Rosemary Cakebread
Winemaker and Owner
Gallica, St. Helena
Interview by Diana H. Stockton
Rosemary Cakebread says barrel aging affects not just taste but also evolution of that wine in that barrel. One’s palate can definitely discern barrel differences in a wine, the effects of a master coopers’ magic, the mastery of his craft. Rosemary calls a barrel an agricultural product.The source of its wood is from trees in microclimates of unique soil and rain. A barrel made by Seguin Moreau she calls sweet, Sylvain refined, a Pinot Noir in François Frères elegant. Finesse is required in the choice and use of barrels in making wine to achieve consistency through artisanship. Fortunately, barrel sellers have a lot of knowledge and are willing to work with clients, to taste, to suggest, ‘Let’s try this.’ Rosemary thinks there are few industries today where you can have a real exchange once a year with an owner or share in the world history of a craft with master craftsmen.
Her own career in wine began on the bottling line of Sebastiani where a friend found her a job. Rosemary had been anxious for something to do when she found herself a freshman in high school in rural Petaluma after growing up inTokyo. Her dad, a commercial pilot, had relocated and suddenly there were no sidewalks, no rapid transit.While at Sebastiani, Rosemary was introduced to their neighbor Bob Sessions who had succeeded BradWebb at Hanzell as winemaker. Rosemary thought the scale of Hanzell was “adorable” and seeing her captivation Bob told her about the wine program at UC Davis, that she could actually go to college and study wine. Rosemary went to Davis where Randall Grahm, Doug Shafer, and Heidi Barrett were some of her classmates.
After college, Rosemary spent two years at Inglenook where she was introduced to Cabernet and to cement and stainless steel fermenters and some use of small barrels. She worked in the lab, at the sugar shack, in tanks, bottling and tasting, tasting, tasting. On one of her more notable trips to France she joined up with Eileen Crane and Roberta Mantell Montero in 1983 to taste wines and visit cooperages—Nadalié, Damy, Billon among them. Sylvain is a cooperage she continues to hold in high regard. She also got to visit Canton Cooperage in Kentucky with its then general manager, HenryWork. Dick Maher then invited Rosemary to help with the start up of Mumm Napa with Guy Devaux. She spent seven years at Mumm where all the blending and tasting that sparkling wine requires was a really great experience.
While Tony Soter (whom she had met at UC Davis) and Mia Klein were consulting winemakers for Spottswoode, Tony suggested Rosemary come talk with Mary and Beth Novak as plans for their own winery were getting underway. Rosemary loves designing things: the Spottswoode project proved irresistible. She calls architect Howard Backen the genius behind winery integration at the site, and really enjoyed working with him while making the 1997 and 1998 Spottswoode vintages at Napa Wine Company. 1999 was the first vintage at the new Spottswoode winery.Transition complete,Tony retired from Spottswoode. Rosemary was its winemaker until 2005 and still continues to consult on the winery’s 3,500 case production. Rosemary creditsTony with Spottswoode’s move to organic farming (consistent with the family’s own philosophy and the vineyard’s location within the town) and really launching the brand.
Spottswoode fostered opportunities for blending, trying different toast levels, and different cooperages. Rosemary took advantage of every opportunity to speak with coopers, make barrel trials and invite coopers for tastings at the winery and in tasting groups. Spottswoode has a unique vineyard and elegant wines, expressive of the vineyard. Rosemary sought oak to compliment that style and to marry vineyard blocks’ characteristics with barrels. The Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in both oak and stainless steel, Cabernet in oak. In a perfect world malolactic fermentation goes through in barrel, but it sometimes takes off in tank. Lees help build body and refine tannins, so Rosemary counsels you rack when you have to rack. Each year is different.
Since 2007 Rosemary has been making Gallica, a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, at Failla where she is one of nine vintners. Her Gallica isablendof CabernetSauvignon,PetitVerdot, and Cabernet Franc, and she is having a lot of fun making it in the company of other winemakers. A little more fruit goes into the production each year, from St Helena, Oakville, and now Coombsville. As a winemaker, Rosemary’s whole quest has been to improve, to make discoveries so she is doing small lot and barrel fermenting with Gallica and enjoying how handson it is, how tactile, how much more oxygen there is in 58 gallons of actively fermenting wine. As oxygen is taken up it builds the wines as it lengthens tannin chains. Malolactic fermentation may not go through before March so you have to judge whether to rack off or let the wine sit on its lees. Aging in barrel is a significant, essential part of raising a wine. For barrels Rosemary is a tight grain fan. Its refinement grabs her. For toast level she prefers medium to medium plus. In her heart of hearts Rosemary is not a fan of heavy toast although there is a place for it in a blend, in small amounts. Gallica is not in all new oak, more like 60 percent new and 40 percent in one and two yearold barrels. It spends 20 months in barrel before it is bottled.
To order barrels before harvest is a challenge. You need to estimate tons of fruit, how much wine, reflect on what you know from previous vintages, assess and refine what you project about the next one, and place an order. Rosemary was in Bordeaux for its 2006 harvest. She says you could just call the fellow who would come in a van and deliver ONE barrel. It is so different in France; here, one must plan way ahead. Fortunately, everyone helps each other. Rosemary is relieved to say there is lateral movement of barrels among winemakers during harvest, when barrel counts may need some adjustment.