Greg La Follette, Marchelle Wines founder and winemaker, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Greg is coming from the winery, where they are busy with harvest time. He is going right back too, after the show.

He was a chemist and did some work in early Aids research and then went back to school in food science and enology. Greg had the good fortune to work at Beaulieu Vineyards under André Tchelistcheff. They had similar technical backgrounds. André challenged Greg, telling him that he would learn the heart and soul of wine if he came to work for him, rather than stay in the lab. Greg turned out to become one of André’s greatest disciples.

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They are drinking a Colombard, which was once the most widely planted white wine grape up until the early ‘7. Now, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are the most planted.

This 2022 Colombard is from two vineyards in Russian River Valley, planted respectively in 1902 and 1961. “It has a lot of bracing acidity,” and is only about 10.8% alcohol. Greg and his wife were working with owners of an abandoned Colombard vineyard, to restore it. Then, Single Thread restaurant in Healdsburg asked Greg to make their house wine. The only proviso was, no Chardonnay and it had to be from Sonoma County. Colombard was perfect for that, but after the pandemic there was too much of it so they relabeled it. They named it Marchelle, after their wives Mara and Michelle. Their daughter Sophia designed the label.

Marchelle wines are not really widely available but the best way to get them is at a tasting. Book that at their website.

The Historic Vineyard Society will hold its main event in Lodi, California. There are actually a lot of old vines around Lodi.

Evan Damiano is the winemaker for Greg La Follette now. Evan was on CWC earlier this year and he gives credit to Greg and André’s legacy and influence over his own work.