Wine, Women and Song
© 2007
A Series Concept by Ruth McCartney
The initial series will be shot in California’s Central Coast and Napa and Sonoma Valleys with host Ruth McCartney interviewing local female winemakers and singer/songwriters. The format is a half-hour series with each broadcast segment being split between winemaker, winery’s location and local musician. Future series will follow the same format in Oregon, New York, Australia’s Hunter Valley, Austria’s Wachauer Valley and anywhere in the world that pioneering women create both wine and song!
About Ruth McCartney:
Born and raised in Liverpool, England in the 1960’s as a member of one of the most influential musical families since the Von Trapps, Ruth has grown up around musical genius, VIPs, celebrities, food and artisans.
In her role as Co-Founder of iFanz.com - an online software subscription service to the musical creative community, delivering marketing and messaging to 4.7 million opted-in subscribers, Ruth has in-depth knowledge of the emerging digital recording industry. As a foodie (and part-time wino), Ruth has served as a marketing advisor to Adam LaZarre of Bin 36, Hahn and LaZarre Wines (a Wimbledon Wines Label), as well as being both a judge and sponsor of the Paso Robles based Winery Music Awards for the last 2 years. An avid cook and communicator, “Wine, Women and Song” is the brainchild which she hopes will bring thecable audiences of VH1 and Food Network together. Ruth is fluent in both her native English and German.
The History of the Cliché “Wine, Women and Song”.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The cliché "wine, women, and song" is a rhetorical figure of a triad or hendiatris. Similar tripartite mottoes have existed for a long time in many languages, for example:
* Bengali/Hindi/Sanskrit - "Sur, Sura, Sundari" (music, wine and woman)
* Czech - "Víno, ženy a zpěv" (wine, women and song)
* Danish - "Vin, kvinder og sang" (wine, women and song)
also "Øl, fisse og hornmusik" (beer, a slang word for female genitals, and horn music)
also "Tjald og lal og lir" (slang words for cannabis, fooling around, and being sexually aroused)
* German - "Wein, Weib und Gesang" (wine, women and song)
* Hindi/Urdu - "Kabab, Sharab aur Shabab" (meat, wine and women/beauty)
* Polish - "Wino, kobiety i śpiew"
* Swedish - "Vin, kvinnor och sång" (wine, women and song)
* Turkish - "At, Avrat, Silah" (Horse, women, gun)
"Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" is a modern variation of it. In the 20th Century, particularly in Western usage, the expression " sex,drugs and rock and roll" often is used to signify essentially the same thing. The terms correspond to wine, women and song with edgier and updated vices. The term came to prominence in the sixties as rock and roll music, opulent and intensely public lifestyles, as well as liberal morals championed by hippies, came into the mainstream.
THE WINE PART
California’s First Female Winemaker
The history of Freemark Abbey in St Helena, CA began in 1886,when Josephine Marlin Tychson became the first woman to build and operate a winery in California.
The historic site where Josephine's winery, Tychson Cellars, once stood is now known as Freemark Abbey. Today Freemark Abbey is proud to continue the legacy of winemaking that Josephine began so many years ago.
Josephine, a native of San Lorenzo, California and her husband, John Tychson, a Danish immigrant, moved to St. Helena in 1881. They hoped that the Napa Valley's climate would help John, who suffered from tuberculosis. In addition, the couple decided to pursue their dream of making wine from their own vineyards. For $8,500, they purchased 147 acres north of St. Helena, which later became known as "Tychson Hill".
The first vineyards on the Tychson land were most likely planted in 1875, five or six years before the couple acquired the property. With only a horse and plow, the Tychsons began to expand these vineyards, adding approximately ten acres of vines each year.
Despite his failing health, John Tychson began to develop plans for a winery on the property. Unfortunately, he never lived to see his plans take shape. Shortly after her husband's untimely death, Josephine realized his dream. In 1886, she began construction of a fifty square foot redwood winery, which would grow to hold a capacity of about 30,000 gallons. At 31 years old, the Widow Tychson became the first female winemaker in California.
Winemakers Today
Iris Rideau
Rideau Vineyard
Solvang, CA
Iris Rideau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her mother and uncles operated the Creole Bar and Grille in the 7th Ward. As a little girl, Iris often slept in the back room of the grille, on a stack of beer cases. Her parents divorced when she was two-years old, and Iris remained with her mother while her father later moved out west to the Golden State.
As a child, Iris was terribly strong-headed, but her strong will served her well. Like her mother and grandmother before her, she wanted to make her mark on life, and from a very early age, she began to announce herself to the world.
During her formative years, Iris’s maternal grandmother moved in with her and her mother. Soon, her grandmother was teaching the high-spirited young girl to speak French and began advising her in the art of manners, table presentation and the proper taking of tea.
When Iris was old enough to travel alone by train, she began visiting her father out west. Working alongside him as his scrappy young ranch hand, Iris’ affection for her father grew steadily, and soon she was by his side on his ranch in Corona, California, every summer. When Iris was ten, her mother finally gave in to her impassioned pleas to move west, and they moved west to East L.A. where they moved into a one-room tenement. The transition was very difficult on Iris’ mother, but she persevered, feeling it was important for a young girl to be near her father.
Iris’ mother took a job working long hours at a local sewing factory. At the age of 16, Iris found herself pregnant. She married, and gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter named Renee, but divorced Renee’s father at seventeen. To support her young daughter, she went to work at the same factory that employed her mother, undergoing the same, grueling
schedule. Wanting to give Renee a brighter future, Iris enrolled in night classes at the local junior college, while working long days at the factory. Within a year of enrollment, Iris had graduated and found a job at an insurance agency.
In 1957 Iris remarried. Jimmy Rideau, a loving husband, father to Renee and gentleman, created a safe haven for Iris, allowing her to be a stay-at-home mom and tend to the needs of her young daughter. But, once Iris was assured of Renee’s healthy development, she once again longed to join the work force. Iris soon established her own insurance agency, appropriately named The Rideau Insurance Agency. In a remarkable feat of business acumen, she landed an exclusive insurance contract with the City of Los Angeles. Her agency underwrote the “War on Poverty” programs, such as Head-Start and Teen Post, aimed at helping women and minorities. Iris was finally making her mark on both local and national fronts, becoming the first woman appointed to two national insurance companies.
From 1973 to 1976, Iris Rideau, by then a widely accomplished and respected business woman, was appointed as Chairman to the Mayor’s Affirmative Action Committee, under Mayor Tom Bradley, in Los Angeles. During her tenure, she assisted in securing hundreds of contracts for women and minorities with the city of Los Angeles.
In 1982, Iris opened her own securities firm and became a stockbroker. From 1967 to 1999, Iris managed the Rideau Insurance Agency. In 1982, she also created and managed the Rideau Securities Firm, with two offices and fifty employees.
Still, Iris Rideau longed to return to her roots, where entertaining family and friends was an integral part of every-day living. That ingredient----soulful connection with others among good food and music---kept calling to her. There was one mark Iris still had to leave on the world, and it would be that mark, that aside from raising her daughter Renee, would give her the most pleasure and sense of accomplishment.
In 1997, Iris Rideau established Rideau Vineyards, located in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County. She bought the property in 1995, but it took her two years to restore the royal old adobe, to the elegance and beauty that it enjoyed in the mid-1800’s, when it was first built. The 25-acres that flank the adobe, that sits at the heart of the lovely parcel, are planted with sprawling gardens and an estate vineyard that boasts plantings of Syrah, Mourvedre, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier.
Iris chose to dedicate her estate vineyards to the production of Rhone varietals, as, at their best, they are classic and serious varietals, and marry well with the many meals Iris prepares in her adobe. Iris also purchases fruit from other noteworthy growers, and is able to produce an impressive portfolio of wines, with an amazing breadth of complexity and finesse.
Lane Tanner
Lane Tanner Winery
I was born and raised in Kelseyville, Calif. (Lake Co.). I received a BS in Chemistry from San Jose State University in 1976 and subsequently went into the air pollution industry. In 1980 I quit that industry afterfinding myself stationed in Glendive, Montana for the winter. My search for a new career took me back to my hometown. I picked up a temporary job at the local winery (Konocti Winery) labeling bottles. They found out I was a chemist and asked me to do some lab work for them. The first day I was in the lab, I was introduced to their consultant, Andre Tchelistcheff, as the new enologist (I had no clue what that was). All dayLane Tanner long, Andre kept telling the winemaker "Have Lane test this, have Lane check that". At the end of the day, the people at Konocti asked me to stay on because Mr. Tchelistchef definitely liked me and they didn't want to tell him that they had lied to him. My new career was born.
Mr. Tchelistcheff recommended me for the enology job at Firestone Winery in Santa Barbara Co. in 1981. I took Alison Green's place when she became winemaker. While there, I continued to learn from Andre and Alison, as well as honing my sense of smell and taste.
In 1984 I started my own company with one client. I began making wines for the Hitching Post restaurant (A locally famous Santa Barbara Co. steak house). In 1989 I started the Lane Tanner label.
I started out making Pinot Noir and my methods for Pinot production have not changed much in the last 20 years. I use the best Pinot grapes available in Santa Barbara Co. I have the pleasure of working with Julia's Vineyard and Bien Nacido Vineyard fruit as well as the new, Melville Vineyard. I harvest the grapes when they taste right, not when the sugar hits a certain number. I look for maturity and complexion but still with the sparkle of youth. The grapes are gently crushed into 4' by 4' by 4' open top fermenters. In my punch down technique, I strive for maximum extract of flavors from the grape in the early stages of fermentation, before the alcohol content rises too high. In this way, I get the delicate flavors without the harsher alcohol soluble components. I press gently, leaving the last few gallons in the skins for the wine gods. The wine spends the next 12 to 18 months in French oak barrels. I use only a touch of new oak (20-30%) for flavoring.
Pinor Noir is my main wine but now I make a few cases of Syrah too. For those of you that love Pinot; you can understand. Pinor Noir is the most responsive, delicate, fickle, fragile grape to work with and I' hooked on it. My production is small because I can't stand the idea of someone else touching these babies. As with any parent, I feel that no one can understand their needs as I do.
To sum it up, I am making a product for people who are searching for the more subtle, elegant nuances of the Pinot Noir (and Syrah) grape.
My production level is about 1800 cases a year.
Louisa Sawyer Lindquist
Verdad
Louisa is the inspiration behind Verdad. In the late 80’s, while working at a retail store on Long Island, Louisa became enamored with the beauty and finesse of Spanish Albariño. She studied the different producers and styles and realized that Albariño is a remarkable wine both as an aperitif and as a great food wine. Soon Louisa was exploring other Spanish wines, and found that Tempranillo held the same allure for her. When she began working for a fine wine importer & distributor in New York, she had the opportunity to work with the Classical Wines of Spain portfolio and expand her knowledge.
Louisa spent the early 80’s studying and working in the vineyards of Long Island. Her background in viticulture served her well when she moved to California and began working with wineries and their vineyards. She was amazed at the similarities between the Spanish wine country and California, and was surprised to find that there was very little Albariño or Tempranillo planted. About the same time, Louisa began dating Bob Lindquist, the owner/winemaker of Qupé Wine Cellars, and introduced him to the beauties of Spanish wines. In time they began planting small blocks of the two grape varietals at the Ibarra-Young Vineyard in the Santa Ynez
Valley on the Central Coast of California, experimenting with clones and organic growing techniques.
As the plantings at Ibarra-Young matured and began to produce fruit, Louisa went to Spain to work harvest. She traveled to the primary grape growing regions to understand how the top producers worked with the fruit in both the vineyards and the winery. As she talked with the people across the country, she noticed that one of the favorite expressions, repeated on a regular basis was “es la verdad” (that’s the truth). That became her inspiration to naming the fledgling brand “Verdad”. The wines are produced at Qupé under Bob’s direction.
Louisa and Bob are now married and have a five-year-old son, Theo. They live in San Luis Obispo where they have recently purchased vineyard property in Edna Valley.
Kathy Joseph
Fiddlehead Cellars
Lompoc, CA
Kathy Joseph established Fiddlehead Cellars to capture the pure essence of the two grape varietals that she loves best – Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Now in her seventeenth vintage as “Head Fiddle”, Kathy continues to passionately pursue her goal of creating stylistic Sauvignon Blancs and silky, intense Pinot Noirs. Terroir-driven, Fiddlehead’s Sauvignon Blanc wines hail from the stellar eastern-end of the Santa Ynez Valley, while her estate Pinot Noirs showcase the cooler Santa Rita Hills in the western-most part of that transverse valley.
And loving the nuances of place, Kathy continues to craft intriguing Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Cathy MacGregor
Windermere Winery
San Luis Obpispo, CA
We MacGregors do love wine. Windemere Winery was founded in 1985 by myself, Cathy MacGregor. After earning my M.S. degree from U.C. Davis in 1977, I held the position of Enologist/Assistant Winemaker at several Napa and Sonoma county wineries, including Grgich Hills Cellar and La Crema. Yes, I paid my dues. I am happy to say that I make small lots of my own wines, my own way, and have plenty of fun in the process. My approach to winemaking is definitely "California-style." My personal goal is to create deliciously fresh and fruity wines, delicately augmented -- yet never overwhelmed! -- by French oak and Malo-lactic. Perhaps the flowing water color label art on each bottle of Windemere wine best expresses my preferred winemaking style.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
THE MUSIC PART
Rocky Gaines
Torrance, CA
Rocky is a striking presence, an artist with an interestingly beautiful voice, commanding guitar accompaniment, and excellent songs, bringing an African-American influence to the traditional realm of Americana/Folk warmth and storytelling. Rocky Gaines has been selected a 2006 North East Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) Formal Showcase Artist!