Jim Duane is the head winemaker at Seavey Vineyard, one of our favorite wineries in Napa Valley. Before we tasted with jim at Seavey, we spent hours listening to his excellent podcast, Inside Winemaking.
Now that he has launched his own label, Terratorium Wines, we couldn’t wait to pick Jim’s brain in an interview as part of our Startup Winemaker series; read on to learn more about Jim Duane’s story and his new wine project!
Interview with Startup Winemaker, Jim Duane
Wine Scribes: So tell us, how did you get your start in the trade?
Jim Duane: I was fortunate to figure out early that I wanted to become a winemaker. This grew out of an obsession with plants, the knowledge that I wanted to work outdoors, and my absolute fascination with the magic of fermentation. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and getting beer in high school was nearly impossible. I taught myself how to ferment beer, quickly switched to grapejuice, and never looked back.
Before pursuing a Masters degree in Viticulture and Enology from UCDavis I worked at wineries in Washington while doing my undergraduate work at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Needing a break from school after GU, I spent a year working in vineyards and wineries in Malborough, New Zealand. I made my way to Napa Valley after UCDavis.
What was the thought process behind starting your own label?
Finding the right partner was the key to building Terratorium. My business partner, Ben Matthews, designed and built the brand starting immediately after we worked harvest together at Seavey Vineyard in 2018. I was able to bring my connections to great unsung vineyards in California and my winemaking experience to compliment Ben’s start-up and sales expertise. We shared a desire to make great wines priced such that customers could afford to drink terroir-driven, single-vineyard bottles on a weeknight. We also shared a philosophy of environmental stewardship and that formed our core principle of partnering with farmers that are committed to organic or sustainable certifications.
The tagline for Terratorium is “California Wines, Cincinnati Roots” We make wines from not-so famous wine regions throughout California such as Santa Lucia Highlands for our Riesling and Alexander Valley for our Cab Franc. Finding grapes from these regions allows us to make wines that over deliver for the cost, as the fruit is more affordable.
Terratorium Wines, Santa Lucia Highlands, Alexander Valley, California
Vintages: 2021, 2022, 2023
Cases produced: 600 per year
Varietals: Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Rosé of Grenache, Riesling
We love Cab Franc for its seductive, earthy flavors and because we felt it was an underdog long overdue for the credit it merits. We harvest grapes early enough in their ripening to capture pipe tobacco and roasted red pepper flavors. The current Cab Franc comes from T-T Ranch.
Given that lots of Rosé is consumed in both of our families, we knew that had to be in our stable and Grenache picked early, even while some of the berries are still green, is a laser-focused expression of light, bright, and beautiful. Our Grenache comes from Starfield Vineyard in El Dorado on the foothills of the Sierra mountains and is made in a completely dry style as God intended.
Pinot Noir allows us to make a juicy, but soft crowd-pleaser. We’ve made Pinots from both Santa Rita Hills and Anderson Valley, both ascendant wine regions with climates cool enough to develop bright cherry and rose petal flavors that are the hallmark of Terratorium’s Pinots. Our Pinots from both regions are from single vineyard sources, but we can’t put the names on the label as other producers are making bottlings at twice our price and we’re just happy to get great fruit
In college Ben studied in Germany and fell in love with Riesling. Finding Riesling grapes in California was one challenge and making it into a dry took full effort. We found a gem in Tondre Grapefield in Santa Lucia Highlands. We stopped the fermentation at 9 g/L of residual sugar, which is right on the border of technically dry. “Oh, that’s not sweet, I really like this” is the comment we hear over and over when people first try the Terratorium Riesling. Tondre Grapefield is in a cool spot with lots of wind coming in from the Monterey Bay. It was the latest lot of our grapes to be harvested in 2021 due to the cool season.
Where do you produce the wine?
We produce the Terratorium Wines at a winery in Napa Valley, so that I can keep on top of the winemaking. We are a virtual brand, so all of our investment has gone into grapes, barrels, and growing the business.
What does the business look like in ten years, ideally?
We’d love to continue to scale Terratorium such that we can focus on the business full time, travel to preach the message, and hire great people to enable Ben and I to focus on vineyards, winemaking, and sales.
Who has largest impact and/or influence on your style of winemaking?
When I was working at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars the business was sold to a joint-venture including the Antinori dynasty from Italy. Renzo Cotarella, the head enologist for Antinori, would travel out to Napa to work with us several times each year. He once said that our job was to make wines with a lot of personality, but with personality that was easy to understand. That simple message has been my guiding principle for crafting wines that get people excited to come back for more.
We know you place an emphasis on labeling and packaging; can you talk about that?
We incorporated unique front and back label design elements [to help] the Terratorium bottles to stand out on the shelf and to let customers understand what each wine will taste like. The front of each wine has 4 color components in what looks like an ink-blot painting. Those colors coordinate with the 4 “flavor emojis” on the back label indicating the 4 main flavors of that wine.
Sustainability permeates every facet of Terratorium’s operations and that includes glass and corks. We use lightweight glass, as heavy glass is the main contributor to green-house-gas emissions for wine packaging. For corks we use DIAM, which is a processed cork guaranteed to never have TCA or any flaw that could damage the taste of our wines.
How can people get in contact, taste or purchase bottles?
Our website is the best place to find the Terratorium Wines. We can ship to most states in the US. I’m happy to connect with anyone that is interested in Terratorium and email is the most reliable method: jim@terratoriumwines.com. Also, we just recently have been brought into the state of Utah, so if you are going skiing, we are on the shelf.
Ok now for some less serious questions…
Favorite unique wine pairing?
I love to show the Terratorium Riesling through two lenses. Paired with an aged gouda, the wine shines with tartness. Paired with salt and pepper potato chips, the wine shows an ethereal sweetness. It’s akin to getting two wines for one with this fat and salty pairing duo.
Besides where you are now, what is your favorite wine region and why?
I’m most excited about Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. Not just because I can leave my family on the beach and go work with some of my favorite grapegrowers, but also because the region is strongly affected by the ocean’s climate. It gives a winemaker a full suite of tools to build wines ranging from savory to fruit forward. Depending on each site within SRH the soils range from beach sand to black tilth that looks like the Midwest.
What’s one of the biggest challenges in the wine world?
It’s tough for a small brand to stand out in a crowded field with lots of great wines. We’re hustling to find the right partners to help us build our young wine business.
What’s the most rewarding part of what you do?
Hearing someone try our Riesling even though they don’t think they like Riesling and then exclaim “Oh, that’s not sweet, I really like this” reliably puts a smile on my face.
When not drinking wine, what’s your go-to beverage?
I’m a big fan of Mexican beer, especially Pacifico, in the warm seasons and a Manhattan if it’s cold outside.
