Another year has gone by, and we have completed our 19th harvest at Calluna Vineyards. That is hard to believe – the years sure do roll by! But this is one reason I have liked being a winemaker, or even just collecting wine: I view it as hedge against time. Yes, I am getting older faster than I might like, but my wines are getting better!
We opened a couple bottles of our 2007 wines – our first vintage – a couple of months ago, and they are in excellent shape – developed but not showing fatigue. My goal is to make wines that can last forty years or more. Maybe that’s not quite defeating time, but it means a lot to me.
The 2025 vintage was a cool one and the wines – which seem excellent – are now resting in barrel. It is a quiet time in the vineyards for just a bit longer, before the cycle starts again and we begin the huge job of pruning the vineyards. There is time to reflect on why I, my family, and my various partners in Calluna continue with the work on this great property in the face of unprecedented challenges in the wine market. I’ll be discussing more of that in upcoming Winemaker Journals, but for now, here are a couple stories about the fun adventure my family had over the holidays.
Our three children, Amy, Peter and Jonathan, are now in their early 30s. Two have fiancés, both of whom we already love, and the seven of us went to Europe over the Christmas holiday.
You might be able to guess where we are in the picture above. Why Barcelona for Christmas? I initially asked the same question. Amy and her financé Jacob were originally going to be spending an extended period of time there. They had to cut that back significantly, but we kept our plan to meet in Barcelona, and it worked out well. It is a very beautiful city with a strong international character. We loved the old narrow streets, particularly in El Born district.
And, as a wine family, we took a course from a wine school to get a better understanding of Spanish Wines:
A highlight was a visit to the still not quite finished Sagrada Família Basilica. Reflecting back on this, particularly with the recent passing of Bob Weir, I have to describe this as a Grateful Dead version of a Catholic Cathedral. Whimsical figures on the top; instead of single large columns, a tree-like structure in the interior supports it; and the bright reds, greens and blues bring vivid color not seen in traditional cathedrals. All they need are the dancing bears.
Then, on to Lyon. I had not been to this part of France and so I volunteered to do the background work and to make reservations/appointments for this part of the trip. As research, I read a book called Dirt by Bill Buford, an amateur but serious chef who inserts himself into life in Lyon by doing a “stage” at one of the pre-eminent Lyon restaurants. Amazingly, he gets to know all the great French chefs in Lyon and the US.
Lyon is another beautiful city, and we spent hours walking around. The main city is on the Presque Ile (the piece of land just before the confluence of mighty Rivers Rhone and Saone). The old city is just over the bridges to the west. Les Halles Paul Bocuse is an incredible market, and the tightly packed Bouchons serve the traditional food of Lyon, some of which, like andouillette and boudin noir, can give one pause after reading the book on what parts of the pig are used for those creations!
The kids treated us to a belated 35th anniversary dinner at the Michelin starred “Burgundy by Mathieu.” Here is one of the many cheese trays I did serious damage to while in Europe.
Besides being the gastronomique capital of France, Lyon is well situated to wine country with Beaujolais just to the north and the start of the Rhone Valley to the south. The Rhone Valley starts with Côte Rôtie, one of the great syrah based wine regions of the world. We booked a visit with one of my favorite, very small, but pre-eminent producers – Vignobles Levet (represented in the US by Neal Rosenthal, a sure mark of excellence). We had a 9:30am appointment on a frigid Saturday morning and I was afraid it might be just a short wine tasting, when my real goal was to learn about the vineyards. We were greeted by winemaker proprietor Agnes Levet, who indeed took us on a long walk up into those crazy rock terraced vineyards.
It is hard to see how they can get anything to grow there, let alone start a young vine, and to work those vineyards must be very tough.
We had many great meals on this trip, but an unexpected highlight was the lunch after our visit with Agnes. The author of Dirt wrote about his visit to a restaurant in Condrieu, Beau Rivage. He said it overlooked the Rhone and the food was good, including the two bottles of wine he ordered. Since Condrieu is just south of Côte Rôtie (and also a very famous, but tiny white wine producing region for Viognier based wines), I booked a reservation for the seven of us for lunch.
I was hoping that the views might be nice, that they would not put the Americans in a back room, and that the food might be decent, if touristy. It exceeded all expectations. The restaurant is right on the river as it bends in this area. We had a front row table, feeling like we were almost on a ship, and the food was excellent. The picture does not do it justice – a beautiful spot.
Then it was on to Paris for a couple of days. I won’t write too much about this, as it is has all been said before. We usually walk 10-15 miles per day when we are in Paris and we see new and interesting sites all the time. It was a shorter visit for us this time, but Peter’s financée Maile did a great job of leading us on a tour of Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur on a sunny day. More importantly, she had located a small but excellent restaurant at the top where we were virtually alone, but well taken care of by the family staff.
Marla and I left very early on December 31, but made it back in time to watch Anderson Cooper on the TV for New Year’s Eve. On a less boring note, the kids stayed and celebrated in Paris. After dinner they bought a bottle of Champagne from a shop as they approached the pyramid on the Louvre. They drank it outside while watching the fireworks over the Arc de Triomphe, up the Champs Elysee.
I hope you all have a great winter, and that we will see you soon.
Until next time…
Cheers,
David Jeffrey
Founder & Winemaker