The Accidental Winemaker | epicure Magazine

Akiko Freeman from Freeman Vineyard wowed everybody along with her discerning palate, which is how she discovered herself making Burgundian-style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in California.

Rising up in Japan, Akiko Freeman can’t keep in mind when she first turned her father’s “ingesting buddy”, however as her sibling didn’t drink the duty fell onto her. He had hung out in England the place he fell in love with wines, and specifically Burgundy. Akiko modestly recounts that she turned adept at figuring out flavours in wine, and developed a eager sense of nosing and tasting.
Serendipity in a storm
Arriving in New York in 1985 to begin college, Akiko made a cultural fake pas at her first social gathering – she was “dressed to kill” in a proper Chanel gown and heels for a basement keg social gathering. Ken, who was presupposed to be crusing to the Caribbean post-college, had been compelled ashore by Hurricane Gloria and was invited to the identical social gathering. He couldn’t assist however discover the putting Japanese newcomer, they usually bonded over their mutual ardour for wine. That date is commemorated on the keystone at Freeman Vineyard, and Gloria is the identify of their property winery.

The vineyard was arrange in 2001 after the Freemans had moved again to the States from Singapore and determined to pursue a imaginative and prescient of winemaking that they cherished – chilly local weather Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in a classy, balanced and stylish fashion. Having checked out over 300 winery websites, they selected the Russian River AVA, working with esteemed growers like Keefer and Heintz. Ken interjects, “We needed to kiss a variety of frogs earlier than we discovered the proper companions.” Their first eight-acre Gloria Property Winery was established in 2006, planted with six blocks of Pinot Noir clones Swan, Pommard, 115, Martini and Calera; adopted by the 14-acre Yu-Ki Property Winery in 2007 in Sonoma Coast.
On the lookout for umami
Freeman Vineyard’s first winemaker Ed Kurtzman is a famend Pinot Noir specialist, and helped the couple to determine the early picked, Burgundian fashion that they had been in search of. Akiko began out helping Ed however quickly found she loved making the wines – and likewise dwelling in Sonoma. Ed additionally gauged that Akiko had a aptitude for the trade, and nudged her over time in direction of taking up. After eight years of commuting between San Francisco and the vineyard, the Freemans constructed their very own residence adjoining to the vineyard in 2009, simply earlier than Akiko took over the winemaking reins utterly in 2010.

“In making wine, it’s a must to stick together with your intestine feeling,” explains Akiko, who regardless of her small stature is palms on with the entire tiring, bodily course of. “I actually benefit from the punchdown,” she provides, describing the laborious activity of breaking apart the layer of seed, stem and pores and skin that kinds on the floor of fermenting crimson wine, and utilizing a software to repeatedly submerge the solids to extract tannins, color and flavour into the wine. She is meticulous and exacting within the barrel room, matching every plot of clones to a delegated barrel relying on its character, in search of toasted hazelnut or further tight grains for instance. Throughout harvest, you’ll discover her with mouthfuls of grapes as she walks the fields, in search of maturity of flavour, whilst she decides when to select to keep away from bitter inexperienced flavour however with the proper stage of ripeness.
In a convention began in 2002, Ed, Akiko and Ken have a ‘pleasant competitors’ to bottle their most well-liked mix. The 2002 was based mostly on the classic of twenty-two Sonoma Coast barrels, so every of them selected about seven barrels to create their Pinot Noir expression. Akiko received, and thus the Akiko’s Cuvée Pinot Noir was born. She’s received yearly since, 15 years working, along with her uncanny palate pinpointing an elusive layering of flavours and umami. As Ken says with a contact of pleasure, “Akiko’s choice hits each style bud, it’s a celebration within the mouth.”
Critics and followers agree, and the vineyard’s complete manufacturing of 6,000 circumstances is snapped up in a short time through mailing listing. Whereas Akiko was content material to make only one white wine, Ryo-fu, demand was so excessive for his or her fashion of calmly oaked and stylish Chardonnay, that Ken has lastly satisfied her to make one other, Hawk Hill Chardonnay which will likely be accessible from the 2017 classic. “For Chardonnay, the barrel can add class, however like make-up, you simply want slightly,” Akiko describes. Her eager sensibilities and knowledgeable palate have but to be confirmed incorrect.