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Before settling in California's Russian River Valley, Susan, an Australian, made award-winning Pinot Noir and other cool climate wines in the prestigious Yarra Valley, in Australia, and in Tasmania where she was raised. She has learned to coax the character from land and vine. "You have to wait for the flavor," she says of the famously finicky Pinot Noir grape.
Susan's winemaking is an exercise in finesse, and she is guiding the wines of MacMurray Ranch to achieve both depth and the finely nuanced range of flavors that expresses the nature of the place where they were born. With her university studies in both winegrowing and winemaking, Susan makes wines that reflect the old Burgundian sense of "terroir", the special qualities that weather, land, and the hand of man that give her wines their individual distinction.
With more than fifteen harvests behind her, Susan looks forward to forty more. "Winemaking is both science and art. You have to know what you are doing, which is the science, and you have to know when to stay out of the way; that's the art. The grapes make the wine, and the winemaker should help that along, nurture the process and watch out for problems. By taking care along the way, the winemaker makes a difference in the end, a difference that can take a wine from good to great." |
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