THE WOMEN OF WINE PART II

By Robyn James, Proprietor,

The Wine Cellar & Tasting Room

Dick Peterson is a well known guy in the California wine industry.  He was a boy wonder for Gallo, creating the Hearty Burgundy label that launched a multi million case brand.  He also started Monterey vineyards, another value brand, and is credited with inventing many winemaking gizmo’s, such as barrel rollers and stackers.  He chuckles now that his claim to fame in his twilight years is over his best product ever:  daughter Heidi Peterson Barrett.

How ironic that the man who started with the big box boys in wine would produce a daughter who is the darling of the cult wineries often producing less that 200 cases a year.

Heidi and her sister both adored their dad.  Both followed him from vineyards to barrel rooms to labs and to the family table throughout their childhood.  The girls would climb into the family station wagon with him and ride off to see the “red volcanoes” – crushed red grapes erupting through the must during open fermentation. 

It was no surprise that both went to UC Davis to study enology.  Their mild mannered father, however, was shocked.  “I expected them to be in horses, they used to ride through the vineyards.”

Despite her fame, the freckle-faced mother of two is refreshingly forthright and humble.  For Barrett, winemaking is a job like any other.  “It wasn’t like I discovered winemaking out of the blue,” she says, “It was a natural part of my life already; for me it was a normal job.”  Bo Barrett, Heidi’s husband and premier winemaker at prestigious Chateau Montelena has another explanation for his wife’s unassuming attitude:  “When you are truly qualified in your field, you can be relaxed,” he says.

Barrett’s client list is enough to stimulate salivation in any serious wine collector’s mouth.  Screaming Eagle, Diamond Creek, Grace Family, Dalla Valle and her own label, La Sirena.  All of these wines are sold to customers lucky enough to be on the winery’s mailing list, a popular marketing tool, especially among the smaller producers.  Some also make their way into a limited number of restaurants favored by the winery owners, as well as to a few select retail accounts, where they are usually pre-sold to loyal customers on allotment.  Reputation sells the wine, leading to the shopping equivalent of a feeding frenzy come release time. 

Jean Phillips, owner of Screaming Eagle, attributes the remarkable qualities of her wine to “Heidi’s great palate.”

Several of her wines have received perfect 100 point scores from influential critic Robert Parker and sell for thousands of dollars at auctions.  Here is Parker’s description of Screaming Eagle Cabernet, 1997:

 “It doesn’t get any better that the 1997 Cabernet, a perfect wine.  Representing the essence of cassis liqueur intermixed with blackberries, minerals, licorice, and toast, this full-bodied, multi-dimensional classic is fabulous, with extraordinary purity, symmetry, and a finish that lasts for nearly a minute.  It has the overall equilibrium to evolve for nearly two decades, but it will be hard to resist upon release.”

Barrett has garnered celebrity status through her ability to establish and improve the quality of her client’s wines.  New clients are now guaranteed notoriety just by association with her. 

And how does one become a new client?  “Number one, they have to be nice people. Then I look at their commitment to quality and the potential of their vineyard.  After that, I have to be sure that they are going to back me up by continuing to invest in the vineyard.”

Those who pay her for advice and expertise recognize that Barrett does something special with their wines.  “The mechanics of making wine are really pretty easy,” says Ren Harris, owner of Paradigm winery.  Barrett’s talent, Harris says, is her ability to know where a wine is headed by tasting the grapes, the pressed wine and what’s in the barrel.  “Heidi doesn’t work with a recipe, she does it by taste and that’s where the real artistry comes in.  It’s a real gift, that’s the only way to describe it.”

When asked if she thinks women bring something different to winemaking, she replied, “I’m not sure.  Whether you are a man or a woman, if you have passion for what you do and are good at it, that’s the most important thing.  A lot has been made of the fact that I’m a woman doing what I do, but I never focus on that part.  It’s just one attribute of a person, and it’s as arbitrary as saying there is a great winemaker with green eyes.”

Barrett clearly has a lot to pass on to her daughter’s should they decide to become winemakers.  “In the future, she say, people will probably be talking about my daughters and then I’ll just be known as their mother.”