Video: How (and Why) to Grow Pinot Noir. Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars Interview: Part Two

This the second part of my video interview with Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars.  In this segment, McDonald talks about the reasons he chose to pursue great Pinot Noir and the challenges of working with such a complicated and finicky grape.

The first part of the interview is here.  "From Rural Texas to Napa Valley Wine Country."

Please enjoy this six minute video or read the transcript underneath it. 

This is Episode #56 of Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman.  Direct Download Link.

Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars discusses why he chose to grow great Pinot Noir and the complex challenges that he faces.

Mac McDonald:

Pinot Noir is what we do. Folks often ask me, why do you choose or select the toughest type of grape? Well, number one, in California, Northern California, and you want to make Cabernet unless you come out of Napa Valley, folks normally think it's not that good. So I thought if I could craft a great Pinot Noir, because Burgundy is the same grape, that if I could craft a good Pinot Noir then I think I could play with the big dogs. I'm pretty competitive in everything that I do so I want it to be good, I want it to make a mark for doing what I was doing. And at the time as a winery in California called William Seylem that I thought was doing a great, great job and then I also thought Sanford down in the Santa Barbara, those are the only two great Pinot producers that I thought was really, really good and I thought if I could make a great, great Pinot Noir then I could compete. 

That's why they was selected. I had no idea all the crazy things about that grape even exists but I'm a pretty fast learner so I learned a lot about it. Well, it's a real challenging thing because if you think normally about the clones of a Pinot Noir grape, the challenge of growing the grapes, making the wines and selecting the right yeast and keeping the temperature at a certain control. To start off with, you have to really know your soil condition and really match your soil condition with your root stock. Root stock, how much water you have, the soil condition, how much you want to grow per ton, like a Sauvignon Blanc, it doesn't care, it's like a weed, you can just overload it with tons and tons of fruit. In the Chardonnay world, let's say, you have about 50, 60 plus clones some place in their different varieties, different clones. Same with the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, you have about 50 or 60 there.

But in the Pinot world, you have about 11,000 clones. These things just mutate, you start out, for example, with a 667 or a 777 clone and you may have one side of the road, you may have this clone planted over there, the other side another different clone and they'll completely go different flavors. Then you get into the pruning process of it. You talk to different Pinot growers and they have different methods of pruning and I just like a little bit of exposure to my fruit. So it's really consistent with leaf picking, in other words, if you get more sun on the east side you may wanna leave a little bit more leaves on that. You don't get enough on the west side of the vine you may want to pull some of that off. So it's a constant juggle of trying to get the ripeness, in the evening ripeness, on the fruit itself. 

Austin Beeman: Isn't that challenging? 

Mac McDonald:

Yeah, it's pretty challenging and like I said, we all, a lot of us have different thoughts about it but I think we all come into an agreement. That's why we've been able to craft better Pinot Noir in California. It used to be, like I said, Brett William was the king of it but now you've got a lot of folks making great Pinot Noir. In fact, even here in the state of Ohio, they have a Pinot program, it's doing pretty good. I gave a big lecture at Ohio State several years ago on the crafting on Pinot Noir and I came back and tasted what some of the things that they made and they doing pretty good. But it's a real tough grape to grow. There's a whole bunch of choices of selections of yeast that you use to ferment your fruit and that makes a big difference in the end result of the flavor. 

The type of yeast you use helps determine the flavor you get on the end and then you have the other extreme of that, barrel selections is really, really critical because in my mind, a Pinot Noir should be treated like a white grape. It's a delicate thing. You can get too much wood on it or you can get too much alcohol in it. I'm not saying that if you don't like high alcohol Pinot Noir you shouldn't buy them but I'm just thinking that 13.5, 14.5, in there, is ideal alcohol level for a Pinot Noir. Now with that said, sometimes your vineyard, your fruit is just not there. Out of 25 bricks, equivalent to a 13.8, 13.9 of Pinot Noir and so you may have to let the alcohol get up a little bit higher because it's a little bit riper, so the riper it is, the higher the sugar content and the higher the sugar content is, higher the alcohol is gonna be in the finished product. 

So it's kind of an up and down thing with that grape in that sense as well.

Video: From Rural Texas to Napa Valley Wine Country. Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars Interview: Part One

Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars is not what you would expect from someone making some of California's best Pinot Noir. 

Mac speaks with a southern drawl, wears a farmer's hat, and sports blue jean overalls in a world of California's "Wine Country Casual."  He is a boutique craftsman who makes his wine in the corporate beast that is Wagner Family Wines.  He is also African-American in an industry where diversity is in the terroir and almost never among the winemakers.

Mac McDonald is also one of my favorite winemakers.  Not only because he makes delicious Pinot Noirs - which he does - but for the perspective he brings to the industry.

Please enjoy this 5 minute video or read the transcription afterwards.  

This is Episode #55 of the Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman Podcast.  // Direct Download Link.

Winemaker of Mac McDonald (part one) of Vision Cellars interviewed by Austin Beeman. Mac McDonald discusses his path from rural Texas to being a winemaker in California.

Mac McDonald:

I am Mac McDonald. I'd like to say I'm the owner, winemaker of Vision Cellars but I'm married with Miss Lil so I just make the wine for Miss Lil. 

Well, you know, it's kind of interesting how I got into wine. I grew up 89 miles south of Dallas, Texas. I grew up way in the woods, way in the country. I consider myself as an old organic kind of a guy, growing back up in there, squirrel eatin' type of a guy. At 12 years old, there used to be a couple hunters used to come down in these woods and go hunting with my grandfather and drink my father's moonshine. So one of them used to drink burgundy and these guys would give him a hard time about drinking that burgundy wine, blah, blah, blah.

But they was drinking corn whiskey. So one day he said to me, he says, "Hey, son, would you like to have this bottle of wine?" And said yes, but 12 years old, I didn't know how to get it open but I finally dug out the cork out of it and I took a stick and shoved it off in there and I tasted it. You don't have to worry about Child Protective Service because they didn't have anything back off in the woods to do that anyway. At any rate, I tasted it and I drank a half a bottle of that wine that day. It tasted pretty good. From that point on, all I talked about was I wanted to be a winemaker. Fast forward through high school, my coach says to me, "If you wanna make wine, you need to move to California."

That's why I moved to California, from Texas to California. I grew up about 89 miles south of Dallas, Texas, around Palestine, Waco, in that area. So I get into California, we had a pretty tough time getting to know winemakers and I didn't know who they were or what they do, any of that thing. So I started hanging around up in Mendocino County, which is about 160 miles north of San Francisco. Met a guy by the name of John Parducci up there and old John wouldn't give me the time of day but that was okay because some kid coming out of Texas talking about you wanna make wine but I kept going back up there and he started talking to me, telling me stuff. But really what kicked me off into this wine business is I met a family over in Napa valley. A family called the Wagner family and I hung out with Mr. Wagner probably for 9 months and I didn't know who he was, he didn't say anything about who he was.

And one day the taster room manager came out and said, "Hey, why you always out here bothering Mr. Wagner?" And I says, "Well, what do you mean? That old guy out there?" He goes, "That ain't just some old guy, that's Mr. Wagner. He own this place." I had no idea for 9 months I'd been hanging out with the owners of Caymus Vineyard. Fast forward a little bit further, I've known the Wagner family for around 31 years. 17, 15 years or so after hanging out with him, Mr. Wagner said to me, "Son, you ought to be in the wine business." And I thought, "Well, you know, I'd like to but I don't have that kind of money." He goes, "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of ya." So 17 years ago, my wife and I, Miss Lil, we started Vision Cellars and to this day, I'm the only non family member that's allowed to make wine at Caymus.

All my wines are crafted at Caymus Vineyard in Rutherford, California. I make 'em all myself. We own some vineyards in Sonoma County, which is about 110 miles north of San Francisco, Russian River Valley. We own this little vineyard there and we do craft wine from that vineyard. That's basically how I got into the wine business.

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Four Mistakes in the Winery Tasting Room that Destroy Customer Loyalty

There is nothing in the wine business that builds long term brand loyalty like a visit to the vineyard.  The combination of nature, luxury, hospitality, flavor, and education is warmed by the glow that only vacation can provide.  It is one of the greatest brand assets that any winery has.

Vineyard visits are additionally powerful when the visitor is a member of the trade.  A visit by a sommelier, retail manager, critic, or distributor can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales spread over a lifetime.

But it is the bad experiences with a winery at the vineyard that can destroy loyalty and cost untold sales.

I've visited wineries in many different professional capacities:

• Retail Manager buying $500,000+ per year

• Senior Executive for Distribution Company

• Minimum wage retail employee

• Executive for winery

• Wine Blogger / Influencer

• MBA Student in Wine & Spirits

... and the vast majority of my experiences have been positive.  Sometimes, however, the experience is shockingly bad.  I left each of these wineries with a bad taste in my mouth owing nothing to the taste of the wine.

I'm not going to name names, because that isn't the point of this article.  I'm trying to be helpful.

#1 - Don't Pair Your Industry Visitor with Someone Who is Paid to Create Tasting Room Sales

I still mockingly tell the story of a Napa Valley winery that tried to sell me at "Tasting Room Retail" wines that I sold in my store.  Despite months of scheduling ahead and a promise to meet with the winemaker, I was paired with a guy who got commission on the wines that he sold out of the tasting room.  He was unable to grasp that I was here to learn about his wines, not to buy them at retail.

#2 - Don't Mock the Part of the Country in Which Your Visitor Lives.

Californians tend to believe that they live in the greatest state in the country.  Having lived in California, I know that there are many wonderful things and many horrible things about the state.  But yes, California is pretty nice and wine country is some of the best of it.  That doesn't mean that you should mock other people's homes.

I remember a winery in Sonoma County and a winemaker who couldn't stop making jokes about people from my state as ignorant hillbillies and 'people who had probably never heard of organic food.'  Every state in the USA has a full diverse compliment of people.  Smart and ignorant.  Cultured and uncultured.  Rich and poor.

That winemaker is entitled to his bigoted worldview, but I never sold his wines again.

FYI: This is the most common complaint that I hear for industry associates.  Wineries need to get their people in line on this.  It isn't okay!

#3 - Respect Your Visitor's Schedule

Those of us in the wine industry have many relationships with many wineries and limited time to visit them.  We probably have a schedule.  Please respect it.  If you are going to be late, say so.  If you need to reschedule, please let us know as quickly as possible, and don't be surprised if we can't.

Equally difficult is when the tasting is running too long.  It is incredibly frustrating have to breakaway mid-tasting to rush to the next location.  If I say that we have an hour, please shape the experience to the time available.

A little knowledge fixes this problem.  The best experiences often start with the question, "How long do we have?"

#4 - Don't Limit Your Visitor's Tasting to Only the Wines They are Familiar With.

When I'm coming to a visit a winery with which I do business, I'm coming to understand the place, the property, and the people. Tasting the wines is something of an afterthought.  I can do that back at home anytime.  So if you are hosting an Industry Visitor, don't limit them only the wines they actually work with. 

Going farther afield to taste small 'tasting room only' bottles and barrel samples is a great way to create a memorable experience for the visitor.  It also helps us understand the culture and perspective of the winery.

Strictly limiting what your industry partner can taste makes you look petty and cheap.

In Conclusion

In today's incredibly competitive wine business landscape, wineries want to make sure that their best customers - the industry professionals who promote their wine to the public - have memorable and compelling experiences at the winery. 

The four mistakes in this article should be considered "never evers" and yet they continue to happen.  Wineries that work to eliminate these mistakes will discover that they are reaping significant benefits.

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