In the heart of the Napa Valley Stags Leap District sits Pine Ridge Vineyards, a winery known for its Cabernet Sauvignon. Their opening in 1978 was the start of their award-winning wines.
Winemakers Colleen Fitzgerald and Joshua David Mendoza Widaman give insight into Pine Ridge and the background of the process it takes to make wine and the unique features of the vineyards.
What is Pine Ridge known for?
Joshua David Mendoza Widaman: Located in the heart of Napa Valley’s Stags Leap District, Pine Ridge Vineyards is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon wines. These wines are produced from well-drained soils, sourced from different appellations throughout Napa Valley: Howell Mountain, Oakville, Rutherford, Carneros and our home base in the Stags Leap District.
What makes Pine Ridge wine unique?
Colleen FitzGerald: While Pine Ridge Vineyards is known for Cabernet Sauvignon, we also produce a unique Chenin Blanc + Viognier blend – a unicorn of sorts. First made in 1995, the Chenin Blanc + Viognier blend is a staple of Pine Ridge Vineyards — what started out as an experiment for our winemakers has since become one of our most beloved wines! Grapes in this wine originate in France but come from different regions, producing a very rare duo that makes a well-balanced, crisp white wine. With notes of lime and orange blossoms from the Chenin Blanc and stone fruit characters from the Viognier, those who experience a tasting at our vineyard typically favor this wine.
Joshua David Mendoza Widaman: Although the Stags Leap District is our home (and we are very proud of the fruit we grow here), we farm estate vineyards in four additional appellations in Napa Valley that are truly unique. We bottle them as separate Cabernet Sauvignon wines. So, if you want to see what differentiates each growing region from the others, I highly recommend that you come by and taste them!
When did Pine Ridge open and what was the influence?
CF: Built upon a ridge of rugged palisades and surrounded by steep hillside vineyards, the founders, Gary and Nancy Andrus were true pioneers in the winemaking industry, determined to produce wine in an area of slopes, rather than on the traditional valley floor. This unique geology and untraditional terroir provide diversity in our soil types and microclimates, which has influenced our stellar, award-winning wines.
JDMW: At Pine Ridge Vineyards we want our guests to feel connected to the environment that we call home. The tasting rooms tucked within our European-inspired cave systems offer a journey into our hillside and the team offers fun programs such as Stargazer Dinners and Morning Hikes at The Ridge to further connect our guests with our beautiful surroundings.
How did you get interested in winemaking?
CF: I didn’t grow up drinking wine so my passion for it did not develop overnight, instead it amassed over the years. I first fell in love with winemaking when I landed an internship in Paso Robles for harvest. I was very intrigued and wanted to know more about winemaking, specifically in the lab through monitoring fermentations. I was completely hooked after learning you can travel abroad for harvest. I ended up only completing one harvest abroad, but we’ve hosted many international interns at Pine Ridge, which has been an enriching and wonderful experience for me.
JDMW: Thanks to parents who have always enjoyed wine and travel, I am very fortunate to have experienced European culture from a young age. What really started my interest in pursuing a career in winemaking was a very special internship experience at one of our Stags Leap District neighbors back in 1999. This, coupled with my experience with a life-changing bottle of wine during my senior year of college in 2000, lead me to transfer to UC Davis where I pursued a degree in Viticulture and Enology, dreaming of a career in the winemaking arts. Now I am embarking on my own journey with wine here at Pine Ridge Vineyards, and I am very excited about it!
What is your favorite wine to make?
CF: Chenin Blanc + Viognier is my main blend at Pine Ridge Vineyards, and it is my passion! As these grapes would typically not be blended, the chemistry behind this balance is so fascinating and fun to work with. I also enjoy sharing a tasting experience of this wine with our guests because while it is familiar to me, it is typically a new wine to them, with many flavors to explore – a fully immersive wine experience!
JDMW: Red wines are what drive me and are where I derive the most pleasure in crafting excellence. It’s what I have enjoyed most over the years and what I have consistently pushed myself (and the teams that I work with) to be most exemplary at creating. When tasting one of these wines, I am always awestruck by the intricate layers that we can weave throughout.
What is the hardest part about making wine?
CF: Bottling can be challenging, as there are a lot of moving parts happening to make sure that everything is perfect on bottling day. To me, it is very important to ensure that each bottle is precise in its taste and design, and is always memorable to those who continue to pick up our Chenin Blanc + Viognier. There is a line for error with things moving so fast, so making quick, smart decisions is essential. Once the bottling of a vintage is complete, I feel like I can breathe again!
JDMW: The hardest part about making wine is knowing that once we are done with the blend (and it is bottled) this will be the last version of our story that we will be able to tell. A vintage is a complex, calculus equation that begins the year before harvest with the creation of the dormant buds in the budwood, that are pruned back over the winter. Once this wood is pruned back, goes through bud-break and grows shoots and clusters that are the essence of the current vintage, the fruit is harvested and brought into the winery in hopes that the current vintage can be encapsulated within the wine. Over the next two years of barrel élevage, our team aims to capture the essence of what that year and its associated events meant to us. However, it is always on the day of bottling when I typically experience the artists’ dilemma.
What is the most rewarding part of this job?
CF: I love talking to people I meet and hearing about the experiences they have had while drinking our Chenin Blanc + Viognier. Often, I hear stories about how our wine “saved their marriage,” or the first time they tasted the blend or where they enjoy drinking it the most. Someone once told me about how they would assume most people enjoy drinking Chenin Blanc + Viognier at the pool in the summer, but his favorite place was in the hot tub after a long day of skiing. I love mountain sports and could relate to this on so many levels, so it was a really nice conversation!
JDMW: The most rewarding part of this job is working with a strong team that feels like family and shares in my goal of creating one of the best expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon in the world. To get the opportunity to walk into one of our retail partners’ stores and see a vintage of our wine on their shelf is quite gratifying. When I look back upon a vintage, I think about the decisions that we made as a team, and the concessions that we made in our personal lives in pursuit of this singular goal. I will always be immensely grateful for all that our team is able to accomplish together.
Do you have a favorite food and wine pairing?
CF: My favorite wine pairing with Chenin Blanc + Viognier is anything spicy. The Chenin Blanc has a great natural acidity with a touch of residual sugar on the palate, making it an outstanding food-friendly wine. I love a creamy spicy pumpkin curry with a glass of this blend because the wine lightens the palate, making your mouth water for more curry, creating a really satiating meal.
JDMW: Sauvignon Blanc and sea bass with a beurre blanc sauce, seasoned with tarragon is a stellar pairing for summer. For colder months, a piping hot casserole of cassoulet, with a glass of Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon would be my preference.
When you’re not drinking Pine Ridge wine, what’s in your glass?
CF: Champagne all day. I love the bubbles and complexities that are created during the secondary fermentation and the aging in the bottle.
JDMW: For my wife and I, Petite Sirah is one of our favorite varietals. It makes a very powerful wine, and it is the most Californian of noble grape varieties. Ridge and Green and Red Vineyard are also a couple of our favorites.
How long does it take to create a perfect taste?
CF: For the Chenin Blanc + Viognier, we are looking for wine with an abundance of aromatic fruit and floral expressions that pop right off the glass. With great growing seasons for white wine – like we are seeing this year – I am expecting the blend to come together quickly. The Chenin Blanc grapes are ripening slowly, and I am expecting the grapes to retain the natural acidity found in the Chenin Blanc. For the Viognier, the grapes are building complex floral aromas that will give the right balance to the blend.
JDMW: For my tasting partners (Colleen, as well as Mike Conversano, assistant winemaker and Sarah Treweek, enologist) and our cellar staff, it takes quite a while. However, I find this one of the most rewarding parts of my job. This is when all the hard work that went into the growing and vinification of the vintage is finally realized, and the jigsaw puzzle that is a wine blend is composed. Over the 20-to-26-month barrel aging of the wines in our cave, we will taste all the pieces of a blend once every 3 months. Each quarterly blending session ends up being 2 to 3 weeks long and about 16 hours per week. Quite a lot of time is spent mastering the blends, we’ve got 18 of them – and we need them to be the best version of themselves for each vintage. Therefore, I look at it as a quite efficient process in the long run.
How do you know when the wine is good to go?
CF: I know the wine is ready to bottle and land in the customer’s hands when the blend reminds me of ripe white peach, orange blossoms and a touch of lime. While blending, we are looking for the right balance between the Chenin Blanc and the Viognier. Each varietal brings different aspects into the blend, so tasting the wine coming together into one final wine is magical.
JDMW: I’d say the wine is good to go when you must put it into the bottle, and you can’t physically do anything more about it! That might be what it looks like to the casual observer – however, when properly managed, the time-consuming process of putting a wine blend together over its élevage time in the cellar ends up being quite a well-strategized game plan. Over time, the veil obscuring the final blend is slowly turned from opaque to translucent and (at the final blending before bottling) finally lifted to reveal the picture that was visualized throughout the growing season and harvest.
