When we met Angela in 2016, her reputation as a winemaker preceded her. Andy must have had an intuition that we would hit it off because he said as we walked to our kitchen, “Now don’t offer her a job in the first ten minutes!” Oops! Angela not only “got it”, she embodied the heart and soul of this new wine project. We are very different people and yet we have so much in common - not the least of which is our desire to make great wine, and three boys, hers still small, mine all grown up. I spend a fair amount of time with Angela in a lab or cellar or vineyard. But my favorite time spent is over a coffee and a good gab. Here’s a peek.
Kim Busch: Tell us about where you grew up.
Angela Osborne: I grew up on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand.
KB: Did you always want to get into wine or did you have another dream?
AO: Mmmm. I always wanted to be a perfume maker, then when I realised the amount of white-coat-work required, my interest turned to film! I studied to be a documentary filmmaker, and worked in a wine shop in college (University of Auckland).
KB: What first sparked your interest in wine?
AO: I did a gap year in Germany between high school and college, and lived with a gorgeous Greek/East German family where wine was a rare but treasured symbol of celebration. I returned to New Zealand and got a job in Auckland’s best wine shop, maybe because I could perfectly pronounce “Gewurztraminer”. I quickly fell in love with the storytelling aspect of wine, which has held foundational resonance ever since.
KB: What landed you in Santa Barbara County?
AO: After my first harvest in 2002, I did a road trip up to stay at Melville in the Santa Rita Hills. The incredible beauty of driving up and over the pass (154) imprinted forever. When I was applying for harvest jobs in 2007, I was looking for a winery that focussed on both biodynamics and Grenache, and Beckman offered both! (And intern housing in Los Olivos).
KB: How would you describe your philosophy as a winemaker?
AO: Feet-on, heart-led! Intuition first, coupled with an equal dose of flexibility and patience.
KB: How did you happen to devote your life’s work to the Grenache grape?
AO: I officially met Grenache during my first harvest in Sonoma County in 2002. I was fresh out of film school, and took a harvest job at the behest of a wonderful local winemaker whose wine we sold a lot of at the wine shop I was then managing. That was pre-Lord of the Rings days, and our film industry was teensy, so Brent Marris suggested I do a harvest before taking a job as a runner on a film set (the only way in, then…). He connected me with Nick Goldschmidt, a Kiwi winemaker at the head of Simi in Healdsburg, and I came up for a three month harvest gig. I vividly recall my Mum driving me to the Auckland airport, saying she had a strong feeling that I was going to be gone for a long time. “Don’t be silly, Mum, I’ll be back in three months”. That was 24 years ago! About two thirds of the way through that harvest, Nick took us two Kiwi interns to a friend’s winery after sampling one day in Dry Creek Valley. The winery was called Unti Vineyards, and it apparently represented how “the other 1% make wine”. (Simi’s annual production was around 2,000,000 cases then; Unti’s was 5,000 cases).
At Unti, George (Unti) poured me my first ever taste of Grenache. At that moment my world flipped on its axis. I realised I wanted to make wine, not film, and specifically, this wine.
KB: Tell us about your own label, A Tribute to Grace.
AO: I started my own label in 2007, named for my grandmother Grace, and my favourite attribute, and devoted to my favourite grape. Clearly a personal journey, my intention was to make a Grenache that showcased all of the beauty that had stolen my heart five years earlier: single vineyard, single varietal, and made in a way that slowed the whole world down.
KB: It’s been 10 years since you came on with Folded Hills. Tell us about that first meeting for the Folded Hills project.
AO: Oh, I smile slowly at that wonderful memory! Pete Stolpman had called me with a suggestion that I speak with a family looking to get into the wine business, and by the time we had arranged to meet, I had the very fresh news that we were expecting our second child. So - my intuition was very heightened when I walked into their kitchen. First impressions have always guided me, and those were warmth and honesty (to me, the foundation of family), and the most beautiful copper kitchen table I’d ever sat on (copper has long been my favourite element). Instant kin.
KB: What do you love about the Folded Hills site?
AO: It bears the same open-sky magic that first imprinted back in 2002, but this time ever so close to the Pacific - which is my sacred place that connects me to my homeland. The proximity to the ocean gifts a moderating effect to the degree days, whilst keeping the energy fresh and vibrant. And the surrounding hills have a nurturing effect much like a cuddle.
KB: You may be known for your Grenaches, but your white wines are just phenomenal. How long had it been since you had made a white?
AO: I started making whites as an assistant winemaker years ago, but in Ojai we only made Viognier, and in northern California it was all Chardonnay, all day… Fast forward to living in the Santa Ynez Valley (we moved here from Napa in 2012) and high-acid whites are truly a vital ingredient to living well! Much like g&t in India, I’m sure…
It was Folded Hills where I was able to fulfill my Grenache-Blanc-making dreams, and eventually my Grenache Blanc / Clairette Blanche dream-of-dreams, and I went on to source Grenache Blanc for my own label in 2018 (from Thompson Vineyard).
KB: What has it been like being a woman in a male-dominated industry?
AO: I’ve been asked that a lot. Coming to the US from a culture like New Zealand, I was fairly flummoxed to be told I couldn’t _____ (fill in the blank with soooo many verbs) when I applied for jobs, asked for certain tasks when I persevered enough to get the job, or requested to have my responsibilities increase once I’d finished the task I was finally allowed to do. I’m sure the intention was to firmly discourage any further requests, but for a young woman raised by a solo mother in the first country that gave women the vote, it was much like waving a red flag to a bull. Determination moved from something I was raised with, to something that I started with, and whilst I did eventually land my dream job(s), I chose to work for myself when it was time to start our family. The challenges of being a woman and a working mum in this industry are their own chapter!
KB: Do you have any stories you would like to share?
AO: That would be from a fateful Saturday in March 2007, at my first wine retail job in San Diego. After that first harvest in Healdsburg, I decided that if I wanted to make wine, I needed to know how to sell wine (definite strike of 24-year-old genius, that one!). So I moved to the biggest wine market in the world at that point (London), and sold wine for three years… In 2006 I moved to San Diego where my Dad lived, and worked at the WineSellar & Brasserie by day, and a wine bar called Tastes of Encinitas by night - and saved all my tips to start grace (in a box I called the gracechest). The Brasserie was upstairs from the store, and on Saturdays there was a pretty legendary lunch service where many of the wine storage clients (lockers filled the back half of the retail store) pulled out special bottles. I was quietly restocking the Burgundy section when a particular client walked down the stairs with a wine glass and handed it to me. He knew I loved Grenache, and said “see what you think” before disappearing back to his lunch. It was just a tasting pour, but the vibrancy was immediately evident, and when I swirled and sniffed, I immediately wanted to do a yoga class. I’ve never been to India, but all of my favourite aromatics stem from that continent, along with Ayurveda, my favorite foods, my favourite flowers, yoga…And then I tasted. I had found my north star.
And I did find a yoga class that afternoon, the only time I’ve ever sandwiched a Bikram class between two shifts. At the magical vortex of Swami’s, no less…
KB: What qualities do you think you bring to the cellar that maybe are unique to you as a winemaker?
AO: I think the above story might define that best! Always open, forever flexible, and above all, led by heart.
KB: What is your holy grail wine, your money-is-no-object wine? Why?
AO: That would be the wine that inspired the yoga class - and everything that defines what I love about Grenache: Château Rayas.
KB: What is your favorite wine making task? Least favorite?
AO: My favourite is foot-treading whole cluster Grenache! My least favourite is Excel.
KB: Who are your favorite winemaking interns?
AO: Lug it Lulu and Punchdown Pete! My dear Mum and Stepdad, who have been introducing themselves as the oldest interns in CA since 2013. My dear Mum is boss of all things lugging: grape samples, hoses, to-go-coffees, taking our boys to their endless afterschool sports trainings… Pete is King of the punchdowns. Meticulous in his approach, always asking what’s needed next, and the best at reminding me when it’s time for “smoko” (morning tea, in Kiwi) (I’m notorious for never taking a break). They put the family in our family business, and help our children learn the true definition of whānau (family in our native language) by doing: showing up, smiling, and being ready to do it all again the next day. Times three months, times thirteen years. I’m definitely getting them a harvest t-shirt this year…
KB: If every bottle of Angela Osborne wine tells a story, what do you hope people will take away from drinking one of your bottles?
AO: To always see the marvelously wonderful in the everyday. To take time for stillness, for conversation, for phones to be hidden in a drawer, for favourite records to be played, for curiosity, and always, for laughter.
Lightning Round
Favorite coffee - order and place? Oat milk flat white at Queen Cup (Los Olivos)
Sunrise or Sunset? Sunset. Over the Pacific.
Favorite American sport? Baseball
Favorite book, movie? The Bone People, by Keri Hulme. My favourite film is Como Aqua Para Chocolate (in Spanish)
Mountains or ocean? Ocean
Favorite vineyard or wine region in the world? Perfectly tied between the Santa Ynez Valley and the Upper Moutere (Nelson, New Zealand).
Favorite pairing combo? Whole-cluster Grenache with Tajine.
Outside of wine what brings you the most joy? My family
Cheers!
Kim Busch
