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Quality Winemaking An Interview with Janet Pagano, Managing Partner, Ovid Napa Valley Ovid Hexameter red wine (left); a westward view from Ovid Winery (above) EDITORS’ NOTE Janet Pagano as- focus on making the very best wine a whole other level. We have enjoyed working sumed her current post as an equity we could from our 15-acre block of with them to look at what vine stress means in partner in 2008 and she has been with vineyards. terms of managing the vineyard for quality. Ovid since its inception. Previous to I had gotten to know Mark and We use technology when it’s appropriate, her position at Ovid Napa Valley, Dana socially and had been involved but at day’s end, it really comes down to the Pagano enjoyed success at several in some other winery start-up and con- winemaker’s knowledge. outstanding Napa Valley proper- struction projects, so they asked if I Howimportantistheenvironmental ties, including as General Manager would oversee this one as well, which focusatOvid? and Winemaker at Codorniu Napa/ I was thrilled to do. We are committed to sustainability because Artesa Winery, General Manager I came on officially in 2002 to it’s something we believe in, but we have never at Stonestreet, and President of Mt. oversee the construction of the home pursued it with any type of commercial advan- Veeder Winery, among others. for them, as well as the design and de- tage in mind. Janet Pagano velopment of the winery. We have a family living on the property and COMPANY BRIEF Ovid Napa Isproductiontodaystillvery we want to be good neighbors, so we make sure Valley (ovidwinery.com) was established in limitedorhasitgrown? we minimize any use of chemicals on the prop- 2000 by husband and wife team Mark Nelson As the vines have matured, it has grown a erty. From the beginning, we have looked for and Dana Johnson with a singular goal: the bit, but we’re still on a small scale and the wines ways to utilize a more natural and holistic ap- creation, nurturing, and production of limited- remain scarce. proach to our work. quantity wines of unique quality and charac- Willyoutalkabouthowdistribution The vineyard itself is certifi ed organic. We ter. Crafting small amounts of estate wines, workstoday? also planted a fruit and nut orchard on top of Ovid Napa Valley is committed to the ongoing Eighty-fi ve percent of our wine is sold di- the rocks that were pulled from the vineyard, exploration of viticultural and winemaking rectly to our customers, mostly via our mailing and that is also certifi ed organic. We have solar methods that together with sustainable farm- list and to our visitors to the winery. The remain- panels so we can contribute back to the grid, but ing will ensure the full potential of this unique ing 15 percent is distributed in a thin layer across we’re not completely self-sustaining in terms of vineyard. The fi rst release of Ovid Napa Valley, major markets in the U.S. and a few export mar- our energy use. the 2005 vintage, was in the summer of 2008. kets as well. Howearlyintheprocessdoyougeta Aretherecertaincharacteristicsthat feelforthequalitiesofaspecificrelease? Wouldyouprovideanoverviewofthehis- differentiatethewine? It varies vintage by vintage. Some vintages toryandheritageofOvidNapaValleyand There are several points of differentiation, of wine reveal themselves early on and we can howthebrandhasevolved? and the main one is the vineyard itself. Pritchard get a sense of what their character is going to be Founders Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson Hill is beautifully suited for growing not only like, and other vintages are more reticent and it’s were lucky enough to fi nd a beautiful and un- Cabernet Sauvignon but also Cabernet Franc at not clear. spoiled property on Pritchard Hill. Although they the highest possible level. It’s not so often that Arethereopportunitiesavailablefor didn’t intend to become vintners themselves, one fi nds a site that allows for that. womenintheindustrytoday? they lucked into a piece of land that seemed Cabernet Franc has been featured promi- In my case, the fi rst jobs were the hard- well suited for growing grapes. nently in our Bordeaux blends, and it makes an es- est to get because there weren’t many women At the encouragement of others, they de- pecially beautiful wine. We’re thrilled to have that, doing the hands-on work of making wine, nor cided to consult David Abreu, a vineyard man- and it adds some layers of interest to our wines. were there a lot of women in management at ager of some esteemed properties nearby. He Also, when we were designing the winery, that time. was so impressed by the potential of this site that we were the fi rst to put in concrete tanks in the I owe my fi rst job, which was an internship, it convinced them to plant a vineyard under his U.S., so we made an early commitment to fer- to the fact that a woman had done that job the direction and supervision. menting in concrete and continue to do so. previous year and had done such a fantastic job The vineyard was planted in 2000. There Haveadvancesintechnologychanged that she paved the way. are 15 acres under vine with multiple clones thewinemakingprocess? Doyouenjoytheprocessandtaketime and rootstock combinations. Each acre is It’s in some ways a question of scale. duringittostopatcertainmomentsandcel- farmed individually – we have eight acres of Technological advances are probably most uti- ebratesomeofthewins,orareyoualways Cabernet Sauvignon, five acres of Cabernet lized by wineries on a much larger scale than thinkingaboutthenextvintage? Franc, one acre of Petit Verdot, one acre of Ovid, but that isn’t to say we aren’t interested in During harvest, winemakers will stop at Merlot, and we planted half an acre of Syrah a advancing our knowledge of all of the details hav- day’s end, before they do evening pump overs, bit later for fun. ing to do with grape growing and winemaking. and have a glass of wine and sit on the deck In the process of developing that vineyard, Our winemaker has worked with a com- for a few minutes to enjoy the sunset. However, we pulled out 50,000 cubic yards of rock in or- pany called Fruition Sciences. We were one of we also always view our best wines as our next der to create even growing conditions for those their vineyards they used while doing Ph.D. re- wines, so that motivates us to always strive to be vines. We decided to stay small at that point and search at Berkeley to understand vine stress on better.• 144 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2017 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 40, NUMBER 2.

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