Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/663373
94 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } APRIL/MAY 2016 At Redd, in Yountville, on a recent Wednesday afternoon, Chris Blanchard settled in to a corner table with the relaxed air of a late-career music mogul. The former wine director here was wearing a black t-shirt under a jacket, his silvery dark ringlets of hair coiling out around his ears. A bartender, with a nephew's glee, made Blanchard a "concoction": bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth. A few sips in, the bartender placed a glass of red wine on the table. Blanchard sniffed it and fired a quizzical smile. "That's not Down by Law." To say Blanchard made his name at Redd is only part of the story. As a young rapper in Portland, in the 1980s, he found fame under the moniker DJ Vitamix, and released the popular single "That's the Way Girls Are." That led to sharing a label with Run DMC, frequent on-stage battles with Sir Mix-a-Lot, and, eventually, the loss of his savings in a recording deal gone south. Blanchard reinvented himself as a wine rep for Gallo in the early 1990s and went on to become a Master Sommelier, influential wine director and, now, a winemaker with his own label, Down by Law. "The whole thing here is paying dues," he explains, gesturing at a bottle of 2014 Down by Law Chardonnay ($18). "A lot of sommeliers get into it through a connection, or through their mom and dad's restaurant or whatever. But in my days at Gallo, I saw people getting beat up, I saw one guy get shot running from a store he'd robbed, people getting punched while I'm filling up the cold box. When you see the name Down by Law, f--k yeah I'm down by law. I paid these dues, in restaurants and in sales." For his move out of the cellar and into the winery, Blanchard began with California Chardonnay and Cabernet. "When you start out you make a wine for your friends, but I wanted to buck the trend and make varietals that aren't cool and hip and happening." He selected Chardonnay grapes from Monterey (60 percent) and Sonoma Coast (40 per - cent), with a small amount of malo to bring the linear Monterey profile into harmony with the richer Sonoma Coast fruit. For the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon ($20), fruit was sourced from Napa and Sonoma, with a small parcel of Syrah and some Merlot from Mendocino. "The project really evolved from when I did the wine program at [Los Angeles hotel and restaurant] Chateau Marmont. I was looking for wines that are different, at a really good price point, that aren't giant corporate monsters, and I couldn't find anything. So, I thought, I could do this." Blanchard is also branching out into Spanish wine, starting with a Grenache Blanc from Catalunya called Sacacorcho, an affectionate name given to him in his restaurant days (it means wine opener, both the device and person). He says winemaking evolves into an important outlet for sommeliers and becomes a way of stepping out from behind the curtain. "Being a somm is not a stardom profession. We're there to provide service, and you get frustrated because you're not making anything. Getting into wine, it's our chance to create something." —Aaron Ridgway It wasn't much of a leap for Emmanuel Kemiji to transition from front-of-the- house to student to winemaker. After all, if you have a Master Sommelier accreditation (Kemiji is one of only 12 to have passed the rigorous exam on his first try) and both textbook and front- of-the-house wine experience, it's only a matter of time before you're making the juice yourself. Though he's made of European root - stock—his parents are Greek Cypriot and Spanish, and Kemiji, born in the United States, was reared in Spain and England—he didn't have the typical wine- family background. "Growing up, nobody in my family was in the wine business and unfortunately I did not inherit vineyards or a trust fund, and I'm still very angry about that," he said, with a laugh, during a recent visit to New York City. { roads less travelled } CHRIS BLANCHARD: RAP ATTITUDE EMMANUEL KEMIJI: EUROPEAN ROOTS HOTO: ALEXANDER RUBIN "The project really evolved from when I did the wine program at Chateau Marmont. I was looking for wines that are different, at a really good price point, that aren't giant corporate monsters, and I couldn't find anything. So, I thought, I could do this." In Spain, Kemiji owns Clos Pissarra—the Catalan word for slate that represents the terroirs of Montsant and Priorat. These artisan wines from ancient vines are targeted mostly for private sale.