Nicole Hitchcock, estate director at Healdsburg’s J Vineyards (jwine.com), talks shop before this year’s harvest.
Winemaker Nicole Hitchcock of Healdsburg’s J Vineyards
What’s the best advice about winemaking you ever received? Referencing the perfumy aromatics of fermentation, the cellar master during my first harvest said, ‘Do you smell that? It’s an aroma that will always bring you back to harvest time.’ I’ve taken this as advice to regularly pause and take in the sights, sounds and aromas around me and appreciate how lucky I am to do what I do.
Which historical figure would you love to share a bottle of wine with? Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If you weren’t a winemaker, what would you be doing? I’d be a landscape architect: technical artistry, just like winemaking.
What’s a wine trend you wish would go away? Natural wines that are flawed.
What song best describes your approach to winemaking? “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks
Your perfect meal with one of your wines? Grilled swordfish topped with mango salsa, wild rice, and avocado and grapefruit salad paired with J’s Cuvee 20 Brut sparkling.
What are your go-to restaurants in Healdsburg? Bravas Bar de Tapas (starkrestaurants.com), Barndiva (barndiva.com), Troubadour Bread & Bistro (troubadourhbg.com)
What’s your mantra? Focus on the things that can be controlled. Make peace with the things that cannot be changed.
Photography by: COURTESY OF J VINEYARDS
