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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 56 WINES&VINES May 2018 J ean Hoefliger has made a reputation for making Cabernet Sauvignon wines at Alpha Omega in Napa Valley but his first winemaking experience was with Pinot Noir. A native of Switzerland, Hoefliger had ini- tially pursued law in college but dropped out when he said it became clear he didn't have either the interest or the passion to be an at- torney. Because he had neglected his law stud- ies by playing cards and drinking wine, Hoefliger said, he went to work for his godfa- ther, who owned a winery. After his first day at the winery tasting doz- ens of tanks, many of which were filled with Pinot or Gamay — the most common reds of Switzerland — Hoefliger knew he wanted to become a winemaker and also learned the importance of spitting when tasting. That first cellar job was followed by others in California, South Africa and France before he returned to Switzerland to earn a degree in winemaking. After university, Hoefliger worked at Château Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux and then Newton Vineyard in Napa Valley. Hoefliger was at Newton when he was ap- proached by Robin Baggett, who had pur- chased Esquisse winery in Rutherford, Calif., and wanted to hire him to launch a new estate winery on the site. "They showed me the prop- erty, and I said no at the beginning because I really didn't see or understand the vision," Hoefliger recalled in an interview with Wines & Vines. "The building had no A.C., the tanks were really bad, and I was the winemaker at Newton, which is pretty much a paradise." After the first refusal, Baggett came back and offered Hoefliger the chance to upgrade the winery however he needed. "Honestly, when you have the occasion to spend other people's money, which is great, I decided right away to say yes." That was in 2006, and since then Alpha Omega has become a popular stop for Napa Valley tourists, earned the requisite scores, and its 10-case lot fetched one of the highest win- ning bids, $75,000, in the 2018 Premiere Napa Valley Auction. In 2015, Baggett approached Hoefliger about breathing new life into Tolosa Winery in the Edna Valley, near San Luis Obispo in Cali- fornia's Central Coast. Baggett and his part- ners, Jim Efird and Bob Schiebelhut, started by planting more than 800 acres to vines and then opened Tolosa in 1998 followed by, a second and larger, custom-crush winery Court- side Cellars. Courtside Cellars, in San Miguel, Calif., was later sold to E. & J. Gallo Winery in 2012. Today, the Tolosa estate has about 720 acres in total, of which 100 are used for the Tolosa brand wines. What isn't used by Tolosa is sold to other wine companies, and the winery KEY POINTS Revamped cellar is designed to better express vineyard. New equipment includes optical sorter, smaller tanks. Tolosa produces wine from 100 acres of an estate comprising 720 acres of vines. Tolosa Winery Established Edna Valley estate gets winemaking overhaul By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT The name Tolosa comes from the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa that was established in the area in 1772. PHOTOS BY DUANE HALL