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Chevalier Winery
Pierre Chevalier, owner and winemaker
Our drive to Chevalier Winery was both interesting and promising. Located a few miles south of Shingle Springs and Highway 50, the interesting part had to do with making sure which country road to turn on, even with “Nora the Explorer” (our talking GPS system) navigating the way. We learned that road signs aren’t found where they normally should be during this trip, so take note!
The promising part was the view. This was our first time in French Creek Valley; travel experts on the Golden State, we were taken aback that we had never discovered this area. The surprising thing was we were there in the dead of winter, and it was still lovely! We vowed to return in the spring to shoot a few photographs for our travel website.
Pierre and Jeanette Chevalier greeted us at their tasting room,
which sits down a hill and behind their home. Their Australian shepherd
“Queenie” greeted us too and wanted to play fetch, so Dahlynn threw the
toy for her. Returning with it, Queenie placed the toy on a wine barrel
and looked up eagerly at Pierre. “I taught her how to do that so I don’t
have to bend over!” Pierre said proudly. He picked up the toy and threw
it again, to Queenie’s delight.
Pierre Chevalier is an interesting person. We would use the word “character,” but he’s much more than that. Born in Switzerland, he brought a very thick accent with him, as well as a great sense of humor and a gracious nature. Jeanette joined in during the interview, and the banter and looks between them were great fun to watch. When asked what he did before becoming a winemaker, he said, “I used to sell trucks, equipment, snowplow equipment, and stuff like that.” By the end of the interview, he mugged for photos, even doing his “Jack Nicholson face” for us. “You can’t use that one!” Jeanette said with a laugh, worried we would use the photo for the book. They sent us home with two bottles of wine, one of which Pierre told us not to open until we made his filet mignon recipe. We can hardly wait!
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You’re from Switzerland. When did you come over here?
Over here, where?
To
America?
Oh, 1967.
With
regard to history, you talked about the site of the oldest commercial
winery in California and vines 100 years old. Was that here, or across
the road?
No, right here. (Referring to historic photos in his winery) You’re looking at the Watkins family in 1852, in history books, they had one of the first vineyards—there were two or three that started about the same time. They provided wine for the miners. At French Creek there were a bunch of Frenchies and the French had to have their wine.
What
do you know about the Watkins family?
It’s a very exciting story. In 1850 David Watkins
was here, then came back in 1852 with his buddies and planted the
vineyard. You’ve heard of “old vines” on the labels? (Yes)
For the most part it’s a big joke because how can [those wineries] have
old vines when there was only one vineyard the size of a half acre, and
they’re 50 [years old]. All of a sudden they all have “old vines” on
their label. Well, come to find out they take a clone of the old vine
that’s left, then they replant it and they can call [that vineyard] “old
vine” too.
We
wondered the same thing why everybody had “old vines.” We’re always
looking for the old, gnarled vines and seldom see them.
There are very, very few vineyards over 50 years old because they got phylloxera (a small yellow root-feeding aphid that attacks and kills grapevines) and died. We have old vines that go back to 1850. They survived because they climbed into the trees. They climbed in those big oaks, maybe 100 feet in the air. We don’t use them for our wines, but they are here.
The Chevalier wine dog!
When
you retired and first started, did you just make wine just for yourself?
That’s how I started, the first little vineyard we
planted, so when I got a few grapes I made five gallons of wine. It was
Zin, because in those days at the nursery, you had to order [vines] two
years ahead of time, which I didn’t know. So when we decided to plant, I
called all the nurseries in California and they said, “You have to wait.
You give us an order now and you’ll get it two years from now.” But I
found one guy at Sobon [Winery] who sold me 150 vines, so I planted
that. And that’s all he had was Zinfandel and Cabernet Franc. I found
out that Zin likes the top of the hill for heat and we don’t have that
here. So we planted some Merlot there instead.
How
many acres of grapes do you have planted?
Six.
Now,
you have a creek that runs through here, correct?
Yes, it’s French Creek, and that’s why it’s called French Creek Valley, but it’s not running now. It’s dry because of the drought. The other creek running now is Shingle Creek, and that comes from Shingle Springs. The two creeks merge on our property.
With
it being cooler here, does that help your grapes grow?
It doesn’t help them grow but it keeps pushing the harvest later in the year. We harvest in October, while most people up here in the foothills harvest varietals like Merlot the end of September. Some places in Fair Play will be harvesting in August.
How
many cases do you put out, 1000?
We never reach 1000. Nine hundred fifty was the
best. It’s around 800, 850, normally. Our ‘06, it’s not in bottles yet.
Do you hand pick everything?
Well, this year we had to because the grapes froze in April and wiped out half the vineyard. Then in the fall when we were ready to pick they all shriveled, so we had to go through the vineyards and pick only those that had juice in them. So that’s all I got at late harvest was 50 gallons, so I fortified it with Korbel. Yeah, good stuff. Most wineries use Everclear pure alcohol—190 proof—but it has no taste. This brings out the flavor.
What’s the story behind your One Pearl label?
My cousin wrote a book, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and of course I read her books because she is a New York Times best-seller and a movie was made of that book (read Chevalier’s winery listing to learn more). When I saw that picture I said “Wow, someday I’d like to make a wine label with that picture.” That’s a Vermeer painting, so I called my cousin and she put me in touch with the museum about copyrights. We sent them some money and they sent us a slide and gave us permission to do wine labels.
Pierre, do you have any hobbies outside of winemaking?
Yes, cooking. (Jeanette: Yes, he’s a gourmet cook).
Do
you have a wine club?
We started too late. We don’t like to work too much and it’s a lot of work. With a club you have to do some barbecue and this and that.
Speaking of
work—and I know you just said that you don’t like to work too much—after
a hard day’s work, when you get home and want to relax, what do you
drink?
A beer.
You don’t drink wine?
Yes, but when it’s hot, a beer. If you are doing
beer regularly, you get a beer belly. I want a flat belly.
(Pierre laughs, holding his
stomach.)