Enologist Interview Preparation Guide

Wine grapes. Vineyard in Brhlovce, Slovakia. Viticulture is the science, production, and study of grapes. It deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. It is a branch of the science of horticulture.

Pomology is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates fruit. The denomination fruit culture introduced from Romance languages is also used.

Grapes are the largest fruit crop on earth. The grapevine prefers the temperate climate in which it evolved, with warm, dry summers and mild winters. Winters of sustained cold kill grapevines. High humidity promotes vine disease.

There are grapes native to Europe, Asia, and North America. Most Wine grapes would come from European/ Middle Eastern species. Others are for eating or juicing.

People often think because I make wine I have a better palate than most. I think what surprises people is that I don't believe that to be true. The difference in our palates is what I call 'palate memory'. Meaning, I don't think I can taste any better than anyone else but because I’ve been making wine for so many years and tasting it at all stages my palate remembers what a wine will taste like in a month, two years or eight years if it tastes like this now. I've got this file cabinet in my brain so that when I taste something, I can know what's going to happen with this range of flavors, aromas and everything else. My actual tasting ability is no better than anyone else's. I just have a lot of information that's attached to my palate compared to an average wine drinker.

I just returned from a business trip on the east coast and I met a gentleman who told me that our 2012 Russian River Selection Chardonnay reminded him of Puligny Montrachet, but with a suntan. That is a great compliment and right on par with what I hope people will say about our wines. I like to hear people say that our wines are balanced, have just a kiss of oak and have lots of texture, spice and abundant aromatics.

The process of general to specific applies. And of course the more experience and success you have, the more you trust this process. Things can always seem in rough shape early on. A line without a surrounding story, a beat without a melody, etc.

That’s very subjective. Most score driven wines require them to punch you right out of the bottle. Some might consider this beautiful. I don’t. Beauty comes from sustainability. From age-ability. In my opinion.

I view the expansion of the industry as a strength. More wineries equates to more exposure. The lack of acreage to grow grapes and cold weather can hinder the industry.

The most difficult aspect of making wine is the capriciousness of it and those times when you don't have control over the process. The weather is the one thing we don't have any control over and when making the wine problems can arise for seemingly no reason. Wine is a living entity and it can sometimes veer off into unplanned directions for inexplicable reasons. They don't always behave the same throughout the process, including growing the grapes.