IT’S HEARTBREAKING TO OPEN A BOTTLE OF WINE DAMAGED BY THE CLOSURE
Napa Valley veteran winemaker, Tony Coltrin of Oberon Wines, recalled an in-depth closure study over many years in which Nomacorc placed very highly and impressed him. When the time was right, he was excited to move to a closure that gave him peace of mind and a sense of confidence that anyone opening a bottle of his wines would enjoy the aromatics and deliciousness of the wine the way he intended.
Q&A with tony Coltrin
Q: Describe the “aha” moment when you first fell in love with wine.
When I was 19 years old, the grandfather of a best friend — who was very much like a surrogate grandfather to me — invited me to dinner one evening. He was a winemaker here in Napa Valley, and after dinner, he poured me a glass of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú. We sat in his living room for hours talking of life, stories of his childhood in Europe, winemaking and what it meant to him throughout his life. We talked about my life, his past, and my future. We emptied the bottle of Tokaji, and my love of wine and the sentiment and graciousness that wine brings to life began.
Q: Do you have a philosophy of winemaking you strive to share with others?
A winemaking philosophy is an evolution that comes with time and experience. When I was young, I was told by a very wise, old winemaking mentor that, “wine above all else, remains a simple thing — a marriage of pleasures.”
I look for that feeling of pleasure in the ripeness of the grapes at harvest, in the evolution of wines in the fermenter, in the barrel samples I taste, in the marriage of the final blends at bottling. There’s a graciousness and deliciousness that I feel comes from this. There’s a relationship with the vintage that makes each wine and each vintage personal and sentimental.
Be respectful of the natural cycle of the vine, be humble in the face of nature and all the beauty and force that can challenge a vintage, be thoughtful of the wines a vintage yields and care for them well until they can be shared with family and friends around your table.
Q: How has the perspective of time changed your approach to wine?
There’s a sense of thoughtfulness, a feeling of patience and more understanding of the natural vine cycle that winemakers are inserting themselves into. I think that with time and experience you begin to look up from the sheet of paper, with all your analysis and data on it, and understand more than just the grapes. Understand not only the vine and what it’s going through, but also what the oaks and poplar trees are telling you about the timing of autumn and harvest, the cast of the sun and how it changes through the fall, how the vine responds to the season, to the shortening of the days and cooling of the weather. The vine shares the same goal as the winemaker — to ripen its beautiful fruit to an irresistible level of deliciousness. From this comes the wasps and bees, then the birds to help propagate more vines, and at the same time the winemakers crafting the most enjoyable delicious wines.
Q: Who inspires you personally — in wine or any endeavor?
Personally, my son Sam. His integrity, his work ethic, his discipline, and most of all, the man that he has become. In wine, it’s Albert Costa. his character and sentiment, his love of the land and the Priorat region, his vision, his sense of tradition and commitment to the expression of grace and elegance that is the Vall Llach wines.
Q: What is the most overrated trend in wine today?
Much like food and the arts, wine benefits from trends and the people who are willing to push boundaries and explore. Those with the vision, passion and guts to find where that vision leads will always help to grow our enjoyment of food, of art, and of wine. The now very global wine community is full of these young trendsetters who both respect the tradition and sentiment of a gracious wine culture and strive to create new traditions. Wine, food, and the arts would stagnate without these risk-taking trendsetters.
Q: What new winemakers/designers/sommeliers/industry leaders are you most excited about, and why?
Albert Costa, the winemaker and owner of Vall Llach winery in Porrera, Priorat, Spain. His character and sentiment, his love of the land and the Priorat region, his vision, his sense of tradition and commitment to the expression of grace and elegance that is the Vall Llach wines.
Q: If you weren’t a winemaker what would you be doing?
I might have been a veterinarian.
Q: What led you to select Nomacorc?
There has been dedication and creativity in the evolution of Nomacorc that I have been very impressed with all along. We have used Nomacorc in wines on a fairly large scale since 2005, but I was involved in a closure study many years in which Nomacorc placed very highly and impressed me. When the time was right, I was very excited to be able to move to a closure that enabled me to feel a sense of confidence that anyone opening a bottle of our wines would enjoy the aromatics and deliciousness of the wine the way we intended.
Q: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
There are many things that I find make me feel content and happy now so to choose one would be standup paddling with my son and wife in the still, calm, glassy full moonlight in the middle of summer on Lake Tahoe. Magical.
Q: What, if anything, do you leave to chance in the cellar or in life?
I believe that leaving things to chance and the existence of chance are two very different things. I don’t believe in leaving anything to chance, I believe in a focus and commitment to the quality and detail of my winemaking. Having said that, I also believe very much that without creativity, passion, and the risk that comes along with them, wine loses its character. I feel you can take chances without leaving things to chance.
Q: What innovation in the wine industry is most exciting to you?
The evolution of wine closures; it’s heartbreaking to open a bottle of wine and have it be damaged by the closure.
Q: Who inspires you personally — in wine or any endeavor?
Personally, my son Sam. His integrity, his work ethic, his discipline, and most of all, the man that he has become.
In wine, it’s Albert Costa. his character and sentiment, his love of the land and the Priorat region, his vision, his sense of tradition and commitment to the expression of grace and elegance that is the Vall Llach wines.
Q: What new winemakers/designers/sommeliers/industry leaders are you most excited about, and why?
As I mentioned above, it’s Spanish winemaker, Albert Costa. His character and sentiment, his love of the land and the Priorat region, his vision, his sense of tradition and commitment to the expression of grace and elegance that is the Vall Llach wines.
