Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/711666
{ SOMMjournal.com } 119 P atience seems to be second nature for winemakers and a necessary exercise for vintners. In the case of the winemaking team at Roederer, led by Vice President of Operations Arnaud Weyrich, patience and a watchful eye resulted in Domaine Anderson, a new home for still wine production that's just a stone's throw from the eminent sparkling house Roederer Estate. Roederer acquired the Anderson Valley property at auction in late April 2011, renamed it Domaine Anderson and scurried to ready the estate for har - vest. "Frédéric Rouzaud, President of the Champagne Louis Roederer Group, which owns Châteaux Pichon Lalande and Pez in Bordeaux, is also an avid red wine drinker," says Weyrich. "He wanted to find a world-class spot for red wine in Anderson Valley and this site was a good fit for the Roederer winery family." For the last 15 years, Weyrich has crafted some of California's best sparkling wines, and he's gathered a talented production and hospitality team around him to breathe life back in to the 45-acre Dach property, an estate just south of the town of Philo that was planted in 2009, but had fallen on hard times. By 2012, Vineyard Director Bob Gibson had begun farming the property organically and working with a consulting group from Italy on a replanting and pruning campaign in preparation for the estate's first significant vintage. The estate was originally planted to a combination of Pinot Noir heritage plant material and some clonal selections, and a few acres of Chardonnay. "We've replaced several acres of missing vines and are pruning strategically for longev - ity, which means leaving some spare wood," says Gibson, who manages seven different ranches and more than 625 acres for Roederer, 25 percent of which are farmed organically or biodynamically. by Deborah Parker Wong / photos by Hardy Wilson Under the meticulous supervision of California's lead- ing sparkling winemaker, Arnaud Weyrich, Domaine Anderson's single-vineyard Dach and Walraven estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay demonstrate the quality of the estate. Café Beaujolais Chef David LaMonica—with Shaundon Castonguay, Wine Buyer at The Perennial Restaurant and Bar, and Matt Montrose, Sommelier at Atelier Crenn—personifies farm-to-table cuisine with a "chef-farmed" fava bean salad. The Pinot Noir from the 45-acre Dach property, named for the previous farmer, and the Walraven Chardonnay are two single-vineyard bottlings from the estate.