Annual CALPSACS Wine-Tasting Tour
November 19, 2005
Baileyana Winery
Edna Valle
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Jack and Catharine Niven pioneered the planting of wine grapes in the Edna Valley in the early 1970’s. Their educated guess that the Edna Valley would have the right topography and climate to produce world-class grapes proved correct, and their vineyard enterprise flourished. Before it was common for a woman to own her own wine brand, it was Catharine Niven who was determined to join those who believed it was important to take the success of Edna Valley’s fruit one step further. That’s when the Baileyana brand was born. Named after the neighborhood where Catharine first met Jack, Baileyana reflects the marriage of 30 years of vineyard know how with the winemaking passion of our winemaker. |
| [image title=”Wine Maker” quality=”100″]http://www.calpsacs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/CRoguenant.jpg[/image] | Winemaker Christian Roguenant was born to wine. A native of the Burgundy region of France who grew up among the vineyards, he decided early on to become a winemaker. His studies at the University of Dijon focused on enology and winemaking and included graduate coursework in wine marketing. When the Niven family decided to build a new winery in 1998 they gave a blank slate to Roguenant to design the winery of his dreams. His gracious, light-filled design is state of the art and elegantly functional. Red wines are fermented in the classic Burgundian method in numerous small, open-top fermentors. This compact system allows for gentle punch down of the caps as the wine ferments and enables Roguenant to keep each lot separate by clone, vineyard block, yeast trial, or whatever he chooses. Three individually climate-controlled barrel cellars are available to Roguenant for completing fermentation and for aging. Christian will took us on a tour through the entire process, starting at the vineyard and finishing with the tasting on the patio. |
See pictures from our tour of the winery