In conversation... Pascaline Lepeltier MOF X Matt Taylor

with

Pascaline Lepeltier Best French Sommelier & Meilleur Ouvrier de France

Matt Taylor (Matt Taylor Wines) Grower & Maker

Description

Join Pascaline Lepeltier MOF as she chats to Matt Taylor about the wines he grows and makes five miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Pascaline is an award-winning sommelier and highly articulate advocate of all things natural wine, while Matt farms with organic and biodynamic practices in western Sonoma, focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. Not to be missed!

Pascaline Lepeltier

Best French Sommelier & Meilleur Ouvrier de France

Growing up in the Loire Valley and detouring from a career as a philosophy teacher, Pascaline Lepeltier is a sommelier based in Manhattan, NY. After working in Michelin-star restaurants in France, she moved to New York City to open and run the Michelin-star Rouge Tomate beverage program for 10 years. Her wine list was quickly recognized and in 2017 was named “Best Wine List in World” by The World of Fine Wine. In 2018 she joined as a partner Racines NY, one of the top wine destinations of NYC. She is currently working on the opening of a new wine restaurant on 94 Chambers in Manhattan with wine guru David Lillie. She passed the Master Sommelier in 2014, and became the first woman to win the Best French Sommelier competition in 2018. This year she also became a MOF, “Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France” in sommellerie. She teaches with the Wine Scholar Guild, and is a regular guest speaker for international congress and seminars. Pascaline writes a monthly tribune for the most important French wine publication, La Revue du Vin de France, and is preparing her first solo book, to be published in 2022. Finally, she makes a little bit of natural wines from organic historical hybrids with her partner Nathan Kendall in the Finger Lakes, NY, under the label chëpìka. She loves Chenin Blanc, Cantillon and Chartreuse.

Photo credit - Cedric Angeleshttps://www.pascalinelepeltier.com/

Matt Taylor (Matt Taylor Wines)

Grower & Maker

Matt Taylor was born and raised in Sonoma County. He was first introduced to the world of wine by his best friend’s dad, Chris Bilbro, who owned Marietta Cellars in Geyserville. His earliest memories of wine would be mushroom hunting or pig hunting, followed by preparing a meal accompanied by a good bottle of wine. While in college, Matt played football at the University of Washington, winning a Pac-10 championship.

Matt lived in Cádiz, Spain for nearly two years, where he was able to study and work in a Bodega in Jerez. Upon returning to the US, he was hired as assistant winemaker at Joseph Swan in the Russian River Valley, where he worked the 2000 and 2001 vintages. In 2001, he enrolled in Fresno State University where he earned his post-Baccalaureate degree in Viticulture & Enology. He focused on whole cluster while at Fresno State, which led him to meet Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac. This meeting led to an internship at Domaine Dujac under Jacques Seysses for the 2004 vintage. Upon finishing his Viticulture & Enology degree, he joined Araujo Estate Wines to manage the vineyards and act as assistant winemaker to Francoise Peschon. The Araujos also allowed him to work harvests in Argentina and New Zealand. He would go on to become Head Winemaker and Vineyard Manager at Araujo Estate Wines.

After the 2010 vintage, Matt departed Araujo for two new endeavors: Reuling Vineyard, a Sonoma Coast project focused on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and Front Porch Farm, an organic and biodynamic farm where Matt converted the vineyards to grafted Rhone varieties.

From 2014 to 2018, Matt joined Chamboulé, where his tenure was crucial to his development, in terms of research, making wines naturally, and his stylistic approach to winemaking. Matt would go on to form his own project, Matt Taylor Wines, focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the West Sonoma Coast and a soon-to-be added Loire-based component. He has also made the wines for 32 Winds Wines in Healdsburg.

In March 2020, Matt joined Lawrence Wine Estates as winemaker for Ink Grade, a new label launching in September 2021. The Ink Grade Estate Vineyard lies in the north-east corner of the Howell Mountain AVA in Napa Valley.

#rawwineALIVE

In partnership with