you know, sewing and making things and, definitely a rotating, rotating amount of hobbies. I was always very into baking, too, and and still am.
Doug
All right. Good. And high school was high school in St. Helena or Calistoga?
Chelsea
Neither. I we I went to Ursuline in Santa Rosa.
Doug
Okay, great.
Chelsea
Yeah. Yeah,
Doug
How about, during school, other kids whose family owned wineries in Napa. Sonoma.
Chelsea
Well, absolutely. Yeah. So for kindergarten through eighth grade, I went to St. Helena Catholic, which is now defunct. But yeah, I definitely it's a lot, of lot of very familiar last names, of course, of like Trinchero, Chiarello, Mondavi, like so many different kids.
And so I feel like there's a lot of people that I lost track of for a while. And a lot of people had, left Napa Valley working on, you know, building their careers in other places. And now I'm seeing more and more people come back in their 30s. So it's kind of fun to, to run into people who, have lived elsewhere for a while. And so there's still a lot of us around who went to Catholic school.
Doug
And I'm flashing back on where you guys grew up, you and your sister, with your folks and being that close to the winery and back and forth. But it probably the whole life cycle of the wine business and the vintage and from, you know, frost machines going off in the spring, in the middle of the night to hot summer days, to irrigation, to harvest, bottling days when your folks have to get up at dawn and get in to sterilize a bottling line and then harvest and long days and feeding the crews.
I mean, that was probably, I'm assuming, was that just kind of ingrained in your memory banks? I mean, that was just it. Were you were you aware of all that, all those types of things going on and when you were a kid?
Chelsea
Yes, but it's something where it's when it's your whole world and you don't know anything outside of that. Like you sort of assume that everybody's life is like that. And because there's so many, you know, all the other kids who lived upvalley, then most people's families worked for a winery. So that was pretty normal of like what you would talk about with other kids at school. Your other friends, like, yeah, most people are pretty familiar with, with that, the only, the first experience I had that was really eye opening that not everybody lived that way was I went to summer camp, when I was seven, in Clallam, Washington, to a horse camp, and it was like, oh my gosh, all these city kids from Seattle and Belfast of like, yeah, of just completely different upbringings of what it was like to, to live in a city also.
Doug
So as a kid and as you start to get, you know, older and high school and maybe thinking about career, were you always thinking about wine at that point or with other, other interests? Because I know you had others.
Chelsea
Yeah, it was on my mind. I would say I was always very good at at math and science, and I was, I liked art as well. So I had a mix of interests. I thought I would probably do something more, more math heavy. I thought about, architecture and engineering.
I thought about being a doctor. If all these different things. But I really loved UC Davis. I had been, been to Picnic Day as a kid there, and I just loved the campus. I just loved everything about Davis, of seeing everybody cruise around on their bikes and seeing all the livestock and, the quad there. Just everything about Davis seemed so incredible to me.
And then my sister is two years older and she was already going there. So I had been visiting Davis, for a couple of years already when I wanted to go to college. So I. Davis was still, I knew I wanted to go there, no matter what I was going to study. And then it seemed sort of like, okay, well, let's just start this.
I'll declare for viticulture and enology. And then all of the, you know, prerequisite classes, the first couple of years are mostly math and science. If I wanted to switch to something medical later, I would already be ready to do that. But then once I started taking more of the wine classes, then all of the things that I'd been doing for years, you know, my high school jobs of topping barrels, then it starts to click of like, oh, that's why we do that, you know, understanding the why behind, you know, the level of cleanliness of how I'd been cleaning tanks, all of these things really started to make way more sense for understanding what I had been doing already in wineries.
Doug
So must be kind of fun. Did you ever call your folks up and say, hey, now I know. Now I know why you made me scrub that thing so much.
Chelsea
Yes, yes I did. Yeah, we got to talk about it a lot, which was fun.
Doug
That's kind of fun, and I can, I can, you know, I've been on the other side of it when my kids call me and have revelations like that, that it happened a few times in college and it was it was a lot of fun. It's like, because all of us, you know, it was from a parent's point of view, it was like your kids calling you up and saying, hey, you do that, right?
So yeah, we do that and go, that's really good. My profs. That's a really good way too good thing to do when you manage a business as well. Thank you, son. You've got to.
Chelsea
Yes. Absolutely. Glad you're seeing it.
Doug
Finally. But, you know, I think they both went to Davis, right?
Chelsea
No, my mom went to Davis and my dad moved around a bit. He went to, well, University of Utah and, and then mostly, mostly Fresno. He did take a few classes at Davis, but, he, he considers Fresno to be his alma mater.
Doug
Oh, for sure. And great, great enology program. So but you know, you're going to the, the courses you know, much later. You know, many years past them. Were there new things they were teaching you at Davis that kind of maybe weren't the same that your folks did. I'm sure there were. But would that generate I mean, would you call and say, hey, I think, mom, dad, I think you guys are doing that wrong. I mean, what to do that ever happen? It's kind of cool.
Chelsea
I don't know if there was ever anything that I called out. I think there were a lot of things that were very similar, even down to when my mom had been at Davis. So, Roger Bolton had, had just started at that time. And then my mom had done research in Hildegarde Hayman's lab when she was a grad student.
And so it was very fun to see the overlap. And, yeah. So some of the same professors, but then some new also, of course. And so I was still, I think the last class where we still had our, our winemaking lab was in Wickson in before having the new, the new Mondavi Center. So I had a few classes in Mondavi, but we didn't use that winery yet.
So I'm still jealous of seeing how fancy all those little automatic fermenters are. And, like, no, we would have to go in on the weekends and do our punch downs three times a day, and yeah, so there's still even more new things with Davis. That's really cool that, even I feel like I'm like, you know, a generation behind on some of the new, new things coming out of Davis.
Doug
Oh, I'm with you. I drove through Davis, who was about 4 or 5 months ago, just for fun. I tried to find all the 4 or 5 places I'd lived, you know, around town and I found three of them, but I couldn't find two others. I think they tore them down and built subdivisions or something like that, which is kind of weird, because you kind of think it's always going to stay the same. But it doesn’t.
Chelsea
Yeah. And then it's changed a lot.
Doug
Yeah. How about classmates of Davis and Enology program? Any anybody else? Anybody we might know around here?
Chelsea
Yeah, absolutely. So, Marc Gagnon, who's at Caldwell. Let's see, I could, you know, list a whole bunch. So Maura Christophers, who's now Maura Johnson, works for Dana.
Let's see. I wish I had prepared better on this one, but. Yeah. So, Brittany, Brittany Sherwood, who was, Brittany Deb, she was a year behind me, a Davis. She's the Heitz winemaker, and we're, we're good friends. Yeah, definitely a lot of classmates, but I still see a lot of. Oh. Alex Farber, also who works for Naked Wines, is, a close friend.
Yeah. So definitely a mix of mix of people from Davis, that are still around. I know some of my friends, like Jesse Clemenson moved to, moved to McMinnville. So she works in vineyard management there. So some people scattered, but yeah, a lot stayed in Napa.
Doug
That's nice. You got, you know, a core group with a lot of history. You know, it's nice to have people to call up and say, hey, you know, have you ever seen this before? Those types of things?
Chelsea
Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Mark Davis also who, is a good friend who, is a winemaker. And we do that a lot, too. We'll catch up and just kind of see how, how harvest is going. What are you seeing?
Doug
Yeah. For sure. Always. And, and equipment. I remember it used to be a big help with that. If I was looking for a new press or filter or something like that, having folks I knew, you know, who had experience with it was a lot of help. So it's always good to have.
Chelsea
Absolutely. Yeah. If you're anything you want to research, then it doesn't take more than a few phone calls of, friends to get the answer you're looking for of a winery that you can, you know, somebody who's going to let you come by and, observe of how they use this piece of equipment.
Doug
Right? Because the sales guys, they never know that, you know, you should correct that valve when you're getting to the top of the tank or this or that, all the little all those things that we know about. Cool. So after Davis then what happened? Where did you go?
Chelsea
Yeah. So after that, I went to work in Austria, which when I was at Davis, it had definitely been, you know, of course, everybody's talking about like, oh, where are you going to go to intern and, you know, France, Germany or like, or mostly it was France and Spain and Italy were the ones people talked about.
And I was like, yeah, I want to do something different. And so I had known this guy named Franz Regner since I was a kid. He was an Austrian intern who had worked at Montelena, when I was a kid. And we always he came a couple of years in a row, and our families always stayed really close.
And so then Franz, going back to, if you know anything about the Austrian wine industry, Franz is very, very well-known there. But he also created a program in Austria to help Austrian students, to work abroad, and then also to bring international, you know, wine students to work at wineries in Austria. So I did the program with him to help get a placement, at a winery in Austria.
And then he had asked like, oh, where do you want to be? Do you want to be in Wachau? Like, do you want to be in Burgenland or Vienna? And I was like, oh, wait, stop there. Vienna. And so, I wanted to be in Vienna because again, I am from Calistoga. And so it was such an incredible opportunity to work for a winery, but also live in a major city.
So that was really, you know, there's there's nothing else like that. and so the winery I worked for is called Mayer am Pfarrplatz, and it's in the north part of the city, a district that's called Grinzing, and then the wine region there is the Nussberg so that translates to Nut Hill. and it's a very cool place.
So it's very, you know, historic based on the proximity to Vienna, like one of the main things there is Gemischter Satz, which is like a field blend, literally. So all these different estates there have, you know, they're kind of specific thing of all these very, very unusual varieties, things like Rotgipfler and, different Traminers, you know, all kinds of stuff that, you tend to not see as single varietal things here.
Doug
Oh, how fun that must mean great seeing new grapes and new wines. What a kick that must been great.
Chelsea
Absolutely. Yeah.
Doug
And, what what what was your job? Where did you do everything or anything specific?
Chelsea
Yeah, a bit of everything. So I worked in the cellar. The, Mayer am Pfarrplatz is, a winery that was built in the 1600s. So the cellar is very old. It's all underground under the winery. So, the crush pad is up top, and then all of the tanks and everything is is down below. So the winemaker and I were mostly on the, you know, the below deck, and then, and then there was a, there like cellar master was usually up top.
So she would run the press like pretty much everything we had was, was whites. All, you know, Riesling, Gruner and yeah, Gewurztraminer, things like that. And then we only had one one little bit of Pinot.
Doug
Got it.
Chelsea
And so then, so she was up top getting things pressed, and then, and then his name is Dragos Pavelescu. I think he's the head winemaker there now. And we're still very good friends. he's a Romanian guy who's like, one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's, yeah, we still sent each other research papers to this day. and, So. Yeah, so he and I were below just running, running the cellar, doing doing everything.
And it's a lot of different wines, you know, tons of different very small tanks and all from all these little, you know, microclimates there.
Doug
How fun. How, how long were you there for?
Chelsea
I was there for five months.
Doug
Okay. Hey, I have a question. A question just I'm kind of curious because, you know, hospitality has become such a big part of, you know, the North Coast, Napa Valley wineries, you know, most California winery, just hospitality, tasting visit. What was it like there in Vienna? Was that a big part of the whole program at that place?
Chelsea
Oh, absolutely. It's so cool. It's actually like a Unesco heritage thing. So they have, Heuriger. So Heuriger is like a wine tavern. And so where there's all these specific, like, cultural rules about it, about not having, you know, hot food.
So there's, there's two different kinds. So the Heuriger is like, more like a tavern that's like an at the winery kind of set up. And then there's the Buschenschank. So, and that is more like going for a picnic where you have sort of, like a little hillside hut more or less. And so then people come from the city to, you know, sit out kind of like from, you know, coming to Napa from San Francisco, you know, people come up to the Nussberg to, to go to, you know, the schank and you get a plate of something like, you know, traditional dish would be like a beef carpaccio with pumpkin seed oil.
Doug
Right?
Chelsea
And then you get, you know, from the, you know, usually kegged or something like, or even a less refined version of that of wines that aren't bottled yet where it's something that's, you know, something that's very from the current vintage to celebrate the harvest. So people are very, very into it.
Doug
Good, good. So five months there. Then what happened?
Chelsea
Then I went I came home for, you know, about a month, and then, in that time, I met. Well, so I don't know how to have too much to get ahead. When I was home for that month, I went to wine tech with my mom, and I met Michael Silacci.
Doug
Who’s at Opus One.
Chelsea
Yeah. And so I already had planned for, like, right away after Austria, I was going to go to Australia. I had lined up that I was going to work for, for Two Hands there. Okay. And so it was very, nice when I, I already had lined up that I was going to go work for Opus before I left for Australia.
Doug
Oh, no, that was like that.
Chelsea
Yeah. Yes. I felt so organized of being able to have, have everything, you know, have my next step laid out. but yeah. So then I went to Barossa Valley and I worked for, for Two Hands. And so that was, a different cellar experience for sure, because I went from a place where it was, you know, cold and dark, and I was underground in the cellar with the winemaker, you know, most of the day of, like, just the two of us, two having a completely different winery experience.
They hired ten interns at Two Hands, and so and quite a few of which were also American. And so it was much more social. Everything is, you know, outdoors, the winery was so intensely physical of going from, you know, working in a winery that mostly handles white wines, like you're you're cleaning stuff a lot, and you're moving things around with hoses like it's not heavy lifting in a physical job the way it is when you're only making red wines, when you're, you're rolling puncheons and you're doing all these pump overs and punch downs and, yeah, and 12-hour shifts.
So we worked either 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 13 days, and then you would have your day off, and then you would switch to then either on day shift or night shift.
Doug
They worked round the clock? Now, is this just harvest? Was this this harvest? This harvest? Okay. Rolling puncheons. Just for fun.
I haven't seen a puncheon in a long time, but I do remember when I worked at Lake Spring a million years ago, a, puncheon, 120 gallons, right?
Chelsea
Yeah. They're, they're heavy.
Doug
Barrels are 60 and they're heavy enough. Rolling them is a bit of a trick, but they try to roll a puncheon which is twice their weight and and try to keep – yeah. It's that just brought back a few memories. But. So anyway, so Michael Twelftree. He's a slave driver. He is the proprietor of Two Hands in Australia, and he's a very good friend of mine. I think I've mentioned that to you one time.
Chelsea
Oh yeah, he's great. He’s such a character
Doug
He's just, character. I'm, I'm hoping you didn't have to run into him too much. Or did you?
Chelsea
Oh, we saw him for sure, but yeah. So he is involved with then they also had, like, a winemaker and a cellar master, too. So he, he got to have, like, the fun part of mostly just hanging out with us for, you know, having pizza and having dinner together sometimes, but, yeah, but that he, it was definitely very well organized.
Doug
Now he's he's a great guy. A heck of a personality, makes incredibly great, beautiful red wines and, we have we do have serious conversations once while he and I, usually it's, we're just poking fun at each other, and he's telling me that -
Chelsea
For sure.
Doug
- Napa doesn't know what they're doing. I'm telling you, you know, sources are behind the times, and he just goes back and forth. It's always fun.
Chelsea
Definitely an Australian pastime of, you know, of poking each other like that. Yeah.
Doug
Geez, I tell you. All right. So crush in Australia, and then you came. It looks like you came back to Opus.
Chelsea
Yeah. Then I did, Opus One had a maturity, phenolic maturity project, which I think is, kind of changed of how they do it exactly. I'm not sure what the current status for the project is. But yeah, it's an independent research project that they have an internship position for. So it was a little bit longer. I think I was at Opus for seven months doing that. So it's a different way of like, I wasn't really working harvest. I'm there. I'm, you know, I have my rows and my blocks and collecting samples. And so then they have these specific blocks that they're, want to track, you know, you're checking a phenolic assay. So really, so you're measuring the amount of tannin, phenol, and so, and then comparing it from across vintages.
And they had, you know, more than 20 years worth of data that we could pull from. So really compiling the weather data and looking at these things and then comparing, trying to match up the qualitative data to like make it, you know, make the numbers mean something really.
Doug
Right.
Chelsea
And so it's a little bit tricky. And like, honestly, one of the findings like, is, not new to me. I think most people have figured this one out, but the only thing that I could really say, Oh, yeah, also, this vintage was 2011. So this was a very cold, cold, wet year. But if you've had any of the 2011’s recently, like, they're really good. Like the wines I think have really come around in a way that in 2011 we didn't see it coming.
So I still love drinking 2011 and the Opus for 2011 is delicious. But yeah, I've seeing for that year that, yeah, the correlation between berry size and, the intensity of flavors. Yes. There's definitely that is something to that. So not the greatest research project I would say in terms of like of my addition to it because I, it was just such a hard year to make the numbers from 2011 match up to, to what else there had been.
Doug
Oh, I bet. And oh, it was a challenging year. Did you miss being part of harvest since you've been as opposed because you were just kind of stuck in the lab doing that?
Chelsea
Well, I got along really well with their enologist at the time was, Lucia Solis. And so she was a great mentor.
And so even though it was doing the on my own project, I wasn't really, you know, collaborating with the rest of the cellar crew. So I still knew the other interns, you know, pretty well. But it definitely was different of having something a bit more independent. But it did really, really, refine my lab skills. I got, you know, it's just so much better at, at all of those techniques.
Doug
Good. And and listen, if you had to miss a crush, you know, 2011, as far as being on the front lines, that was probably a good one to miss. It was, it was pretty frustrating. It was, there were some amazingly looking, amazing looking things, growing on grapes that year.
Chelsea
Yes. Very, very fluffy,
Doug
But a lot of people made great wines, so we did it. So you're there for what? Yeah. I think you said 3 or 4 months at Opus.
Chelsea
Opus was seven.
Doug
Okay.
Chelsea
Yeah, a little bit longer. And then I knew I didn't want to keep traveling at the time, it had been, you know, three internships in a row. I felt like was kind of enough. I was a little tired of living out of a suitcase, and I wanted to be, just wanted to get a, you know, get a start. I wanted a full-time job. And so that was a hard year to find something. So I actually worked in a wine bar for, about three months while I was, hunting. I worked for 1313 while I was while I was job hunting. But then eventually Joel Gott came up, and, so that was awesome.
I started there, in the summer, like, just before harvest 2012, as an enologist. And so I think I was an enologist for maybe, maybe two years. So I worked for Joell Gott for seven years. And then was promoted up from assistant winemaker and then to winemaker also, before I left.
Doug
Wow. Congrats. That's it because when you left, you know, if you can say how many they were making a lot. They're making a lot of wine, I mean.
Chelsea
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean it read really grown of so, so when I think it was acquired or partnered with Trinchero in 2009. And then really started to grow quickly after that. So it had been, you know, not very large.
I mean, our office was, you know, in a tiny little, like, converted house in St. Helena. And so then we very quickly with like the amount of employees, the amount of room that we needed for everything, really just kept growing. So, yeah, I saw, I mean, a lot of growth and a lot of change over that period of time.
Doug
And it must have been because I think, you know, for that brand with Trinchero, I think you're probably sourcing grapes or wines from all over the state. So I'm guessing a big part of your job was just working on blends. Big blends.
Chelsea
Absolutely. I mean, just the the logistics of it was, was pretty incredible because, yeah, we had so many, we had so many custom crush facilities.
And so I think the the record year was we crushed at 17 different facilities. And so just the logistics of if you need to put a cab blend together and you've got wines at ten facilities just to coordinate of having, you know, good samples, the amounts you need so that you can physically put it together.
Doug
Wow.
Chelsea
And just to make sure like, yes, this works where we need, you know, more Merlot with this one or, of just figuring out or how to then truck that all around. Do you have a tank that's big enough to put this blend together? Do we have, you know, the right the right oak balance for it? Yeah, it was just it was a lot of planning.
Doug
Well, how how neat that you had this experience. I mean, from working in, you know, mid-sized, medium-sized, small operations to extremely large operations. I mean, you're, the experience you're building here is just great. It's like you've you haven't seen it all before. You've seen a lot of it.
Chelsea
Yeah, I would say that with Gott it is like a super-charged amount of, information and, you know, learning with each harvest because you're seeing, yeah, Santa Barbara all the way up through Washington state.
I worked on a project that, was a collaboration with Dave Phinney for making a Grenache from the south of France. Right. So, yeah, I mean, for for one brand. Yes, absolutely. I saw I saw a lot of things and just learning how many different, yeah. And also seeing so many different wineries to that working in custom crash, you see a lot of different ways that the facilities like to operate. And then also the clients at those facilities, you know, you meet a lot of, a lot of other winemakers working at custom crush.
Doug
A great experience, especially with people I got to ask you a question. Did you ever hang out, facility on Hoffman Lane?
Chelsea
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That was, that was one of my main ones during the the last few years. For Gott, I managed everything that we made at, yeah, at Hoffman Lane and also the ranch.
Doug
So Hoffman Lane is, a little, a little road, just, just to the south of Yountville, a mile south of Yountville, north of Napa, about eight miles. And what you don't know, Chelsea, is that's where that's where I worked for my first cellar job.
Chelsea
Lake Spring.
Doug
Lake Spring.
Chelsea
Wow.
Doug
Wow, well, back and, well, a long time ago, that was like 1980, 81. But-
Chelsea
Well, when I started, you would have felt right at home. The lab was completely unchanged from, you know, from the 80s.
Doug
That was a tiny lab. That was a real tiny lab.
Chelsea
Yeah. With all the original equipment was still in there. When Gott took it over.
Doug
They didn't have the basketball hoop up in the back storeroom. Still, did they know, okay, that was gone. It was just a Randy Mason, who was my boss. And it's just the two of us. So if we get bored or play a little one on one. Kill time. So you're at Gott. You left Gott in 17, I think. Is that right?
Chelsea
’19.
Doug
2019. And at that point, ‘19 at this point, when did you start making wine with your mom?
Chelsea
So that was let's see. So that was 2017. So that also, I got promoted to winemaker at Gott also in 2017. and I also had my, my first daughter that year. And so then, I, when I was on maternity leave, this really got me thinking about what I was working on. And, I knew I was ready for, ready for more, to having a new baby is a funny time to think about this. It was like, wow, I really want to be building my career right now. And, so yeah, then talking to my mom, there were a few things that were coming up.
Well, so also one thing with, with Joel Gott, we previously had been making more Grenache, and then with Trinchero, they were pivoting away from that, that we were going to, cut the Grenache program. But I had already made this really beautiful Grenache, from John Pelcan's ranch that that's Sarah Gott's dad. So this incredible nice Knights Valley Grenache that I'd made, and I loved it. And we were going to blend it out into, you know, something else. Since we're not going to be making Grenache anymore for Gott.
Doug
Right.
Chelsea
And they allowed me to purchase it, and so this was a good start for something with my mom. And so then we ended up putting a little bit more of a blend together, using that Grenache as the base.
And so that was our first vintage of Aviatrix. So that was a trademark that my mom already had because she's a pilot. She's a helicopter pilot. And so she knew she wanted to do something with that label. She had trademarked it, but just didn't have the right thing come up yet. And I was like, mom, I've got the wine for this.
Like, this is a great idea. This is going to be really fun. And having a brand that, where La Sirena is pretty much all, you know, all Napa related wines and then Aviatrix, is a chance for us to do, you know, something else of, like, outside of Napa and have wines at, you know, a more affordable price point as well.
Chelsea
So we're still making, making wines under that label and still, still making Grenache.
Doug
Good because I love Grenache. I need to get some of that. So what's it like working with your mom? Are you guys as far as being winemakers?
Of course there's always the family thing, but it's from a professional winemaking point of view. Similar styles I would guess, maybe so, maybe not?
Chelsea
So, yeah, very similar styles. Yeah. I think my mom and I are a lot alike in general and I've learned, I've learned so much from her about making wine, about, you know, the getting the balance right about, just figuring out, you know, how to how to train yourself to trust your gut at those key decisions of when am I pressing?
Like, what am I? You know, which barrels am I picking for this, of that decisiveness and figuring out how to get there? A lot of the style that I have, in all my winemaking is, comes from things that I've learned from my mom. Absolutely. And so with that said, like there is an element of during harvest where, you know, we have a similar skill set, it is possible to have too many cooks in the kitchen.
You know, and so there's an element of where we don't want to double up, like we're both really busy. Like, we can't we can't be doubling up on, you know, checking the same fermenters, know every day.
Doug
Right, right.
Chelsea
So we'll taste around together when we can. But my role for our collaborations, I tend to hone in more on the vineyards.
I tend to do a lot more of the, checking on sampling, checking in on, you know, the contracts, farming, making sure that everything is, is how we want it farmed. And then she tends to be at the wineries more often, you know, during, during harvest where our wines are made. Whereas like, I've got Materra, I've got a lot of other things going on.
So I tend to be, kind of handle it more from our vineyard side and then she'll handle it a little bit more in the winery. And then we'll do the blends together.
Doug
Nice, nice. You know, you you mentioned she was a pilot. I think you both your folks are pilots, right? Helicopter and plane.
Chelsea
Yeah. So my mom just flies helicopter, and then my dad has a fixed wing and helicopter rating.
Doug
So do you have that bug, too? Are you flying?
Chelsea
Someday I would like to, but right now, like, I also like we mentioned, you know, the first of kids, but I have three children, and so I'm in a phase where, Yeah, that's definitely takes up more of my time. I'm a. Yeah. So airplanes, it'll, it'll come with time. But right now it's not not the season of life for me.
Doug
You hang in there. The kids do grow and get old and then move out and there's more time, I can promise you that. So that's great. So then the whole Materra, that's where you're at now? Materra Cunat Family Vineyards. I'm. You know, I'm not that familiar with that winery story.
And, could you share that with us? Could you share and then how you got there and what's going on with that whole project?
Chelsea
Yeah, sure. So the backstory for Materra. So, the winery is located in the Oak Knoll District. We're on Big Ranch Road. So Brian and Mickey Cunat. So, Brian is from Illinois and worked in, you know, his family was in, you know, farming and then also in, in real estate, construction.
And then he and Mickey met, Mickey is Japanese. She came to the U.S as an exchange, you know, college exchange program. And they met at the time. And then Brian started getting really into wine with Mickey's family back in Japan. Of that, her uncle had a wine shop, and so they started, you know, he started drinking a lot more Bordeaux there. And then they started coming out to Napa, and eventually they found this property that had been owned by the Yeager's and it was all for farmed, just as, as a 50 acre property, all all planted to Merlot. But it was, you know, more rundown. It really needed to be redeveloped. So Foley, ripped it and then, replanted.
Really with varietals that are super well suited. if I showed you a map of this property, it looks like a crazy little patchwork of irregular shaped blocks. And so everything is on these little, you know, microclimates of ideal soil planted with the, the right rootstock, the right clone that makes it a really interesting vineyard to work with.
So about half and half of it is Chardonnay and Merlot here. It's, mostly clay loam soils here, so it's good, great spot for Merlot and for Chardonnay. And then we have some Sauv Blanc. We have some Malbec. We've got a little bit of Viogner. And then, so going going with that as our main base of, like, in Oak Knoll, we don't have an ideal site for a growing Cab, so I really, that was something that drew me to the project of, having your heart in the right place and going with, you know, what's really going to be the best, and then we also have some sources of Cab in, in other locations, so, so we're, we're buying Cab. But so then the winery was built in 2015, and then, it's beautiful facility and it's larger than what Materra needs for now absolutely. So we're only, you know, crushing it about 15% of it. And the rest is filled in with with custom crushed clients too.
So hopefully Materra will be able to to grow a bit to take a little more of the space. But I don't know how big it'll ever make sense for for the brand to get. And so I again, after I had, you know, baby number two in 2019, I was looking to make a change to it with Joel Gott it was, you know, it was a lot of traveling around of going up to Oregon and Washington, Santa Barbara, Lodi, you know, and I just wanted something that was you know, one spot and, and I was ready for ready to move up also.
Doug
Oh, good.
Chelsea
Yeah. And then so the connection was, so Brittany Sherwood, who's the Heitz winemaker, is friends with Harry Heitz and Harry is the GM here.
And so he had, asked Brittany if he if he knew of anybody. And so Brittany connected us and then it was just like, oh, yeah, this is definitely meant to be. So then I started in 2019 and just, have had so much fun figuring it out of, because now the winery has, you know, everything is really in place now, of having, for, for a newer brand like, we have a great winery. I mean, everything is just state of the art. We have beautiful vineyard. and so the owners and Harry have been really awesome. It's been a great team to work with. and they've really been very trusting with, with my vision and the style of wines that I want to make. So I'm having a blast.
Doug
Good. And so when did they first get wine on the market? Was that just recently?
Chelsea
Pretty recent. Yeah, I think it was, it was very, very tiny until I think around 2015 of starting to have, their own, you know, having their own facility of growing a little more from there.
Doug
Sure.
Chelsea
So right now, as of, like, what we're bottling for, in the last year, I think we're at about maybe in the 7000 cases per year mark.
Doug
Yeah. Good size, good starters. Yeah. Okay, folks, you heard it here up and coming hot new winery, by the way. That is that's really good land for Chardonnay. Years ago I used to buy Chardonnay from Jay Corley who's right next door to Materra.
Chelsea
Yeah, that's our nextdoor neighbor.
Doug
Yeah. It was it was just delightful because it's, it's not too hot, and it's it's it's not too cold is just right. So great area. Good. All right, well, I've got to trade you some wine so I can try some of that.
Chelsea
Absolutely.
Doug
Yeah. So that's where you're at now. You've been making wine for a long time. You've got grandfather, mom, and dad winemakers. And I'm assuming you guys chat if you've got issues, you call them for advice.
Is that does that work, or do they ever kind of come in and say, hey, I tried your new wine from XYZ and, you know, I think you should do this or that. I mean, how's how's that work out?
Chelsea
Absolutely. Yeah, we definitely tend to, show each other like our little, you know, problems if something that if you can't quite figure it out, then, yeah, definitely, we'll go to each other on things. And even now, even though, like my parents obviously have, you know, years of experience on things, but because of my experience, I've definitely worked with regions, varieties that they have not. And also, I'm also more familiar with some of the new tech too, of like, new, new equipment, you know, new yeasts, like all that sort of stuff.
I've definitely kept up on a lot of the new developments too. So we've talked about some things like that as well.
Doug
Are they I because I'm kind of a dinosaur or are they open to the new stuff? They, they listen to you?
Chelsea
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, a lot of it wasn't like, you know, my ideas necessarily that of things, but like my dad, is so excited about, like the automatic pump overs that Montelena has now and like, so there's like some new stuff to that. They're, you know, that they've gotten really into.
Doug
That's because he and I are the same age. We're tired of hauling hoses up and down.
Chelsea
Yes, labor saving is a perfectly, you know, a valid reason to get into things.
Doug
I mean, you know, back when we were, you know, 30 it was one thing. Now it's a different story. It's like, whoa. So besides family, any big, any great mentors or that you've had in your career?
Chelsea
Yeah. Well, so, absolutely. My parents, I mean, like. Yeah, my mom and I work still so closely, and, like, I mean, we either see each other every day or we're on the phone multiple times a day.
So. Yeah. So we talk about everything, and then. Yeah. So Dragos Pavelescu, who was my, you know, my boss in Austria, right. And he's awesome. So I definitely sell, it has been a great mentor. yeah. And Michael Silacci as well. And then yeah, Sarah Gott I mean, Joel Gott too, and then Alisa Jacobson from, from Joel Gott as well. Great. But yeah, a lot of good I've got, I've worked with so many good people and like, even people that I haven't worked directly for of.
The wine industry is just the best of, like, if you ask somebody if you go out of your way to, like, hey, like, I know, you know, this cool thing, will you tell me about it? People will spend a lot of time talking to you. It's very nice.
Doug
Yeah, it's it's that's because we all love it. It's fun stuff. A lot of passion in this industry, but, I've got a question for you. I think I got this right. You've got three kids now.
Chelsea
I do. I have three girls.
Doug
Congratulations.
Chelsea
Thank you.
Doug
And you're doing everything we've talked about today. How do you do it?
Chelsea
A lot of help. So now after we had, you know, our third daughter, then my husband went back to just working part time. And so that's, that's one aspect of it. Yeah, we have, you know, we have great daycare and then my parents are here, and then my husband's mom also lives in Calistoga. So it is really, like divide and conquer effort, you know, it's, it's a lot.
Absolutely.
Doug
Yeah. Yeah.
Chelsea
But, I mean, we there's no way we could do it without, like, with without the amount of family help we have.
Doug
Yeah, you've got to have it, because it's just a lot going on.
And, you know, I was listening to the names you're rattling off of folks.
You went to Davis with and, you know, this is just a generational thing, but I don't I think I knew 1 or 2 of them, but the rest, I don't know, never heard the names before. There's a whole generation, new generation of winemakers running around here. I'm kind of curious because you're that much more tied into my generation, the older generation, what we have done and do, what new what are you guys what's this next crew bringing to the winemaking, you know.
Well, I mean what - is it new stuff new attitude. What do you think is there are there any differences that they jump out for you.
Chelsea
Yeah that's tough to say because it's everybody is so individualized that it's hard to say, like, you know, that based on age, if there's a trend because I would say there's, you know, people who are in their, you know, 60s and 70s who are winemakers that don't necessarily have a ton in common either.
Doug
Right.
Chelsea
And so, yeah, I would say there's a mix I think there's, there's some of us who are, you know, the Davis grads also, who are, you know, very into, the research and still tying in, you know, traditional winemaking with that. I think there's a lot of advances in, in farming, too. I think, all of the, you know, sustainable regenerative farming.
I think that's definitely, like very hot right now with, with younger generations. Absolutely. So, yeah, I would say a lot of the differences or, you know, just what keeps growing or what's, you know, on the horizon, I think has to do a lot with, with farming, more than even changes to winemaking techniques.
I mean, the equipment we have now is so good. I think that's something that, you know, the, the changes with the equipment that we've had. But again, it's not generational. Everybody's benefiting from this. You know, more more precise, more gentle, just we have such great equipment now that wasn't available to, when, you know, when my parents were first starting out. Absolutely.
Doug
Oh, it really is. I remember the crushers that your folks and I first started with, and they were just.
Chelsea
It's basically a blender.
Doug
Yeah. Oh, it was just horrible. But at the time, it was great. Wow. This thing works great. yeah. Little did we know. But, just right there, that's almost. That's the one that always was the biggest change for me.
What's next for you?
Chelsea
Yeah, I think we definitely have a lot of, like, exciting development with Materra. So, like, our brand new tasting room is going to open this summer and that's, that's a big addition.
So I think I think Materra is still, you know, taking off like I think this is really an exciting phase for us. I'm still feeling like, you know, sort of still feeling like a newcomer and that, the amount of time when I'm, you know, presenting Materra for something that, it had gone from, you know, really nobody having ever heard of it.
And then now, we definitely are getting, you know, more of a following. And that's really exciting to see. I love sharing that with people. So I think, I'm so excited to keep to keep building this. And yeah, I like working on my side projects as well. I started making, I started making Lamborn last year also.
My mom retired from that. And so I love working with the Lamborns so much. And making Zin is, Well, I mean, I made a little bit of Zin with Gott, but making, you know, these Zins is is new for me. And that's not something that I do with any of my other clients.
Doug
How fun.
Chelsea
Yeah. So I'm having a great time and I feel like I'm managing to balance it as as well as I can. But yeah, I really like the variety of it as well.
Doug
Good, good. So where can people find these wines? Materra. The wine to make with your mom. What's what's the best? Where should they look?
Chelsea
On our websites is, is the best. So, Aviatrix is on the La Sirena wine website. Okay. And then Materra is Materrawines.com. Yeah. So we have some some local retailers too, but we work with distributors. We have a wine club. Yeah, that’s where you can find them.
Doug
Good. All right. Well, we'll check them out. And so the tasting room is going to be at the winery, which is right, I guess it's the new tasting room is at the facility, correct?
Chelsea
Yes. That’s right.
Doug
Which is on Oak Knoll. No, it's not what's right. Okay. It's on the green.
Chelsea
It's on Big Ranch.
Doug
Got it. Yeah. Which was just 8 or 9 miles north of Napa in the center of the valley, in case you can't find it, but just keep looking for it. Chelsea, thank you so much for taking the time. You are so busy.
Chelsea
I really appreciate this. This has been fun to catch up.
Doug
You have a great day. We'll see you around.
Chelsea
All right. Thank you.
Doug
Okay. Thanks. Bye bye. Okay.