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The saga of the Berthoud family began in the
Old World. Claude Berthoud spent his youth in a small Swiss village outside
of Geneva in the 1930’s and ’40’s. Wine played an integral
part in village life. Grapevines etched the hillsides surrounding the village
and wine was poured in every home at every meal. Claude’s childhood
dream was to farm his own grapes and make his own wine. |
| After many adventures, he ended
up in California in 1954. His first winemaking experience came in a
San Francisco garage in 1967 with Zinfandel grapes purchased from a vineyard
in Dry Creek Valley. He employed Old World winemaking techniques that he
observed while growing up in his native Switzerland, such as fermenting grapes
in open-top vats and aging wine in small, oak barrels. |
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The results were positive, inspiring
him to fulfill his childhood dream by settling permanently in historic Sonoma
Valley to a six-acre property in 1972. With the help of his son, Michel
(Mike), Merlot vines were planted immediately and within a few years they
were making wine from their own grapes.
 Over time, Mike’s interest in wine and winemaking
became his focus. He received a degree in Enology from Fresno State University
and went to work for Richard Arrowood in the cellar at Chateau St. Jean in
Kenwood, meanwhile still producing Berthoud wine for his family and friends.
In 1989, he left Chateau St. Jean to become the winemaker at Arrowood Winery.
His studies and experience in the
industry have exposed him to the technical side of winemaking on a large
scale and have reinforced his opinion that producing wine on a small scale
with the use of production methods that have been in practice in Europe for
centuries is the preferable way to produce wines of personality.
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| To this day, all Berthoud wines
are produced and estate bottled in the barn depicted on the label from vines
that are meticulously managed to yield less than two tons of small, concentrated
grapes per acre. The grapes are punched down by hand several times each day
in traditional open-top redwood vats during fermentation to maximize color
and flavor extraction in the gentlest manner possible. A 19 th century one-ton
basket press delivers only the highest quality wine directly to a combination
of premier French oak barrels. After approximately twenty-two months of aging,
the wine is bottled without any fining or filtration. The result is handcrafted
wine that exudes the personality of the Berthoud family, their property and
the artisanal style in which it was made. While in the past, Berthoud wines
have only been enjoyed by family and friends in the Berthoud home; 1998 marks
the first vintage of Berthoud wines made available to the public in extremely
limited quantities (only 230 cases produced).
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