Our Story – Vin de Blanche is where Burgundy meets California…
In 2013, we have met with Sal Galvan, our wine-maker and “hit it off” immediately. Sal has more than 15 years of wine-making experience in Napa Valley. We share a passion for food and wines. We have similar wine preferences. We both love the pursuit of excellence in everything we do.
Lo and I have been raised in France, with French gourmet food as our weekly regime. We have learnt cooking from our young age, and have also developed a passion for food. Lo will share recipes on our site every month, so we can all enjoy the pleasure of savors and flavors blending harmoniously on our pallet.
We craft our wines with among the best grapes of California, from Russian River Valley, in Sonoma County.
We have met several growers early 2013. We have been looking for weeks for a vineyard that would give us highest quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, with the potential to create wines with Burgundy spirit and inspiration.
We love different styles of white Burgundy wines, from Chablis, Puligny, Chassagne-Montrachet, and Beaune. We look for minerality, a good balance of acidity and sweetness, texture yet elegance. We are not aiming at creating heavy, buttery Chardonnays. we are not looking at getting a copy of any of these Burgundy wines. Wine relates to the fruit and its growing environment, soil, climate, light, humidity, temperature, vine clone and age, growing methods, pick-up dates, and more… Above all, wine is local. We are aiming at crafting wine as if we were a part of Burgundy, in a very particular, uncommon style.
We also love great Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is a different, more difficult craft. We released our 2013 Pinot Noir, with a mix of Pommard clone and 667in Spring 2015. It’s been acclaimed by the sommelier of Guy Savoy in Paris and has been selected on the wine list of several starred michelin restaurants including the French Laundry in Yountville, Napa Valley.
We have released 5 vintages. Alas Lo passed away from Cancer in 2018 , which has explained the lower activity on this web site and we stopped crafting wines in 2018, yet continue to sell our beautiful inventory. Please support us !
1976, The Famous Paris Tasting. A defining moment for the Wine Industry. Inspirational for us.
In 1976, there was a very famous Wine tasting event in Paris. For the first time, a blind tasting was organized with 12 great California wines and 8 great French wines. The jury included very famous French sommelier, chefs, winery owners. To everyone stupefaction, California wines won first place in both categories. Chateau Montelena 1973 won the Chardonnay contest against the best Burgundy selection ; and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 won the Cabernet Sauvignon category against very famous Bordeaux Grand Crus. This event has been essential for the wine industry in both countries. It was a defining moment and the quality of winemaking has been ever increasing since then.
(For more on the Paris tasting, we recommend to read the "Judgment of Paris" written by George M. Taber).
We came to meet Pam Bacigalupi. We were very interested in the grapes produced on the family vineyard. Russian River Valley with its cooler climate would be closer to what we were looking for. Chateau Montelena had sourced a significant part of its Chardonnay fruit from the Bacigalupi Vineyard for its 1973 award winning Chardonnay. We were delighted by the various fruit we tasted on the property. Pam and John accepted to supply our first vintage with various clones of Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, including Pommard clone, and authorized the use of their vineyard name on our labels after tasting our Chardonnay this summer. We chose 2 slightly different pick-up dates, from different blocks and each lot has brought complementary value to our wine-making. Sal and I have been delighted by this first experience. We got inspiration from the Burgundy wine-making methods, and used only French Oak for this first Vintage. With our 2013 vintage, we are happy pay a tribute to the winners of the 1976 Paris tasting !
Thank you !
We would like to thank you very much for supporting us. We hope you will have many enjoyable and memorable moments with our products and tasting suggestions!
Sal and his team did a great job for and with us. We are very thankful to them. We also thank Jean-Noel Fourmeaux du Sartel, our great friend who has been my mentor in this new venture, with a great patience, sharing his passion with his heart and a great generosity. Jean-Noel is the owner of Chateau Potelle, established in Napa Valley for over 30 years. His wines are beautiful and we encourage you to visit his tasting house in St Helena. Without him and his inspiration, his direction and support, this adventure would never have been possible.
About Sal, our wine-maker…
Salvador (Sal) Galvan fell in love with wine as a natural progression from his love for food, growing up working in his parent’s restaurant in Sacramento. Early on, he found the marriage of food and wine fascinating. He took a part-time job at a winery in 1998, to check-out the winery scene. It was there that he realized his true calling, and he decided to cease his political science studies to focus on wine. Soon thereafter he landed a cellar position at Pine ridge winery in Stag’s Leap, followed by a position as Assistant Cellar Master at Darioush Winery. He then worked at Rosenblum Cellars as assistant Wine Maker, working under Kent Rosenblum, a mentor who encouraged him to explore his own winemaking. After several years there, Sal returned to Napa as Associate Wine Maker for Chateau Potelle Winery on Mt. Veeder. Sal worked under Jean-Noel and Marketta Fourmeaux du Sartel, pioneers in the wine industry from whom he learned an exceptional attention to detail in both the vineyard and the cellar. In 2007, Sal created Galvan Wine Services, a custom crush and wine consulting business based in Solano County’s Green Valley, and brought on Chateau Potelle as its first client. Vin de Blanche wines have all been crafted in Galvan Wine Services premises under Sal and Alain supervision.