| Lillian
Harrison, 100
Leo Joseph
Estate Cellars
A new wine from four generations of
women
By Jack Heeger
FOR THE WEEKLY CALISTOGAN
(edited for publication)
Thursday, November 29,
2007
New wine brands are released just about
every week, it seems, but one brand that
made its debut last weekend is quite
different from others. It’s made by a
company that has four generations involved.
And they’re all women. Leo Joseph Estate
Cellars in St. Helena produced the wine from
the Lawrence Harrison Vineyard, a
partnership of 100-year-old Lillian Harrison
and her 63-year-old daughter, Carolyn
Harrison Lawrence. Carolyn’s daughter, Donna
Lee Lawrence Costa, 38, helps with the
accounting and business side of the
organization, and the youngest member,
Lillian’s great-granddaughter, Erika
Lawrence, 19, is being groomed to help in
sales.
Lillian’s official role is an
investor, but she also serves as a taster,
Carolyn said. “When we tried the wine for
the first time, we brought it to her
(Lillian) and she liked it.” She explained
that her mother knows wine — she comes from
an Italian family that always had wine on
the table at their home in San Francisco’s
North Beach. “She was raised with it — it
was always red wine. My dad was raised in
St. Helena, so he was always around wine,
too,” she said. Thus, there was no question
that Leo Joseph wine would be red — it’s 83
percent cabernet sauvignon and 17 percent
cabernet franc, all grown in the tiny
vineyard, just eight-tenths of an acre, on
one side of the property ... that is also
home to two houses, one occupied by Lillian,
the other by Carolyn.
Vineyard planted in 2002
The decision to go into the wine business
was made in 2002 when the vineyard was
planted. Carolyn credits family friend
George Vierra, a long-time wine industry
veteran, with urging her to consider
removing a lawn and planting vines ... The
tiny vineyard yielded just a little over
four tons, and they ended up with 270 cases.
They plan to sell it all directly, either
via the Internet or through word-of-mouth.
Carolyn said she also is considering selling
to a restaurant. She seemed apologetic for
selling the wine so soon. “This is a baby
wine,” she said. “Still, it goes wonderfully
with a variety of foods, and is even good
for just sipping.”
The reason for putting the 2005
out now, when many other premium wineries
are releasing their 2004s, is to coincide
with Lillian’s 100th birthday, which was
Oct. 31.
“I know it’s a little early (to
release it) but what better time to do it,”
Carolyn said. Asked about how it felt to go
into a new business at age 100, Lillian
responded, “It’s very exciting, but I was in
my 90s when we started it.” She added, “I’m
never too old to start a vineyard.”
Showed some concern
But there was some concern on her part.
“Mom was nervous (about going into the wine
business) — would she be around to see a
profit?” Carolyn said. “That was the
scariest thing for her. She asked, ‘What if
it doesn’t sell,’ and I told her that then
we will have a heckuva good party.
“When we sold the first case of
wine she was ecstatic,” she added. “When
someone compliments her on the wine, she’s
very happy.” Under Vierra’s guidance,
Carolyn, a retired school teacher, took
classes at UC Davis and Napa Valley College
and immersed herself in wine knowledge. She
said she studied all aspects of viticulture,
she worked in the vineyard pulling leaves,
pruning and picking — “I really have respect
for the people who work in the fields all
the time,” she said — and she goes out and
walks through the vineyard every day. "They
(the vines) kind of talk to you, like a
relationship,” she said.
Paul Garvey handles the actual
vineyard management, and Vierra made the
wine at Bell Wine Cellars in Yountville. It
was aged 22 months in used French oak
barrels closed with new Hungarian and French
barrel heads. “The new heads give just
enough oakiness,” Carolyn said. The wine
comes in at just 13.9 percent alcohol, far
below many of the cabernets produced today.
“George (Vierra) and I want to go back to
the European style,” Carolyn said. “Women
have said this is elegant.”
Appeals to women
In designing the packaging, she wanted to
appeal to women because women buy more wine
than men, she said. “All red wines have
either a red or a dark green capsule, but we
have one that is sage green. Only a woman
would worry about things like that.” The
same color is used on the label, which
features an old woodcut drawing that she
said depicts a servant presenting wine to
her father for his approval.
The name Leo Joseph comes from the
first and middle name of her father, who
died in 1993. It’s a tribute to him, she
said. When the time came to price the wine,
Carolyn said Vierra had them taste a variety
of wines ranging from $60 to $150 per
bottle, then compare it to their own wine.
She said that although the Leo Joseph wine
was younger than the others, it stacked up
favorably, and they settled on a price of
$75 per bottle. During an open house to
introduce the wine, a man told Lillian that
his father recently celebrated his 100th
birthday, too. His was on Oct. 2, just 29
days before hers. He must have been trying
to make a match because he told her, “My
father likes younger women.”
No family discounts
Carolyn’s daughter, Donna Lee, works in the
finance department of the city of Napa and
watches over the business side of the
venture, and it looks like she’s a strict
manager. “There are no family discounts,”
she said. “The hard part is realizing this
is a business and I have to pay for a bottle
of wine.” Carolyn agreed. “We can’t drink it
(ourselves) because there goes the profits.”
Donna Lee is a self-professed white wine
drinker, and said she is picky about
cabernet sauvignon. But she loved the 2004
vintage. The 2004? That crop was very small
(the vines were only two years old) and a
friend bought the grapes and made the wine,
Carolyn explained. During an interview,
Donna Lee seemed to enjoy the 2005, too.
Lillian’s great-granddaughter,
Erica, who is majoring in international
relations and Italian language, plans to go
to Italy next year. She had planned to take
a minor in viticulture, but any involvement
with the wine business will have to wait
until after she graduates. Carolyn said she
hopes Erika will help on the sales side. As
the family concluded an interview, Carolyn
alluded to the fact that the business would
be successful. “None of us is wishy-washy.
We’re four generations of very strong-willed
determined women,” Carolyn said. Donna Lee
whispered to a reporter, “Stubborn is a
better word.”
Leo Joseph Estate Cellars
can be found at
www.leojosephwines.com |
