Make Wine - No Winery Needed

Filed in archive Wine Making on December 11, 2006

More and more armature vintners are getting into the wine making business with little experience, little resources, but lots of passion. And with passion often comes good wine. Here's a story about one couple who took their passion and made a wine that Pinot Noir lovers are raving about.

From WINEMAKERS TO WATCH ADAM AND DIANNA LEE: Siduri Wines and Novy Family Wines How to make great wines without a vineyard:

Adam and Dianna Lee have come a long way since their college drinking days -- Adam recalls drinking bottles of Ernest & Julio Gallo, while his wife, Dianna, says she was "drinking wine out of the box."

Since they released their first Pinot Noir in 1994, the Texas natives have become known for turning out some of the most coveted single-vineyard wines in California under the labels Siduri Wines and Novy Family Wines from a Santa Rosa industrial park.

Though the Lees weren't the first winemakers to make great wines without their own vineyards -- they were inspired by Williams Selyem, for instance -- they have set an example for other up-and-coming winemakers that you don't need an estate to make great wine. It is a template likely to become more common in coming years.

Because they don't own any land, the winemakers source their fruit from all over the West Coast, from the Santa Rita Hills to the Willamette Valley. They exploit each vineyard's unique terroir, resulting in such well-regarded wines as the 2004 Siduri Sapphire Hill Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($42) and the 2004 Novy Page-Nord Vineyard Napa Valley Syrah ($32) -- both of which made the Chronicle's Top 100 Wines this year.

"We're really conscious of sourcing from truly special vineyards," Adam says. "The thing that is most important to us is that the wines really show a distinct sense of place."