October 20, 2020 – Were he a pilot, he would not be the type that comes on air pre-flight, with a booming bombastic, “Ladies and Gentlemen: this is your Captain speaking!” followed by details on the route, the crew and what you can see from both sides of the plane (ah, we’re dreaming of the old days). Instead, Greg Vita, winemaker and fifth generation Californian, is the kind of pilot who quietly and efficiently gets you to your destination, then stands at the gangway, politely saying, “Thank you for flying with us today.”
Vita isn’t one for fanfare or publicity. He’s straightforwardly competent and confident in his ability to take a winery owner’s vision and make it an imbibable reality. Perhaps a better analogy would be 50 Feet from Stardom, showcasing the backup singers who made the headliners truly shine.
A UC Davis graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Botany and Plant Science, Vita’s unerring focus on the vineyard as the true star of the show, makes him a natural consulting winemaker. His love for wine began early on, growing up in Northern California’s Mount Shasta, where his Italian grandfather made wine in the basement. They literally got grapes off a train.
Not really planning on a career in wine when he matriculated at UC Davis, being there unfurled a new path that proved a natural fit. He found himself at Spring Mountain Vineyard, where he worked for 12 years as winemaker and General Manager, until the place was sold to a couple of banks, which were frankly no fun at all. Thereafter, he made wine for Frogs Leap, Spottswood, and Chimney Rock, before moving south.
He relocated to Monterey County, where his family had a cattle ranch. This brought him into contact with a whole new world of wine. He quickly decided to set up a consulting business. As part of it, he helped the Heller’s of Heller Estate find their longtime winemaker, Rich Tanguay. He then helped engineer the sale of the Heller property to Bill and Lorie Massa. Now, Tanguay is apparently back, helping out the Massas with processing some their grapes for the 2020 harvest.
Vita keeps mightily busy, which suits him just fine. Greg, along with his son Chris, also a UC Davis graduate, make wine for Dawn’s Dream, Galante, Holman Ranch, Drench, Caraccioli Cellars and now, Pelio Vineyards, as well as a few others.
“I looked for wineries with a production of 5k cases or less that didn’t really need a full time winemaker. It’s very cost effective for clients to do it this way. We now operate three separate winemaking facilities: Holman Ranch, Galante (which was purchased by the Hill Family who now call it Tira Nanza) and the new Caraccioli Cellars facility in Gonzales (which was a former asparagus shed). It works out really well for everyone.”
Having worked with the late French sparkling wine guru, Michel Salgues, at Caraccioli Cellars, and having access to all the specialty equipment needed to make methode champenoise, Vita is well-positioned to be the local Baron of Bubbles. He makes mostly magnums of Brut Rosé sparkling from Pinot Noir for Holman Ranch, while for Pelio Vineyards, he used a traditional formula of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. It will age en tirage for three years.
As for 2020, Vita says, “We left a lot of grapes hanging in the field. We are making quite a bit of sparkling and a lot of rosé this vintage. Chardonnay so far seems good. Sadly, Cachagua was a total loss. Holman Ranch decided to bite the bullet and skip the 2020 vintage entirely. It’s a total writeoff. We got Chardonnay and Pinot rosé from Pelio Vineyard, and made 30 barrels of Pinot Noir, which we are evaluating.”
Vita says they had picked all the grapes for the Caraccioli sparkling wines before the fires, and that the Escolle Chardonnay and rosé all seem to be in great shape.
“For Dawn’s Dream, we got good Chardonnay and rosé from the Santa Lucia Highlands. The Pinot Noir is borderline: it’s unclear if we will produce any red wines from there this year.”
This isn’t Vita’s first smoke-ridden rodeo. “I went through 2008 up in Napa. In 2016, we made no wine for Jack (Galante) at all. We did make some Pinot Noir for Holman Ranch that year, which had a smoky character that some people liked, and is now sold out. We won’t do that again!“
What happens to all the wines that don’t pass the sniff test? Vita will sell it on the bulk market, to larger wineries that will use all their fancy reverse osmosis equipment and other tricks to mitigate the smoke taint. They’ll blend it with other bulk juice until it tastes like something that passes for wine, and you’ll eventually find it on store shelves everywhere.
That’s not for Vita, though. He’d rather concentrate on making more sparkling wines: Dawn’s Dream now has some in the works. And bring on those rose-colored glasses, literally.
“This is going to be a big year for rosés. We are doing some interesting things with separate clones.”
Get ready to drink pink in 2021.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
