Behind the vine

Rebekah Wineburg - Quintessa & Post and Vine - California, USA

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

Everyone’s story is unique. For me, I was a science geek kid. I always thought I’d be a research biologist and get a PHD in Biology. When I was 16, my family had a spring break trip to San Francisco and we took a day trip up to Napa Valley. A friend of my father's was with us who was really into wine and had a background in chemistry. He spoke about fermentation and transformation in wine, and it planted a seed in my head. I loved that this was a way to connect science to a product while living in a beautiful place and connecting to the seasons on a deep level.

When I got to college, I studied biology and chemistry, and I told my professor about my interest in wine. He told me go work a harvest once I graduated, which I did, and then I went to UC: Davis for a Masters in winemaking. I decided to give winemaking a go for 5 years and decide if it was what I really wanted to do, and I never looked back.

What story does your wine tell?

My winemaking philosophy is to be terroir-focused. I don't want to manipulate the wine. The great thing about my background in biology and chemistry is that I understand the detail and the fundamentals of wine. That allows me to improvise and see where I can push boundaries without controlling the wine with outside forces. Wines should project the character and soul of the estates they come from, so I try to be transparent to terroir. Terroir is a combination of geology, climate, culture and something else - like spirit and soul. Truly amazing vineyards have that character, and if you can listen to it, that is what the wine should show. Wine has that ability to capture the essence of a place and time.

The two labels I work on both have that quality of coming from estates that have that soul. Quintessa is a classic estate model - it expresses the character of the entire process. Post and Vine is a creative endeavor for me. We work with single, heritage vineyards (60+ years old) that really have something to say. I focus on vineyards that I feel were being overlooked, and lacking attention, but deserve to be highlighted. It's fun for my personal passion to be working through a different lens for both of those labels.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

The wine industry needs to do a much better job of communicating with consumers. We have our own language which can be exclusionary. Wine is also connected to colonialism and we have a lot of things in our history to address in terms of wine’s history as an elitist industry. It’s up to us to figure out how to talk about wine like normal people. People are more comfortable watching a movie a critic didn't like, but people defer to someone else's opinion about wine when we all have individual palates. Wine is part of everyday life, not just a snooty kind of things, and we need to do better as an industry to make wine more approachable.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

What I love about wine is that you get to be a good part of people's lives. When you have wine on the table, it leads to a longer meal with more conversations. You'll use a bottle of wine to celebrate or make a regular moment special.

Another great thing about wine is that you can get as into it as you want as a consumer. You can say I enjoy this, I like it, and stop there, but you can also continue to peel the layer of the onion and learn about the variety, the region, the stories behind it. Both of those are OK and valuable ways to get into wine. Wine has been a part of human culture for 6000 years and when you have a healthy relationship to it, it's a wonderful part of your life.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

I'd say go and do it. I think that I'd give the same advice to a man. The best thing to do is just start. That's always been my philosophy - give it a try, what's the worst that could happen? What's great about wine, especially production, is that vineyards are always looking for harvest internships, so you can get into it without necessarily changing your life and get a sense of whether it's what you want or not.

Who is a woman that inspired you?

Celia Welch she makes her own wine, Corra, and is a consultant winemaker at places like Scarecrow, Keever…a whole bunch of amazing wines. What impresses me about Celia is that she is so focused and precise and is making wine that has the same precision. She is personally very laid back and low key, but she’s passionate about wine and does what she wants, and has kept her head down and become this amazing famous winemaker just through the wines that she makes. She's a very special, thoughtful, caring person and winemaker.

Where can women find your wine?

Quintessa and Illumination are exported and sold all over the world. Post and Vine is mostly DTC in the US through our site.