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Bray Vineyards
John Hoddy, winemaker
If you’ve never been to Bray Vineyards, shame on you! One of the most popular wineries in Amador County, the place is always busy, and that’s a testament to the fantastic wine they produce.
The head winemaker is John Hoddy. We interviewed John in the
back, but in full view of the rambunctious tasting room bar. Customers
were having a ball, and owner Robin Bray popped into our conversation to
say hello. Stephanie Anderson, Bray’s jack-of-all-trades, was amazingly
everywhere, showering her customers with attention while pouring tastes,
checking in on us to see if we needed anything, and preparing for the
arrival of a couple of scheduled limousines. Needless to say, the place
was hopping!
John Hoddy entered the winemaking business in an unconventional way. But his gentle voice and good-humored manner had us mesmerized while he shared his story, even over the din and laughter going on in the tasting room.
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How
did you get started in wine making? Did you go to school?
I didn’t go to school for that. I grew up in
Michigan and was a software designer all my life. I worked for Central
Michigan University for eight years, then went to Chicago for a year
with a contract for United Airlines. From there I was able to move out
here. The gentleman I was working for came out here, so I came to
California because that was the farthest I could move and have somebody
pay for it. So that worked out good for me. After that, I went to Bank
of America for 16 years.
So
how did you get into the winemaking business?
While at BofA, I got into a group where they made home wine and they happened to buy their grapes from this area up here. So in 1989 I bought my own piece of property and put in a vineyard. When BofA moved to Charlotte, I got lost in the shuffle so I just hung out here and worked part time at a few wineries. When the Brays were opening this place, I came onboard.
Did
you start off making wines here?
Our wines, our custom crush was being made down the road at Vino Noceto in the beginning. Our 2002 vintage was our first one here. The others were grapes from here, but made down there. Finally, they were running out of room and didn’t have any place for us so we bought our own equipment and started making our own wine. Now all of the wine is what we’ve made here.
You
have acres of vineyard out front. Do you grow all of your own grapes?
We grow all of our own grapes, except for the
Primitivo. We purchase that, but every other varietal you see here—the
ports, the whites, the pinks, the reds—are all grown here.
There aren’t that many winemakers in the Sierra foothills making port.
Well, it works well here just because our summers are so hot that you don’t have any trouble getting the grapes ripe. People are under the illusion that port grapes are sweeter than wine grapes when you pick them and that’s not necessarily true. It’s just handling the juice differently when you stop the fermentation to keep the natural sugars in the port. And that’s really the only difference. We have a Petite Sirah and a Petite Sirah Port; they are both picked the same day, they’re crushed the same day, they’re just treated differently.
The Bray Vineyards' Brayzin Hussy in action!
What
was the very first wine you ever made during your home winemaking days?
That would have been about 1989 and it was a Zinfandel. During that time I started taking all the extension classes at UC Davis, so that’s my only real background other than doing it—just getting in and doing it.
At
the end of a long day, you go home and relax, what do you have to drink?
Single malt scotch in the winter; gin and tonic in
the summer time.
No
wine? No beer?
Ah, when it’s hot, [I drink] some beer during the day. During the day you end up drinking so much wine, you want a change.
So
you need to cleanse you palate at the end of the day?
There you go! Sometimes I don’t drink anything.
When
you came up with your name “Brayzin Hussy Red,” were you just sitting
around with a bottle of wine and. . .
Several bottles, and staring at the bathtub out
there! (Hoddy was referring to a
Zinfandel-colored, claw-footed bathtub by the winery’s front door, which
is featured on the label of Brayzin Hussey.) It belonged to Oliver’s
(the winery owner’s) grandmother and had been just sitting out there.
Want
to share any stories about the bathtub?
Sometimes it gets rowdy out there when these
limousines pull in, and with a bachelorette party, it can get
interesting. Since we put the roof on (over
the patio) the tub is on concrete, but the tub used to be on dirt.
When one person wanted to get in to get their picture taken it was one
thing, but it became like the “telephone booth thing” to see how many
people could get in, and they tipped it over a couple of times. We had
to kind of protect them from themselves (a
posted sign now asks visitors to stay out of the tub).
What’s your favorite wine?
Of the wines we make here, I’m not a big white wine drinker but I like the Verdelho. I think it’s unique and it’s a clean wine. For the reds, either the Primitivo or the Barbera. My favorite wine, really, is a Pinot Noir, but we don’t make any of that here or grow it here.
Has
it always been Pinot Noir?
I started buying it from a certain winery when I
moved here in about 1978, and I’ve liked it since then. There are very
few of them I like, but I like it when it’s good. I like the Russian
River wines and those from the Santa Barbara area.
There
are a lot of myths out there about wine drinking, wine making, food
pairings, etc. What’s your favorite?
That the silver Mylar tape hung on the vines is used to make sparkling wine. Yup, that’s how we make our sparkling wine! (laughing)
(Playing along) Sounds like a secret process. Does it work?
No, no. It’s used to scare the birds away. It makes
them go away for a while, but they’re smarter than people are.
You
also make and sell your own olive oil?
Yes, all those trees that line the driveway are olive trees. Last year I planted another 90 or so trees. We have some areas not good for grapes, so I’ll put in olive trees. It seems to sell well and people are getting to know it now and are willing to buy it. We just put it in a simple bottle so they aren’t paying for the bottle.