Page Wine Cellars Founder, Bryan Page.
THE STORY
The story of Page Wine Cellars began in 1997 when we put our first vintage to barrel,
one barrel, 36 cases of Page Proprietary Red, but the dream resonated in my mind
long before that. From culinary school student to server to chef to sommelier to
winemaker, the path may look reasonable, but along the way, some moments played
louder than others to make this dream a reality.
One early moment that I believe was instrumental for so many reasons to the creation
of Page Wine Cellars was the summer of 1996 after completing my Bachelor’s Degree
from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. I went on to Europe to lecture to culinary
students about wine, wine service and cooking in collaboration with Ecole Hôtelière
de Lausanne, Switzerland. Throughout the summer, I had the opportunity to tour many
Chateaus through Bordeaux, but St Emilion struck a cord like no other, leading me
to visit Ausonne, Cheval Blanc, Pavie and many more. Over a glass of Lillet and
a macaroon on the town square of St Emilion after tasting countless beautiful wines
from the region, I thought, what if an American went back to California with the
gained knowledge to craft a St Emilion styled blend paying hommage to that region
while integrating the signature Napa Valley Terrior and fruit character to the wine?
A wild idea it may have been, but I did already have a good knowledge of Napa Valley
winemaking having worked with Michael Havens and the Truchard Family as their respective
asst winemaker in the early 90s while performing sommelier duties and serving at
several restaurants throughout the Napa Valley to get by. I also found myself cooking
at Domaine Carneros for many influential wine personalities including Jayson Pahlmeyer,
Chrisitan Mouiex, Claude Taittinger, the Baroness de Rothschild among many. I eventually
continued to branch out taking on the wine program at the San Francisco’s iconic
restaurant Stars in the late 90s. Working three jobs was norm for me, saving every
penny was the standard, and making my own wine under my own label was the goal.
This grassroots approach of attaining knowledge from every facet of the business
helped immensely as I created my brand and approach to making wine, I am indebted
to many for providing so much.
When we say “handcrafted”, we mean handcrafted.
Handcrafted
Along with “terroir”, handcrafted may be one of the most overused terms
in winemaking. Handcrafted for us is defined by the use of our hands, brawn and
brain, but mostly just our hands. From the moment grapes hit the bins from the vineyard,
we begin the grueling task of hand sorting each cluster for under ripe green berries,
and those that are dried up.
Our hand crank basket press is also a focal point of our winemaking and the concept
of handcrafted. Color and texture of wine is predominately achieved in the press
and through punch downs. Machine bladder presses and electric punch down devices
are great for large wineries, however, for us, we find that literally being one
with the wine working the crank, we are able to taste the flavors of the wine after
each motion as we move closer to the exact color and texture we are looking for.
Pressing a button and letting a machine do the work is probably very nice, but just
not our style!
As our wines settle down to barrel for aging, and eventually bottling, we again
prefer to hand bottle many of our wines limiting the amount of forced air to move
the wine from barrel to bottle, and finally, all of our specialty wines are hand
labeled. If you asked us, we may even hand delivery them to you as we do to many
of our restaurant clients.
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