Secrets of the Amista Wine Tasting Barn

A Beautiful, Energy Efficient, Solar Powered, Wine Tasting Space with a Secret Welcome Sign

Five secrets revealed...

Painting it White

Paloma Blanca has arrived at Amista Vineyards! That’s the name of the new color we painted our barn, which means White Dove. Gone is the sage color that made the building melt into the many shades of green on the hillsides behind it. I secretly wanted to keep it that way. I liked the fact that it blended into its environment. Brian, our estate director, had another idea. His vision was to create a modern farmhouse look. He was right. It provides a stunning backdrop for the indigenous Valley Oaks that frame the barn and our hallmark yellow umbrellas. It looks fresh; it pops; it’s beautiful!

Creating a Place for Wine Tasting in Mike's Dream Winery

If our barn could talk, it would reveal a lot of secrets. Like the fact that it was originally designed to be a production facility. It has a concrete pad for crushing grapes. It has a big roll-up door on the “crush pad” side and huge double doors in the front that are sized for a forklift. It has a little back room that was supposed to be the lab, a drain running down the middle of the floor and a wine production-size septic system. It has lots of windows in the clerestory that were intended to bring natural sunlight into the production area. It was Mike’s dream winery.

About halfway through the construction, I told him I thought it had a higher purpose. Since our property is in the very heart of Dry Creek Valley and only three miles from the charming village of Healdsburg, I wanted the entire building to become a tasting room. I figured we already had a place to make our wine at a local custom crush facility, but we desperately needed a place to sell it. And we needed a place to welcome guests and host our wine club members.

Without a tasting room, we had come up with the idea of hosting tasting parties in the homes of friends all over the Bay Area. The parties were a big success. We had fun telling our story in a casual setting, met a lot of new people, sold a lot of wine, and signed up a lot of club members. On the other hand, driving for two hours, hosting a party, and then driving home at night made for a long day. Plus, we couldn’t even have a glass of wine with our new friends since we had to drive back home. It was not a long-term solution. And that’s the story of how Mike’s dream winery became a tasting room. He’s always been a little sad about it, mostly because he never got his forklift!

Building an Energy Efficient Building

Another secret the barn would reveal is that is constructed of ICF blocks and the walls are a foot thick. ICF’s or insulated concrete forms, are blocks with two layers of thermal insulation with space in between to fill with concrete. They are assembled as interlocking modular units that are dry stacked without mortar. The units lock together something like Lego blocks. Once the blocks reach a certain height, they are filled with concrete. The process is repeated until the full height of the building is achieved. The forms stay in place providing both insulation and strength.

ICF’s are more energy-efficient than most construction materials resulting in energy savings and reduced environmental impact. The thick, steel-reinforced concrete walls also protect against fires and earthquakes. Because of the energy efficiency of the walls and the carefully designed system that blows warm air out from vents at the top of the clerestory and draws cool air into the vents near the floor at night, there is no need for air conditioning. Of course, you must keep all the doors closed on warm days for this to work properly – a concept that would have been perfect for a production facility but maybe not so great for a tasting room where everyone wants to see the view!

Adding Solar at Amista

And the view is truly worth seeing – lush vineyards in the foreground with a backdrop of tree-studded hillsides revealing multiple layers and shades of green. People gravitated to the outdoor space, so we put up a large white tent to protect them from the sun.

The tent provided shade for over ten years, but I’m sure that our energy efficient barn secretly yearned for a more suitable partner. In 2020 we finally built a patio with a shade structure entirely covered in solar panels. We also added panels on the south-facing roof of the barn. The new solar system powers the tasting room, our home and all the wells on the property.

I wonder if the barn carries the secret of who came onto the property in the middle of the night and stole two tons of Mourvèdre grapes that were almost ready to harvest. But that is a story for another time!

Revealing the Secret Amista Welcome Sign on the Door

Our barn was completed in 2007, making it 15 years old. I wonder what other secrets it holds. It has certainly had its share of wonderful people coming through its massive copper (on the outside) and brass (on the inside) double front doors. The doors were a gift from my mother, designed and crafted by an artisan blacksmith in Berkely, California. The handles on the outside are in the shape of what I call the Amista “swoop”, that surrounds the word Amista on our logo. The swoop represents arms opening, the perfect sign of welcome to Amista, which means making friends in Spanish.

One thing that is not secret is that the barn is the perfect setting for meeting new guests from near and far. It is the place where we welcome our members “back home to Amista”. It is where we share delightful wine club celebrations, tastings, and dinners. And it is the "work home" for all the special people who are or have been members of our Amista team over the years.

If you’ve been before, come see us all dressed up in our new Paloma Blanca. If you haven’t, you’re invited to come taste with us and experience the warm welcome and gorgeous views for yourself.

What are the Best Wines?

The Best Wines are Those Shared with Friends

...an unexpected pleasure of starting a winery – making friends!

 

The most rewarding thing about the creation of Amista Vineyards is the friendships we’ve made and deepened along the way. We’ve often talked about how our friends were involved in every step as we launched our winery, which is why we searched for a name that had something to do with friendship. Amista, roughly translated, means making friends in Spanish. Little did we know that it was only the beginning and that we would make many more wonderful friends on this journey.

Friendships Sown in the Vineyard

This is the story of one friendship that started while standing in our vineyard in Healdsburg, California in 2005, before we had a tasting room or sold our first bottle of Amista wine. We had signed up to host a vineyard tour as part of the annual Passport to Dry Creek Valley, a fabulous food and wine event held every year during the last weekend in April.

Our dear friends Meg and Dale had flown out from Colorado to attend Passport with us and offered to help with the vineyard tour. The tour was scheduled for early Sunday morning and after the four of us enjoyed attending Passport on Saturday, we came home to prepare for the tour. Meg made cookies and I made quiches.

All of us worked on the “speech” my husband Mike and I would do during the tour. It didn’t even occur to me, but Meg suggested we have all the guests sign up for our mailing list (we didn’t have one yet!), so we quickly made up some signup cards.

On Sunday everyone assembled in our vineyards at the site of what would be our future tasting room. The hot coffee, quiches and cookies were a big hit in the chilly morning air. I climbed atop an upside-down yellow mop bucket so I could see everyone (Mike is 6’3 and needed no such bucket) and talked about our plans for Amista. There were lots of great questions and lively conversations.

Among the guests was a guy named Jack who had been bringing a group of his friends to Passport for many years. Several of his friends were with him. They all signed up for our newly created mailing list.

Friendships Nourished at a Barbecue

Fast forward to Passport 2006. We still didn’t have a tasting room (the reason is a story for another post), but we had plenty of wine to sell. We decided to have a Passport welcome happy hour at our house on Friday evening and invite the people who had attended the vineyard tour the previous year.

Jack came with several of his friends, and we were all having so much fun, that he called other members of his group who joined in the party. Jack’s gang had a tradition of preparing an upscale barbeque – think Thai grilled beef and noodle salad not grilled hot dogs – at the bed and breakfast where they typically stayed. This year however, they couldn’t stay at their usual place and didn’t have a spot to do their barbecue.

When he heard them talking about it, Mike said, “Hey, if you bring the food, you can host your barbecue here and use our kitchen and our grill.” The next night Jack and his usual cooking buddies, Bruce and Mary, arrived early with coolers full of food ready to cook.

They took over the kitchen, fired up the grill and proceeded to turn out a feast of red curry coconut grilled chicken breasts, grilled asparagus, and French bread. The whole gang of about 20 people arrived and had a fantastic evening of food, wine, and friendship.

It was fun to hear their stories of how they had all met and how they reunite each year at Passport. One couple even got married at a Dry Creek Valley winery during the Passport event.

Not only did the group do all the cleanup after dinner, but they also purchased many cases of wine, which meant our first-year sales at Passport were a big success!

Passport 2007 rolled around, and our winery was finally under construction but not ready for us to participate in the event. We hosted another happy hour on Friday and invited Jack and his group to return for their Saturday night barbecue.

We couldn’t wait to taste what Jack, Bruce and Mary were cooking up for this year’s feast. I was especially excited that my mother, Lori, and her husband Don were visiting us and could be part of the festivities. They enjoyed getting to know Jack and his friends as much as we had.

Friendships Sustained through the Years

The next year and every year since, Jack and his group have held their Saturday night Passport barbecue at Amista (except in 2020 and 2021 when Passport was cancelled during the pandemic). We moved from our house to the winery in 2008, when our building was finally complete.

Jack fires up the grill to finish his creations. Every year the menu is a little different, inventive, and delicious. Every year we have some new wine to share with our friends. In 2008 it was our first Sparkling Syrah, the wine responsible for Amista becoming the 1st grower sparkling wine house in Healdsburg. No matter what we’re eating or drinking, the company and conversation are always outstanding.

Nearly everyone in Jack’s group is part of our wine club and we’ve had the privilege of following how their lives have evolved – watching their children and now their grandchildren grow. Some of the “kids” joined our club when they became of age along with the mother of one member of the group, so we now have three generations in our Amista family.

Along the way, Jack met and married a wonderful woman, and we now welcome the talented and lovely B to the annual barbecue. She immediately took over the responsibility for the hors d'oeuvres and presented the most gorgeous and delicious cheese board I’ve ever seen!

Jack and B purchased a vacation home just a mile away from us, so now we get to see them more than once a year. They can often be seen with Ashley and the picking crew during our harvest. The crew fell in love with them when they presented them with a box of 2 dozen doughnuts.

Last year when Ashley decided to foot tread some of the grapes for our sparkling wines in the vineyard, B jumped in the bin and went to work alongside Ashley and her kids and members of our tasting room team. B had a blast – she’s the one with her arms in the air and a big smile on her face.

Friendships Enriched during Challenging Times

During the pandemic Passport was cancelled. No one could quite believe that this long-standing event wasn't going to happen for the first time in 30 years. Trips were cancelled; long time guest were disappointed not to enjoy a weekend of food and wine and everyone missed reuniting with their friends. We had to do something.

We asked Jack if he was willing to create a pairing for each of the wines that we had planned to pour at Passport in 2020 and co-host a virtual tasting with us. No surprise, he was excited to do it!

He even prepared each of the dishes for us and left them on our doorstep - since everyone was quarantining at the time - so we would have them for the virtual tasting. Jack introduced each dish; our winemaker Ashley Herzberg described the wines and B made sure each item was artfully plated. They were imaginative creations that paired beautifully with our wines.

Friendships Celebrated with Gratitude

A few weeks ago, we asked Jack and B to join us for dinner. I was nervous because I volunteered to make the meal, something that Mike typically does. My role is generally relegated to making salads. We decided to serve Cassoulet, a complicated dish with many steps, even though all the meats, including the duck confit, were ready to sauté and layer into the bean mixture I had prepared the day before.

I was especially nervous to be handling the cooking duties since we were serving the results to such an accomplished home chef as Jack. It turned out fine (although next time I will make sure it stays juicy) but more importantly, the chance to gather around the table with Jack and B after nearly two years of not having guests in our home, was priceless.

We reminisced about how we first met and the many Passports we have experienced together. We caught up on each other’s lives. We talked about what we learned during the pandemic. And we gave Jack a special gift thanking him for his 15-plus years of being a supporter, an ambassador, a member, and a friend.

I am proud, and frankly surprised, that Mike and I have been able to build a thriving winery even though we have never owned our own business, never worked in hospitality or agriculture, and never worked together! Far more important, I am grateful for the friendships and treasured memories we’ve experienced on our journey.

If you love delicious food, check out the wine and food pairings with recipes that Jack created for our Passport to Dry Creek virtual tasting.

If you enjoy luxury accommodations and hospitality, check out Jack and B’s beautiful vacation rental, Decanter Healdsburg, just a few minutes from Amista.

If you want to experience the friendly spirit of Amista, Come Taste with Us and enjoy sparkling and Rhône wines surrounded by gorgeous vineyard views in Healdsburg, California in the heart of Sonoma wine country.

Honoring the Women who Fueled the Growth of Amista Vineyards

The Stories of What They Did...

...…and the lessons I learned from them

 

Let’s raise a glass of bubbles and celebrate women, wisdom and wine! There are many bright female threads woven through the evolution of Amista Vineyards - women who have made a profound difference in our journey. Yes, there are men who have had an important impact as well, but that’s a story for another time.

Sometimes I am amazed that we have gone from making wine in our garage to becoming the first grower sparkling wine house in Healdsburg with a thriving tasting room and a vibrant wine club. I am deeply grateful for all the friends who have supported and guided us along the way.

This is Women’s History Month and today is National Women in Wine Day, a perfect time to say thank you to seven women who have touched our lives, especially mine. Here are the stories of how they shared their wisdom, made a lasting difference and the lessons I learned from each of them.

• One Small Step for a Woman, One Giant Leap for Amista
  Meg, Broomfield, Colorado 

• Passion Over Price
  Lori, My Mom, formerly Sun City West, Arizona

• You’re Both Right!
  Ashley Herzberg, Amista Vineyards Winemaker, Healdsburg, California

• The Yin and Yang of Business
  Tammy, Sebastopol, California

• ABC – Anything but Chardonnay
  Janice, Belmont & Cheryl, Redwood City, California

• The Art of Creative Combinations
  Hallie, Orinda, California

• The Tin Woman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion
  Tammy Toth, Amista Vineyards Hospitality Manager, Healdsburg, California

 

One Small Step for a Woman, One Giant Leap for Amista

When the idea to start Amista was still in its infancy – we had our first wines in the barrel but nothing yet in the bottle – we decided to sign up to host a vineyard tour at Passport to Dry Creek Valley, the premiere wine and food event in Sonoma County.

My friend Meg and her husband Dale flew out from Colorado to attend Passport with us and help us with the vineyard tour. Meg helped me make cookies and quiche to serve for the morning tour but that wasn’t the small step that had such a lasting effect on Amista.

Meg proposed that we have everyone who attended the tour sign up for our mailing list. Mailing list? We didn’t have one. It hadn’t occurred to me.

At the time, my husband Mike was the one with a passion for making wine. I was busy doing executive coaching and consulting and hadn’t given much thought to building a wine business.

Meg’s simple idea led to ongoing friendships with a whole gang of people and their friends who showed up at that first vineyard tour and signed up for our brand new mailing list.

They’ve truly become part of the family – having barbecues at our home and brunches at the winery, joining our wine club, celebrating their marathons, their birthdays, and their family reunions either at Amista or with Amista wines in their glasses. We’ve watched their kids grow up and some of their moms and grown children join our wine club.

In retrospect, it is astonishing and a good reminder that sometimes a seemingly simple act can lead to such a huge impact. You can read the whole story about the gang of friends we met at Passport in another post, “The Best Wines are Those Shared with Friends.”

Passion Over Price

I’ll never forget the day we bottled our “Garage Syrah”. My mom, Lori, and her husband Don drove from their home in Arizona to help. We had a dozen people gather in our garage one overcast, rainy day in December where we made quick work of bottling three barrels of 2002 Syrah, the very first wine Mike made from our new vineyards in Healdsburg, California.

We let everyone take home several cases of wine to thank them for their help. Most couples took two to six cases. My mom sheepishly asked if she could take ten. At that time, she and Don weren’t that much into wine, so I was surprised but secretly pleased. They had so much wine in their trunk that their luggage had to go in the back seat!

About five weeks later I was talking with my mom on the phone, and she was raving about how much they liked the “Garage Syrah” and sharing it with their friends. “The only problem,” she admitted, once again somewhat sheepishly, “is that we ran out.” I couldn’t believe they had already gone through 10 cases. She explained that there were a lot of gatherings in their neighborhood, and our wine was a big hit.

I know, I know, you’re probably thinking the fact that it was free is what made it so popular. There is some truth to that, but what I’ve learned over the years is that much more important than the price of the wine is the genuine enthusiasm of the person who is offering it. For the rest of her life, my mom remained our biggest fan and cheerleader.

You’re Both Right!

Winemaker Ashley Herzberg joined us in 2011, although she had worked with us and our wines for nearly four years as assistant winemaker at a custom crush facility where we make our wines. She had already gotten to know us when she approached us with the idea of becoming our winemaker.

Ashley had decided to strike out on her own as a consulting winemaker, in part for a new challenge and in part because she wanted the flexibility to be a mom. We were thrilled! Secretly we hoped she already had an idea of what it would be like to work with owners who are husband and wife and still learning the wine business.

Her first act was rescuing a problem Zinfandel that we had all but given up on. It started with a stuck fermentation (meaning the wine would not go dry and remained at about 6% residual sugar). We tried suggestions from anyone who knew anything about winemaking, but nothing worked. We then decided to blend it with Syrah, which didn’t fix the problem, it just doubled it!

Ashley proposed making a dessert wine from the sweet red blend – “if you can’t fix it, feature it” – by adding a dose of brandy. We decided to call it Ilusión, the Spanish word for illusion, because it took a bit of Ashley’s magic to transform a mistake into a delightful wine.

What she might not have known before she joined us is that Mike and I don’t agree on much of anything, at least initially. In fact, the more difficult the situation, the more vociferously we disagree on the path forward. Ashley was often caught in the middle, but her calm demeanor and confidence have been among her greatest gifts to us.

Her typical response after patiently listening to our opposing points of view is, “You’re both right.” Then she proceeds to craft a solution that considers both of our perspectives…or is it just the path she envisioned all along?

There have been so many challenging situations where she has helped us navigate a solution - finding a way to reinvigorate our vineyards that were slowly failing, figuring out what to do after a middle-of-the-night theft of 2 tons of our Mourvedre crop and scrambling to pick as much fruit as we could before the smoke from the 2020 fires affected the grapes.

She is a talented, hard-working, creative winemaker and we are grateful every day for her abilities. I’ve learned a lot about winemaking from Ashley, but not enough to be one, even on TV. What I have learned from her is that patience, creative problem-solving and the attitude of “Yes, and” rather than “Yes, but…” are the secrets to success.

The Yin and Yang of Business

"Goals - we don't need no stinkin' goals." That was us when we first started. We didn’t even have a goal to get into the wine business; it just unfurled.

Thankfully, I met Tammy Boatright, the woman who taught me the value of setting goals, measuring results, and monitoring key metrics (Key Performance Indicators) on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.

I knew how to do this in my corporate and later my consulting life, but the wine business felt so different to me, and I was in so far over my head in the early days, it didn’t occur to me to use the tools I already had in my toolkit.

It was my good fortune to meet Tammy as part of a roundtable for women in the wine business. She was my informal sounding board on the business side of wine for several years before she started her own firm helping wineries with a DTC focus (DTC or Direct to Consumer is selling directly to customers rather than selling through distributors). I may have used Key Performance Indicators in my past lives, but I had no idea of how or what to measure in a wine business. Tammy did!

One of the tools her company offered was a simple dashboard with the five key metrics that are most critical to a successful tasting room. The dashboard drew directly from our systems, so there was nothing required on our part except we had to set goals for the dashboard to work.

Setting goals was a game changer for me and my team. Now we had something to shoot for. We could celebrate when we met our goals and figure out what changes to make when we didn’t.

Tammy isn’t all about Yang (strategy, focus, drive, and ambition). She is equally good at the Yin of business (creativity, intuition, compassion, and empathy). She helped me develop creative solutions and innovative ideas for wine clubs, unique offers, staff incentives and even merchandise.

Her intuition is remarkable. She could walk into my tasting room and tell if the energy was positive or if something was off. Typically, she saw it first in the numbers, for example our sales were down, and then she would “feel” it when she walked through the door.

Running a business is lonely and Tammy has been a valuable and trusted advisor. She tells it like it is and when she senses something is wrong, she lets me know. Then she helps me figure out what to do. The lasting and most precious gift Tammy gave me is the consistent practice of setting goals, measuring results and at the same time tuning into the “feel” and the energy of our business.

ABC – Anything but Chardonnay

One day in June of 2004, we invited our club members for a Barrel Tasting party. In the Fall of 2003, we had harvested our first grapes for Amista Vineyards. We brought in Syrah from our estate vineyards and Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon from neighbors in Dry Creek Valley. We were excited to share our new creations with our founding wine club members. We all went to the winery where we were making our wines and tasted the young wines from the barrels.

Then we came back to our house – our winery building was only an application on paper at the time – for a barbecue lunch. As we were sitting around after lunch, two of my friends and club members, Janice and Cheryl, gazed out over our acres of Chardonnay vines and asked, “Why don’t you make Chardonnay?”

I answered, “Because we don’t like Chardonnay!” Their retort, “But we do!” So I asked them, “If we make it, will you drink it?” and they answered with a resounding yes. I was just barely starting to get the hang of the wine business at this point, but at least had the sense to ask, “Will you buy it?” Once again, I was met with a resounding yes. The next year we harvested Chardonnay from the blocks right outside our bedroom windows and have been making it ever since.

To be honest, the reason we didn’t care for Chardonnay is because we had only tried the heavily oaked, buttery Chardonnays that were popular in California at the time. We agreed to make it if we could find a style we liked. That led to several months of trying various Chardonnays and discovering that we didn’t have to ferment in new oak barrels. We could ferment in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels – those that had been used for several years – thus imparting no oak flavor to the wine.

We decided to make a more Burgundian style Chardonnay and ferment in neutral oak barrels. Mike had great fun using four distinctive yeasts, each offering a slightly different flavor component to the wine and then blending them all together. The result was a bright Chardonnay that let the fruit – rather than the oak – shine through and offered layers of complexity from the different yeasts.

I am quite certain that without the prompting from Janice and Cheryl, we would have never made a Chardonnay. My lesson learned was to listen to our customers and at the same time, be true to ourselves.

The Art of Creative Combinations

We had just released our first wine in the late summer of 2005, when I was invited to pour at a reception in Oakland at a conference for women in business. I had only one wine to pour, our 2004 Chardonnay since our red wines were still in barrel.  

I had never poured wine at an event in my life, but I was the logical choice because it was a women’s event. The Chardonnay was a big hit, and I collected a whole bunch of business cards from the women who tasted.

Best of all, I met a women named Hallie, who has touched Amista in countless ways since that fortuitous reception. Her first act was born of her passion for good food and her gift of making splendid combinations. As we talked and she tasted, she wrote out a recipe for “Hallie's Roasted Garlic & Onion Jam Crostini.” She thought it would pair well with our Chardonnay. It does!

Her next act was introducing us to her friends and colleagues who came to our Amista launch parties, joined our founders wine club, came to our events, and bought our wines. She is always full of creative ideas and connections. She even found a fabulous private chef, Cindy, who catered some of our first tasting parties and founders’ event.

Later Hallie and the Cindy cooked up a fashion and wine pairing show with Susan, another of her friends who did trunk shows. Susan chose five outfits each for a different occasion like a Girlfriends Holiday Luncheon. Cindy created a menu for each occasion, and I paired each menu with an Amista wine.  As the models showed off each outfit, we described the occasion and the menu while the guests sipped on the wine.

One of my favorites was a casual outfit for a Game Day Tailgate Party.  Here is the menu, which I last looked at in 2006. It still sounds delicious!

 

And speaking of delicious, Hallie and my husband Mike once did a wine club event we called Battle Pizza. Hallie taught everyone how she makes pizza dough and then created an artisanal pizza. Mike made a more traditional pie and they baked up both in our wood fired oven. Then everyone got to enjoy the results. It was great fun.

What I’ve learned from Hallie is the art of creative connections. Her imagination shines through in bringing together combinations that wouldn’t occur to everyone – foods, wine, projects, and people.

The Tin Woman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion

Amista, roughly translated, means making friends in Spanish. That is how our Hospitality Manager, Tammy Toth came to Amista, through one of her daughter’s friends who saw our ad and said, “This is the perfect job for your mom.”

Tammy embodies everything that Amista stands for – friendly, bubbly, engaging, and approachable. She joined us in April 2017 and has turned out to be the heart and soul of Amista. She is genuinely curious and interested in everyone who comes through the door – guests, club members, team members and partners, (even owners!) – and makes everyone feel welcome. She also has a great sense of humor. Tammy is on the right in the photo below, beneath our 200-year-old oak.

She has an astute business focus and drive to succeed. She is always first to check the numbers and see how we are doing against our goals and the benchmarks. She is constantly looking for ways to improve results, helping her team achieve their goals and celebrating their successes.

She puts their success ahead of her own and cares deeply about each person, encouraging them to constantly push themselves, not only to be more successful but to be more fulfilled (even when that means watching them leave Amista for their next adventure).

It's rare to find the combination of a great hospitality person who also has a fierce focus on business success. It’s even more rare to find a leader who also has the courage to stand up for what’s right – for the business and her people. Tammy is someone I can count on to have the most difficult conversations with me about things I honestly wish I didn’t have to hear but need to know.

Tammy embodies the combination of what each of the characters in the Wizard of Oz was searching for. She has heart, she has brains, and she has courage. This combination is what results in her attitude of finding the good, the positive and the hope in every situation.

I’d like to say that I’ve learned these lessons from Tammy. The truth is that remaining positive and confident in the face of adversity is sometimes a struggle. What I know is that I have a lot of wonderful women around me who will help if I have the courage to ask for their advice and support.

Thank you to these seven wonderful women and all the others in my life who’ve had an impact on me and Amista Vineyards.

And cheers to all the women in wine on this second annual Women in Wine Day - click the link and scroll down to see Ashley and me stomping grapes!

5 Secrets of a Sparkling Winemaker

How Ashley Herzberg led Amista Vineyards to Make Sparkling Tres

...…a sparkling blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.

 

 

This is a story about Ashley Herzberg, our amazing winemaker and how she persuaded us to make our newest sparkling wine. We debuted Sparkling Tres, the sixth wine in our collection of sparkling gems, last month, February 2022, so it’s a fitting time to reflect on the journey.

Ashley is a fantastic winemaker, but this story isn’t about her talent as a winemaker. It’s about her leadership and influence skills. They make her an even better winemaker and a joy to have on our team.

The story of how we came to make Sparkling Tres is a good way to illustrate her leadership abilities. As a former executive coach and student of leadership, I have a deep fascination and appreciation for what makes a great leader. I love to watch leaders in action and distill the things they do that make them successful. Here are my picks for the top five things Ashley did to help us become the 1st sparkling wine house in Healdsburg and add the sixth wine to our collection of bubbles.

Take a good thing and make it better

When Ashley joined us as winemaker in 2011, she enthusiastically embraced the wines we had been making since we started Amista in 2004. We made Syrah and Chardonnay from our own estate grapes and Cabernet and Zinfandel from the vineyards of our Dry Creek neighbors. We also made two rosés from our Syrah – one still and one sparkling.

She didn’t come blazing in with plans to plant new varieties, introduce new wines or buy more fruit. With her quiet confidence and winemaking talent, she took what we had and made everything better each year.

There was just one new project the first year Ashley joined us that she and I cooked up together. A few months after she arrived, I asked her if she thought we could make a Blanc de Blanc from our chardonnay grapes. She had yet to make a sparkling wine, but she too loves bubbles and said, “Absolutely”.

During her first harvest at Amista, she picked some of our Chardonnay early to make Blanc de Blanc. The inaugural release of our Amista Blanc de Blanc in 2013 scored 91 points and won a gold medal in the Press Democrat’s “Best of the Best” North Coast Wine Challenge.

Plant the seeds for change

Every wine we made during our early years was from a single variety (except Ilusión, a port-style dessert wine, but that’s a story for another time).  Although making single varietal wines requires skill and has its own set of challenges due to the vagaries of weather and water with each vintage, winemakers love to do blends.

I’m not a winemaker, but my impression is that making a wonderful wine from a single varietal is like grilling a perfect steak. You start with a great piece of meat, season it with just the right amount of salt and pepper, get the grill blazing hot, put the steak on, turn it after it browns on one side and take it off immediately when it reaches the right temperature. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t as easy as it sounds without practice. It takes skill and experience to do it perfectly.

But making a blended wine must be more like a chef creating and preparing a complex dish that brings together several ingredients, requires many steps and techniques and results in a tapestry of flavors and textures. Think of cassoulet with confit of duck or a chocolate souffle with crème anglaise. It’s more challenging than grilling a steak and tests the creativity, the palate, and the experience of the chef.

So, I totally understand why Ashley would want to make a blend. She loves to learn, and she greets every challenge as a chance to learn something new. But my husband Mike and I had never made a blend and it seemed daunting to us. So, she planted a seed.

We had budded over some of our Syrah vines in 2011 creating about an acre each of Grenache and Mourvèdre, thinking it would be fun to make a couple more Rhône style varieties. Apparently, she had another idea.

One day she said casually, “We’ll have some new Grenache and Mourvèdre fruit coming on next year. What do you think about making a GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) blend from our three Rhône varieties?” We gave our usual answer, something like “Hmmm. We were planning to make a standalone Grenache and Mourvedre. We’ll have to think about it.”

She gently raised the idea on several more occasions, sharing her excitement and confidence that she could make a beautiful blend. She had us try a few GSM blends so we could see if we liked them.

It didn’t take long before we agreed. During the 2012 harvest, which was only her second at Amista, she picked those three varieties to make Tres (three in Spanish). We released it in 2014 and it quickly became Mike’s new favorite wine.

Share genuine excitement

Part of the reason we agreed is because Ashley was so excited about the prospect of making our first blend. One of the things I most admire about Ashley is that she loves what she does, and she shows it. She bubbles with enthusiasm as she talks about her work. And she loves to share what she has learned.

One of the favorite parts of our annual winemaker dinner in the vineyards is Ashley’s vineyard walk. Our guests ask her endless questions, and she not only has thoughtful, easy to understand answers about the most technical aspects of grape growing and winemaking, but her joy in sharing it is palpable. People who truly enjoy their life’s work are inspiring and the excitement is contagious.

Seize opportunities

The next step in the journey was to make a rosé from the same three grapes. Ashley wanted to try doing a saignée when she crushed each of the varieties for Tres. A saignée involves draining off a portion of the juice from a tank of crushed red grapes. This technique increases the ratio of skins relative to juice in the tank and typically results in a more concentrated red wine that is richer, deeper in color and has more tannins.

Often the juice that is bled off is flushed down the drain. Ashley thought it would make a delicious rosé. It sounded like a great deal to me – harvest grapes for a red wine and get a rosé as a bonus. We debuted our first Rosé de Tres in 2018, and it turned out to be a beautiful wine, from the bright rose color to the crisp acidity. 

Keep building on your success

Ashley seized many opportunities to add new winemaking techniques and new wines to our portfolio over the next several years. A huge focus has been on making a collection of sparkling wines. She continues to make Sparkling Syrah, the only sparkling wine we were making when she joined us, and the Blanc de Blanc from our Chardonnay that she made in her first year.

She was especially keen to make a Sparkling Grenache, a delicate sparkler that has become a crowd favorite and earned Amista the honor of being selected as one of 10 Hot Brands from across the US in 2017.

As you might guess, she wanted to make a sparkling blend and crafted a wine we call Fusión, made from Chardonnay with a kiss of Grenache and a bit of either Syrah or Mourvèdre.

Her next experiment was to make a sparkling wine from our Mourvèdre, which we call by the Catalan name, Mataró. It turned out to be a brilliant addition to our line-up for its glittering cherry color in the glass and flavors of juicy summer strawberries. From the description, it might sound like a sweet wine, but all our sparkling wines are quite dry, typically Brut, Extra Brut or Brut Nature.

Ashley continues to build on her successes and find ways to experiment with blends. So, the creation of a Sparkling Tres was probably inevitable. The only reason it didn’t happen sooner is because we didn’t have enough Grenache for all the wines we wanted to make. Once our new Grenache block was producing fruit, her dream of making a Sparkling Tres became a reality and we have Ashley’s artistry as a winemaker and her talent as a leader to thank for it.

Read more about Winemaker Ashley Herzberg.

Ashley Herzberg, Amista Vineyards Winemaker, Featured in Winemaker Moms

The Best Sparkling Wine - 5 Tips

Secrets from my Journey into Sparkling Wine

...and it isn't complicated!

 

 

At Amista Vineyards, we are on a journey to make the best sparkling wine. It wasn’t a plan. It simply evolved. Now it’s an adventure and a passion that excites me every day.

I want to let you in on the secrets I’ve learned along the way about finding the best sparkling wine. They aren’t rocket science. They aren’t complex. It turns out I knew the answer all along. I was just over-complicating things. Here are my five simple tips for enjoying the best sparkling wine.

Who says what is the best sparkling wine?

Tip #1. You!

My biggest revelation about being in the wine business is that no one is a better judge of what is the best than I am – or than you are. I used to think there was a right and wrong answer. Now I realize that everyone has a different palate, including every critic, writer, wine expert and every one of your friends. In fact, some of them don’t even like sparkling wine. That’s OK.

Did you ever wonder why someone raves about a wine and you find it blah? Or why you can’t wait to share a wine with a friend, and they don’t fall in love with it? Everyone’s taste is unique. You don’t have to like what everyone else likes. You just have to find the wines you enjoy.

And don’t be surprised if your tastes change. That’s the other thing that has been so much fun about my adventure into wine and sparkling wine in particular. Sometimes it's the food that makes a wine taste best. Sometimes your tastes change over the years.

Sometimes it is the setting. I can remember a warm afternoon after driving across Tuscany with our best friends and finally ending up on the terrace of a lovely bed and breakfast with a view of the towers of San Gimignano. We were tired from the drive. Our hosts brought out glasses of wine and plates of cheese and charcuterie. It was a special moment and that was the best wine in the world!

How do I find the best sparkling wine?

Tip #2. Explore

There are so many countries that make sparkling wine – the classic Champagne from France, Spanish Cava, South African Cap Classique, Sekt from Germany and Austria, American sparkling wines and more. Take a virtual trip around the world and try a few from each country.  

There are also many varieties of grapes that are made into sparkling wines. The traditional grapes of Champagne are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Today, sparkling wines are made from a wide array of grape varieties.

At Amista we are on a mission to make the best sparkling wine from our estate grown Rhône varieties like Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, although we give a nod to tradition and make a Blanc de Blanc from the Chardonnay that we grow in our estate vineyards.

You can also find sparkling wines made from Zinfandel, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Tempranillo, Pinotage, Malbec, and various Italian varietals like Vecchio. And the list goes on.

If you truly want to find your best sparkling wine, put each of these varieties on your bucket list and try a few bottles from different producers each month. OK, so it might take a few years, but what a great adventure!

In fact, how about getting a group of friends who want to explore with you and having a different person chose a variety (or a country) and host a tasting each month – a sparkling wine of the month club!

If that isn’t enough, you can explore the styles of sparkling wines from dry (brut nature) to sweet (doux) or the length of time the sparkling wines are aged in the bottle. There is so much to discover!

What glass do I use for the best sparkling wine?

Tip #3. It depends

Here again, I used to think there was a right answer. What I discovered is that the right answer seems to change over time partly because Champagne and sparkling wine have changed – becoming more effervescent, dryer and more aromatic. Tastes have also changed. In the 17th century, the coupe was the ideal glass.

Later the flute, became the proper glass. Scenes of tall, elegant glasses being raised in a toast come to mind and evoke celebration. Flutes are usually notched inside the base causing that beautiful stream of bubbles to rise in the glass. I must admit, I love flutes, the taller the better, and I love watching that stream of bubbles ascend and create a little ring on the top of the liquid.

Lately, I have come to appreciate a glass more closely resembling a white wine glass, with one condition – it must be notched. I want to see, and I want everyone around me to see that it is sparkling wine in my glass! If you can’t tell it’s sparkling wine by the shape of the glass, then you must have the telltale stream of tiny, elegant bubbles floating up through the wine.

You can choose to go with what is currently in vogue, pick the one you like best and stick with it, or have a set of each kind of glasses to match your mood and the occasion. It all depends on you.

What foods do I serve with the best sparkling wine?

Tip #4. Experiment

I have always loved bubbles since long before we started making them, but I never thought much about how they went with food. I now pay a lot more attention and I’ve learned two things.

First, try a lot of wines with a lot of foods to discover the best sparkling wine pairings. There are some traditional favorites like Blanc de Blanc with oysters or blinis and caviar. Be sure to treat yourself to these classic pairings.

The second thing I’ve learned is not to be afraid to try sparkling wines with simple, everyday foods. The best sparkling wines don’t have to be saved for fancy, elegant dishes. At Amista we pair our Blanc de Blanc with freshly popped popcorn with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon herb salt.

At home, we regularly have sparkling wine with pasta dishes, stir fry, curries, sushi, taco salad, roast chicken, grilled fish – you name it, we try it. Most of the time it works; sometimes it doesn’t!

How do I truly enjoy the best sparkling wine?

Tip #5. With friends.

Amista means making friends, so the answer to this question is very simple for me. The best sparkling wine is the one you enjoy with good friends.

We invite you to Taste With Us on your journey to discover your best sparkling wines.

 

Dog Friendly Wine Tasting in Sonoma

Best 5 Sparkling Wine Tastings in Sonoma

Becoming the First Sparkling Winery in Healdsburg, 5 Surprising Discoveries

It's Not a Destination, It's a Journey

...and it's been both exhilarating and challenging. Here's what I've discovered.

 

 

We never thought we’d be in the wine business let alone be the first sparkling winery in Healdsburg. The creation of Amista Vineyards was a dream that my husband Mike and I never knew we had and never knew we shared. It emerged slowly over time. When we started, we made Chardonnay and Syrah from our estate Morningsong Vineyards and Zinfandel and Cabernet from the vineyards of our neighbors in Dry Creek Valley, in Healdsburg, California.

Becoming the first sparkling winery in Healdsburg wasn’t part of our plan, although to be honest, in those days we didn’t really have a plan. It all started when we made our first sparkling wine in 2008. That was five years after our first harvest in 2003, when we picked for red wines - Syrah, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.

We are now known as the sparkling wine house in Dry Creek Valley in Healdsburg, California with six sparkling wines, a sparkling wine club and a sparkling wine tasting flight. It’s been an exhilarating journey of opportunities, setbacks, surprises, and a lot of lessons learned. Here are my five surprising discoveries.

Be open to serendipity

Discovery #1.  Embrace serendipity because accidents and unexpected happenings present opportunities.

Seize the opportunity

Discovery #2. Seizing opportunities has been an important part of our journey to becoming a sparkling winery. I will admit that Mike is better at this than me. I like to research and think things through before acting. But when I’ve allowed myself to take the leap, it’s always turned out to be a good thing.

Full speed ahead

Discovery #3. When you’re on a roll keep going. Building on your successes creates momentum and energy in your team. Externally, it creates a buzz and tells the world that you are committed to building something bigger than just a one-time offering.

Keep innovating

Discovery #4. Experiment - don’t be afraid to fail. Trying new things is sometimes the only way to know what will happen. Often, the experiments are great successes. Sometimes they fail. So, I like the to remind myself of the two sides of the same coin: “when you’re on a roll, keep going” and “when you’re in a rut, quit digging”.

Bend, don’t break

Discovery #5. Be flexible AND stay true to what is most important. This is a fine line to walk, and we haven’t always gotten it right. It’s helpful to remind ourselves of the things that are fundamental to our values and our brand and the things that can change over time as circumstance and experience evolve.

We are proud to be the first sparkling winery in Healdsburg, with estate grown fruit from our vineyards in Dry Creek Valley and honored to stand alongside the pioneering sparkling wine houses that came before us and paved the path for sparkling wineries in Sonoma County.

 

 

Still Thirsty?

Here are a few of the stories that illustrate the things I’ve discovered on the journey to becoming a sparkling wine house in Dry Creek Valley.

Be open to serendipity

I’m convinced we would not be Healdsburg’s first sparkling winery if it weren’t for a series of happy accidents.

Prevent a Spillover, Create a Rosé

In September 2005, we decided to try harvesting our Syrah by machine. Mike was in the vineyard at night (machine harvesting is typically done at night when it’s cool) supervising the pick. He was enthralled watching the machine go up and down the rows and got so excited that he kept asking the operator to pick more rows. He didn’t want to stop.

The next morning, he was still reveling over his midnight pick when he got a call from someone at the winery. They told him he had 10 tons of Syrah grapes in a 10-ton fermentation tank, and when the wine started fermenting, it was going to bubble over, go all over the floor and he was going to have to clean it up.

He swiftly moved into action and had 200 gallons moved from the tank to neutral barrels. Neutral barrels have been used in prior years and impart no oak to the wine. His idea was that once the Syrah in the tank was fermented and moved to barrels, he would combine it with the juice he had removed.

In early January of 2006, we went down to the winery with our winemaker, Chris Wills, to taste all the wine in barrels. We decided to taste the wine that had been removed to avoid the spillover. It had spent very little time on the skins, so it was a rosé rather than a red wine. We tasted it. It was fantastic. We decided on the spot to keep it separate from the other Syrah and bottle it as our first Rosé of Syrah. This was step number one in the serendipity that would lead to our first sparkling wine.

Sparkling Syrah from a Class Winemaking Project

Step number two didn’t occur until two years later. Our Rosé of Syrah had become a big hit and we continued to make it each year. In 2007, Chris (our winemaker who helped us decide to make our first rosé) asked if he could have some of the current vintage of our Rosé of Syrah to use to teach his class at the junior college how to make a sparkling wine using the classic Methode Champenoise. This is the method used to make fine French Champagne. We immediately said yes, on the condition that we got to try the finished product.

When we tasted it, we knew we had to make more for ourselves and our friends. We sent one barrel each of our 2007 and 2008 Rosé of Syrah, to a custom crush winery specializing in sparkling wines. This is where the second fermentation in the bottle was done, transforming a still wine into a sparkling wine. We released it in 2009 at our first Sparkling Holidays party. Mike celebrated the occasion with what has now become a tradition at this party of opening the bottle with a saber.

Discovery #1.  Embrace serendipity because accidents and unexpected happenings present opportunities.

Seize the opportunity

Some opportunities present themselves in a flash and you must decide with no time for research or reflection. Others only occur to you if you are open to change. Some feel like they were just meant to be.

Our First Rosé – From Problem to Opportunity

Mike had just a few hours to figure out what to do with the excess Syrah in the 10-ton fermenter before it spilled over forcing him to don rubber boots (he didn’t have any) and wash the spillage down the drain with a big hose. Fixing that problem created an opportunity – a chance to make our first rosé.

OK Rosé – Trust Your Intuition

Sometimes opportunities are unseen because of a mindset of “this is how we do things”. We had never made a rosé in our early years in the wine business. It wasn’t something we even considered. We hadn’t done any customer research to see if anyone would like it much less buy it. Rosés are popular now in the U.S. but that wasn’t the case then. When we tasted it and loved it, we immediately decided we’d find a way to market it. I’ve learned that listening to intuition can be a path to innovation.

Sparkling Syrah – It Just Felt Right

On the other hand, seizing the opportunity was a piece of cake when we made the decision to make a sparkling wine from our Rosé of Syrah, at least for me. Although making a sparkling wine is far more complicated and expensive than making a still wine, I was undeterred.

It helped that our winemaker, Chris, had experience with sparkling wines and knew of a new winery specializing in making sparkling wines that had recently emerged on the local wine scene. Making it ourselves would have been impossible but partnering with a custom crush operation could make it viable. Besides, I love bubbles and thought it would be fun to make our Rosé of Syrah sparkle!

Discovery #2. Seizing opportunities has been an important part of our journey to becoming a sparkling winery. I will admit that Mike is better at this than me. I like to research and think things through before acting. But when I’ve allowed myself to take the leap, it’s always turned out to be a good thing.

Full speed ahead

We had three years of making Sparkling Syrah under our belt and I was ready to move full speed ahead with another sparkling wine.

Next Stop – Sparkling Blanc de Blanc

Ashley Herzberg joined as our new winemaker in 2011 and I asked her if she thought we could make a Blanc de Blanc from our chardonnay grapes. She had never made a sparkling wine, but she too loves bubbles and said, “Absolutely”.

 A few months later we harvested some of our Chardonnay to make our first Blanc de Blanc. The inaugural release of our Amista Blanc de Blanc in 2013 scored 91 points and won a gold medal in the Press Democrat’s “Best of the Best” North Coast Wine Challenge. I absolutely fell in love with this wine, and it continues to be my go-to bubbly. There’s nothing like personal satisfaction and public recognition to encourage full speed ahead, so we kept going!

On a Roll – More Sparkling Wines and Healdsburg’s First Sparkling Wine Club

In 2013 we started making not one, not two, but three sparkling wines to add to our portfolio, a Sparkling Grenache, a vintage Blanc de Blanc (technically a late disgorged version of our Blanc de Blanc) and our first sparkling blend called Fusión.

In 2014 we launched Healdsburg’s first sparkling wine club at the annual Passport, Dry Creek Valley's premiere food and wine event. Then in 2016 our Sparkling Mataró made its debut and in February 2022, we will release our second sparkling blend called Sparkling Tres, another rosé, made from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.

Discovery #3. When you’re on a roll keep going. Building on your successes creates momentum and energy in your team. Externally, it creates a buzz and tells the world that you are committed to building something bigger than just a one-time offering.

Keep innovating

Sparkling Wines from Non-Traditional Grapes

Our first sparkling wine was made with a grape that is never used in classic French Champagne, Syrah. Tradionally, Champagne and sparkling wines are made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. The Australians make a bubbly called Sparkling Shiraz from the Syrah grape, but it is a very deep red color and slightly sweet. Our Sparkling Syrah is a rosé, glittering cranberry in color and quite dry.

Most of the grapes we grow on our own vineyards are Rhône varieties – Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Using those grapes rather than the classic Champagne varieties, is one of the ways we innovate. The other non-traditional approach we take is to produce sparkling wines from single vintages. Although we don’t vintage date them, each bottling comes from a single year (except that first Sparkling Syrah). Most Champagnes and sparkling wines are blends from several vintages. We have the luxury of beautiful California weather, so we don’t need to save the “good years” to blend with the bad.

Glittering Sparkling Wines in Non-traditional Bottles

In addition to using non-traditional varieties, we also use non-traditional bottles. Most sparkling wine is bottled in dark green glass. This makes sense because the dark glass protects the delicate wine from the bright lights in the wine shops. Since we don’t sell our wine in shops – only from our website, tasting room and wine club – we get the privilege of using clear glass bottles.

This just plain makes me happy because lining up our sparkling wines creates a glittering array of precious gems. I love seeing the color of the wine in the bottle – from the gorgeous gold of our Blanc to the blush-colored Fusión all the way to the deep cranberry color of the sparkling Syrah. I’m not sure anyone else cares, but there should be some things about owning a winery that make the owner smile, right?

Healdsburg’s First Sparkling Wine Club, with a Twist

Another innovation was the introduction of the first sparkling wine club in Healdsburg. We were eager to launch it in April of 2014 at Passport, the premiere food and wine event in Dry Creek Valley, but we only had two sparkling wines at that time. We knew we had others coming, but we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to introduce our club to so many people. We decided to borrow from the idea of selling wine futures. People could sign up for our sparkling wine club in April and purchase their first shipment which would arrive later in the year. It worked!

Dosage Trial Tastings – a Big Flop

A big part of being innovating is taking risks and not being afraid to fail. We had what we thought was a brilliant idea to offer “Dosage Trial Tastings”. The tasting would be led by Ashley, our winemaker, and guests would experience the process of deciding on the dosage (the dose of sugar syrup) to be added to the wine to achieve the perfect balance and mouthfeel. The dosage level also determines whether a sparkling wine is designated as Brut, Extra Brut or Brut Nature (dryer) or Sec, Demi-sec and Doux (sweeter).

Dosage trials are one of my most favorite parts of having a sparkling wine house. In fact, all of us love doing them but apparently no one else did. Another local sparkling house started offering them right after we did. I guess it seemed like a good idea to the producers, but the dogs weren’t eating the dog food. We dropped them. Now we offer a sparkling flight of our bubbles which is wildly popular.

Late Disgorged Blanc de Blanc – Complicated and Expensive

Another thing we tried was making a late disgorged Blanc de Blanc. For many reasons, it turned out to be more complicated and expensive to produce than we expected and there were several production mishaps. We dropped the wine from our lineup after a couple of vintages, but this is one we’re going to revisit. Stay tuned!

Discovery #4. Experiment - don’t be afraid to fail. Trying new things is sometimes the only way to know what will happen. Often, the experiments are great successes. Sometimes they fail. So, I like the to remind myself of the two sides of the same coin: “when you’re on a roll, keep going” and “when you’re in a rut, quit digging”.

Bend, don’t break

I’ve talked a lot about being flexible, open, and resourceful and those have been crucial parts of our journey. At the same time, it’s important to stay true to your values and your brand. For us, the quality of the wine and the quality of the partnerships with our guests and our team are fundamental.

Committed to the Traditional Methode Champenoise

We use non-traditional glass and non-traditional grapes, but all our sparkling wines are made using the traditional method for making fine French Champagne and sparkling wines. The grapes are picked at a lower brix level (sugar content) and the wine goes through a second fermentation in its own bottle. There are other less expensive and time-consuming ways to produce bubbles, but we remain committed to the traditional process because it delivers the highest quality sparkling wine.

Partnering with our Employees During the COVID Shutdown

One of the things we value is partnership, with our customers and with our team. When our tasting room was shut down due to COVID, it was another of those anxious moments – a huge challenge with no clear path forward. We decided to keep all our full-time employees on board and offer as many hours to our part-time team members as we could. Instead of working in the tasting room, they got on the phones from home and called our customers about their wine club orders.

We sent each team member a care package of wine and did a virtual tasting - one wine each week. The wine tasting was fun, but more important was the fact that we were staying connected and supporting each other through unchartered territory. And we connected with our members in the same way – virtually – enjoying not only wine tasting together but support and camaraderie.

A Sparkling Wine House Must Have a Sparkling Flight

Once it became clear that we were a sparkling wine house and not just a winery that makes a sparkling wine, we realized we had to offer a bubbles flight to our guests. We offer a beautiful flight of reds and whites, but how can you be a legitimate sparkling winery without also offering a sparkling flight?

This was one of my pet peeves about sparkling houses before we became one. Most sparkling wineries also make Chardonnays and Pinots since those are the two common varieties in sparkling wine. Being a lover of bubbles, when I came to visit, I wanted to taste sparkling wines, but all the flights were a mix of sparkling, Chardonnay and Pinot.

Now I understand it’s easier said than done. Although we produce several different sparkling wines, some of them are very limited production and they sell out a few months after release. You can’t have a sparkling flight with just one wine on the menu, so we have had to work hard juggling releases and wine club allocations so we can offer a flight of sparkling.

Discovery #5. Be flexible AND stay true to what is most important. This is a fine line to walk, and we haven’t always gotten it right. It’s helpful to remind ourselves of the things that are fundamental to our values and our brand and the things that can change over time as circumstance and experience evolve.

We are proud to be the first sparkling winery in Healdsburg, with estate grown fruit from our vineyards in Dry Creek Valley and honored to stand alongside the pioneering sparkling houses that came before us and paved the path for sparkling wineries in Sonoma County.

 

Amista Vineyards – One of My Favorite Places – Taste the Sparkling Wines!