The World Of Winemaking With Passalacqua Winery's Jessica Boone

Passalacqua Winery

Passalacqua Winery

Located in Dry Creek Valley, California is Passalacqua Winery, a family-owned establishment that’s been growing grapes in the region for five generations. It’s a winery that, unlike most, boasts a tradition of female winemakers. This began with the current owner’s Great Aunt Edith. In 1933, she opened Sonoma County Cellars making her one of the first women to make wine and own and operate a winery in California post-prohibition. Aunt Edith’s original label design can be found on each bottle of their Passalacqua Estate Zinfandel.

Today, Passalacqua continues this rare tradition with it's head winemaker Jessica Boone. Her passion for biology and the outdoors led to her first job in the winemaking business as a harvest lab technician at Edgewood Estate Winery in 2000. It was here that she dove into the world of wine, quickly realizing her passion for the intensity of harvest and the laborious process of turning grapes into wine.

Jessica Boone

In 2012 she was appointed winemaker at Passalacqua, a winery that would prove to be a perfect match for her love of outdoors and wine.

I love so many parts of my job. It’s creative, it’s physical, I learn something new every day and it keeps me on my toes. But my favorite part is the act of sharing something I have made. I love working hard to make the best wine I can and then sharing it with other wine lovers, with friends and family. One of the most special parts of my job is knowing the wine I have made ends up being shared in people’s homes, on their dinner tables and in their lives.

At Passalacqua, she’s responsible for the development of an extensive single vineyard Zinfandel program and continues to specialize in single block Cabernet from the winery’s home ranch in Dry Creek Valley, as well as Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Merlot, Pinot Noir and an Italian white varietal called Fiano.

Almost every wine is a vineyard designate at this winery, which means that the wines are 100% from a single vineyard, moreover, that it must be an honest representation of that source.

As a winemaker, that means there’s no back up plan. If I pick the grapes too early and there’s not enough depth and rich fruit, I can’t blend in a rich fruit forward wine from another vineyard to fix my mistake. Every decision is crucial, whether it’s about farming practices, picking dates, fermentation management or barrel choices. It all needs to lead to the best version of wine that can come from that vineyard.

Forbes sat down with Boone to talk winemaking philosophy, women in wine, career advice and more. Here’s what she had to say.

At Passalacqua, nearly every wine is a vineyard designate. What exactly does that mean for you as the winemaker?

My winemaking has to allow for each vineyard site to shine through. These wines are meant to stand apart from each other and differentiate themselves by their individual ecosystems. Each specific grape varietal, in its specific soil, with its own unique microclimate, elevation and exposure to the sun makes a different wine. And if I’m doing my job well, all of these inputs will result in a wine that is uniquely its own and represents the place on the planet it was grown… and tastes delicious!

What's your personal winemaking philosophy?

My personal winemaking philosophy is hands-on and balance. I believe in order to make exceptional wine I need to have an active role in the physical process of winemaking. I don’t write the protocol, then pass it on to be carried out by other people. I am the decider and doer. I must be in the vineyard tasting the berries and assessing ripeness. I need to be in the cellar sorting the fruit, getting the grapes into the tank, smelling fermentations and topping barrels.

2013 Cabernet

Passalacqua Winery

I do this myself because I believe there are so many tiny decisions that are made along the way, and they compound on each other to create the final wine. I want to be the one making all of those tiny decisions to get the wines to exactly where I want them to be.

Balance in wine is the other component to my winemaking philosophy. I constantly strive for balance. My winemaking decisions revolve around allowing the components to come together in a cohesive way, nothing is overpowering, nothing is overshadowed. I always want the fruit component to be balanced by the oak component, which is balanced by the structure and tannin. Everything should fluidly complement each other. Similar to the way the instruments in a symphony bring their own individual sounds, but come together seamlessly to create a full and different sound with more complexity and breadth.

What are your thoughts on the status of women winemakers in the industry?

I recently read a statistic that came out of Santa Clara University that of 4000 wineries in California only 10% employed female winemakers and in Sonoma and Napa we’re up to 12%. While it is a shocking number to hear, I am sure that there are more female winemakers now than when I first started in the wine industry in 2000, which is a good trend. In an overly simplistic way, I would say there are two different categories of wineries, each posing different obstacles to becoming a female in the winemaking position.

One group is a large-scale winery where the winemaker oversees production, manages a large staff and sells wine in the marketplace. This corporate environment has been difficult for women to break into, like high-level positions in the rest of corporate America. We have struggled to be seen as equal in capability, are not often given positions of power, and are not part of the ‘good old boys club’. Although female winemakers in these positions are increasing, I believe it is still a long uphill battle.

The second group of wineries are similar to Passalacqua, smaller and more hands on. Here, women face a different set of challenges. In this environment, on top of knowing how to make great wine, the winemaker is expected to do a lot of the cellar work, which can be hard manual labor. The winemaker should know how to drive a forklift, the basics of mechanical repair and maintenance and be able to lift at least 50lbs.

Passalacqua Barrel Tasting

Passalacqua Winery

Historically, women have not been seen as capable in this kind of physical environment. So, on this smaller scale we have struggled to prove that we are strong, we are capable and we will get dirty. I am also seeing a trend of more female winemaker’s in this physical role, and we are getting better at promoting ourselves.

Social media has helped us show the reality of what we do day to day through images and videos. Overall, I think our industry is trending in the direction of equality. I also hope we continue to expose a younger generation to these images of tough amazing women doing the fun, as well as the “dirty” hard work of making wine or any other job that breaks traditional gender roles. This exposure opens up a world of possibility to young girls, helping to show them women are capable of anything.

Advice to women wanting to become winemakers?

Just jump in and do it. Over-deliver at every opportunity. Don’t wait for someone to hand you the job, prove you can do it before it’s yours. As a woman in a male-dominated position, you may have to work harder to prove yourself, let that feed your fire. The tide is turning for women in the winemaking industry, but we need to continue the momentum.

