Wine Country Personality: Chris Pisani

What do you get when you mix Brooklyn attitude with Napa style? The answer is some great tasting wine. Chris Pisani, Winemaker for ZD Wines, is a rare combination of east coast street smart and California cool. Growing up in a big Italian family, Chris learned to appreciate the very things that make Napa so memorable: great food, wine and company. This real-world education made him a perfect fit at ZD Wines where family is the cornerstone of the winery's values, and great wine and food fall close behind. During his formative years, Chris studied chemistry in college while spending time with his now-wife, Ina, whose father happened to make wines out of their house in Newburgh, New York. Chris watched, learned, experimented and soon he was hooked. The seed was planted and before long, Chris and Ina were moving to California for a taste of life in the wine country.

To make ends meet when they first arrived, Chris took a job at an environmental consulting firm. Shortly afterwards he followed the path of some of Napa's most renowned winemakers and attended UC Davis to study viticulture and enology. It was here that Chris fell headfirst into the world of winemaking and started down the path that would lead him to ZD.

Robert deLeuze, CEO/Winemaster for ZD Wines, was attending a job fair at UC Davis to potentially meet his next Assistant Winemaker and Chris was eager for the opportunity. They met, talked, had an instant rapport and soon Chris was joining the ZD team. When asked what made Chris stand out amid all of the other hungry soon-to-be winemakers, Robert deLeuze stated that, "Chris is an articulate, well-educated, charming man with an infectious passion for his work. He brings a wealth of knowledge to ZD, making wines (which can often be intimidating) accessible and fun."

Beginning in 1996 as an enologist, Chris quickly took on the role of Assistant Winemaker in 1998, working closely with Robert to understand the tradition and techniques that make up the ZD style. Three years later, Chris was in for another surprise when Robert deLeuze announced that after fifteen years as Winemaker he was stepping back from his role to spend more time on the management of the winery. Chris, in turn, would take over as Winemaker.

Five short years after joining the winery, Chris was responsible for producing ZD's signature-style well balanced, fruit-driven Chardonnays; intense, flavorful Pinot Noirs; and opulent, rich Cabernet Sauvignons. "It is important to maintain the commitment to quality that makes ZD Wines so unique," claims Chris. "As a family owned and operated business it is rare to see that level of commitment and I feel such a sense of pride knowing that the wines we produce are crafted from the best possible grapes, with an attention to winemaking that comes from ZD's 40 years of history and experience. When creating a wine, we create it with the customer in mind, with our fans in mind, not the critics. By enjoying our wines, they are sharing in our history, in our heart, and in the passion that we put forth every day. It's why we do what we do."

After thirteen years, ZD Wines is still thrilled to have Chris on board, helping to produce the wines that have garnered recognition in the spirit that drives our time-honored traditions.

To learn more about Chris and ZD's winemaking process, schedule a private tour and tasting with him for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Tours: By Appointment Only. CLICK HERE to learn more.

ZD Wines
8383 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA 94558
www.zdwines.com

ZD is Socializing - Internet Style

It always seemed to me that being social and using the internet to socialize were on opposite ends of the communication spectrum. The internet being reserved for the nerds too shy and awkward to make it in the real world. However, it seems that the tables have turned and that the “place to be” is on the internet, using sites like Facebook and others to achieve your social networking dreams.

I suppose that I was a late bloomer with this social networking phenomenon. Being that I am the “3rd Generation” of the deLeuze family at ZD and being in my mid 20’s, once I finally got signed up with Facebook, I found that the majority of my friends were there waiting for me to join the party.

The real reason that I finally made my own Facebook page was because the ZD Wines page that I wanted to create needed an administrator. However, once you enter the world of Facebook, the more friends (or fans in ZD’s case) you have, the cooler you are. So the race was on not only to make Facebook friends of my real life friends, but to get a quality ZD page going so that I would be able to build a group of ZD fans who were on Facebook. As of right now, the friend/fan score is Brandon - 63, ZD – 86.

The ZD Wines Facebook page has turned out to be a success, and I suspect that it will become more useful as more people become aware of it. I post all of our upcoming events on the page, as well as give little updates about interesting things that are happening around the winery. If you have a moment, check out the facebook site, let us know what you think about the site, and if you are a fan of our wines, become a fan of our page!

- Brandon deLeuze, Assistant Winemaker

Solar Celebration

As of February 12, 2009 our first annual billing cycle with PG&E has come to an end. Even with all of the crushing, pumping, bottling, chilling, computing and lighting throughout the year, we ended up producing more electricity than we used. Economically, you could say that we blew it since we do not get paid for the excess energy we deliver to PG&E. But from our view, this is simply an opportunity to do even more with our solar energy going forward. The next change will be to replace the propane water heater with an electric unit that will use our clean solar electricity.

Some Details on our Solar System:

Sizing: We originally sized the system to pay for 95% of our electricity costs. This was designed to be as economically beneficial as possible since we will only be reimbursed for the total costs of the electricity that we use at this site. Any excess energy produced on an annual basis will not be paid for. Due to our current rate schedule, this is not a kilowatt for kilowatt trade.

Rate Schedule: We are on an A-6 rate schedule. This means we are charged at varying rates for the electricity we use depending on the time of year and the time of day. We are paid for the electricity that we generate at these same rates. This works well for a solar system because the rate is the highest at the time when we are producing the most electricity (when the sun is shining). Note on the rate schedule below that the rate for “On Peak” energy is more than three times the rate for “Off Peak”. We can increase our efficiency even more by scheduling energy use, such as charging our electric forklifts, for the Off Peak times.

Efficiency: In our ongoing efforts to be as ecological as possible we have continued to increase our energy efficiency. Two of our largest projects include upgrades to the chillers and air compressors with high efficiency units.

During this change we replaced our old 30 hp air compressor with two direct drive units. One unit is 20 hp with a variable frequency drive and the other is a 10hp unit. In the off-season, we can run the smaller unit daily, only using the larger unit when necessary. We will continue to look for ways to be as efficient as possible.

Future Plans: With the solar system that we have in place and the improvements that we have made to our operation, it is very likely that we will continue to overproduce electricity. To continue maximizing the use of that energy, we are impatiently awaiting the availability of electric cars. What a great way to commute, with free clean energy!

Real Time Monitor:
Check out our current production and get other interesting facts about our solar system HERE

~ Robert deLeuze, Winemaster/CEO

Ecological Farming Conference - Asilomar, CA

As the Wine Educator at ZD Wines, I was excited by the opportunity to attend the 29th Annual Ecological Farming Conference to learn more about the latest trends in organic & biodynamic farming, alternative energy, and related earth sensitive farming philosophies. It was an enlightening and humbling experience on many levels.

At the conference, in the company of Robert deLeuze, CEO & Winemaster; Julie deLeuze, Executive Director; Rafael Llamas, Vineyard Manager; Barbie Jamieson, Retail Sales Director; Chris Pisani, Winemaker; and Brandon deLeuze, Assistant Winemaker, we “divided and conquered” to gather information at as many relevant seminars as possible. With so much to take in, the strategy was effective in our efforts to access the immense knowledge, experience and optimism present at the conference.

It was an eye-opening experience listening to some of the true pioneers of the organic farming movement, some of whom have been actively transforming the industry since the late sixties. Pioneers though they may be, they were as diverse as the crowd of professionals you might find at a Grateful Dead show (in fact, Jerry Garcia’s widow had an inspiring short film on “soil” that I viewed with the ZD boys). It was refreshing, as we all seemed to connect on a deeper level, and it made me proud to work for ZD, whose belief and focus on organic farming began in the early 1980’s.

For the sake of efficiency I am going to list several of my highlights from the conference:

• There are billions of farmers on this planet growing the crops we eat while there are only a handful (3 or 4) of Multinational Corporations (MNC’s) that control the channels in which this food is “dispensed” back to the billions of us that eat it. Something’s fundamentally wrong with this picture, as many of the people growing the food are dying of starvation, at the expense of the MNC’s profit!

• The amount of potential energy produced everyday by the Sun is equivalent to all of our stored energy (oil, coal, and natural gas) on Earth! It took billions of years to store these “reserves”, so we should treat them as such and focus on Solar and other renewable energy sources.

• “Conventional” farming actually depletes our soil, while Composting actually builds soil! Compost is the best natural fertilizer that you can find, and it’s even better if you produce your own. It adds organic matter back to the soil, helping build up our soil, rather than using it up!

• Organic Farming is not just a movement; it’s the way the world needs to farm! While science has provided some conveniences (pest control & increased yields) during the past century, these techniques are not sustainable. We need to get back to our “roots” and encourage science to incorporate a more natural and sustainable farming focus.

I hope that you who have taken the time to read this have found something to inspire you to help make this world a better place. I know I am a fortunate lad who’s trying to lead by example, and may you do the same. Let’s toast (with your favorite ZD, of course!) to making this world a better place to live, one glass of wine at a time!

~ Trent Ghiringhelli, Wine Educator

Reminiscing On Our 40th Harvest

I like to describe the success of ZD Wines as a realization of the American dream. As a child, the winery was all fun and games for me. Looking back, I appreciate that my parents were driven by a desire and work ethic that was immeasurable. Starting with almost nothing, both partners and their families attacked all the challenges of building and running a winery while holding down full time jobs. During those ten years from 1969 to 1978, our harvest grew from 6 to 94 tons. As my dad, Norman, liked to point out, that was an annual growth rate of 36%. In those early days, it seemed to me that we would never grow to a sustainable size capable of actually paying a salary!

Today, in our beautiful facility located in the heart of the Napa Valley, we are living the good life. Being careful to respect our history and traditions, we continue to learn and make use of the best new technologies to improve both our grape growing and winemaking techniques. We have been fortunate to build a great team of people that are a joy to work with and add real value to our company and community. Of course, none of this could have happened without the amazing support from our loyal customers.

Looking ahead, we are in a great position to take advantage of new opportunities to improve our company and our environment. We will never stop learning and striving to create magnificent wines and a better world to enjoy them in!

From our family to yours, a toast to you and the American dream!

-Robert deLeuze,
Winemaster, CEO, Partner