Kids as the reason, not the excuse

A case for "doing it all" as evidenced by Santa Cruz wine legend, Kathryn Kennedy

Welcome to December, my dears. If you’re reading this, you successfully made it through the first Monday of the month. I happen to love this month for many reasons, including but not limited to: a seasonal shift, a symbolic ending thus obligatory reflection, and my birthday! As an already deeply emotional person, I reflect on my life in gratitude often, but December tends to put that practice into overdrive. Last week, I sat down by my fireplace after a long day and started to reflect on the past 5 years of my life, or as I lovingly refer to them, the awkward phase of my adulthood (ages 21-26).

“Your life will be over when you have kids”, someone close to me forebode when I decided to get married at 23. Of course, this warning didn’t stop me and now I am 26 with an awesome husband, two beautiful babies, and a promising start to my career. Most of my readers are not in their twenties, so I fear many of you are cringing at the thought of “settling down” that early. I’m happy to inform you that from what I can tell, it is exactly what I needed, as becoming a mom has enlivened me with an energy to be the best version of myself that I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer for. Indeed, a slaying of the former self needs to occur during the metamorphosis into a parent, but my life has experienced an incredible expansion since welcoming my children into the world. My motivation and sense of self worth and purpose have undergone a growth that has been life changing. I’ve grown my career and aspirations tremendously in the past 3, even 5, years and more importantly I have grown in patience and my bond to the world. In college, I struggled to focus on my career path because I knew I wanted to be a mother and I didn’t know anyone who was able to do both 100%. Thanks to an increased emphasis on work-life balance and flexible working environments, I’ve found my way to “do it all” as far as being a full time parent and have a rewarding career, largely in part to the support and sacrifices of my incredible husband.

The weather has cooled and grayed significantly where I live in Michigan over the past week or so, and though I’ve been known to reach for a bone chilling, high acid white wine when its cold, sometimes something more luscious is desired. That was the case last Tuesday when the sun set behind the dense cloud cover around 5 pm and irregular spittings of rain splat on my windows. I got the kids to bed early and sat down by the crackling fire with a glass of 2019 Kathryn Kennedy ‘Small Lot’ Cabernet Sauvignon from a bottle I have been curious to open for some time.

Kathryn Kennedy was a brave leader and pioneering female in the American wine boom of the 1970s. After her divorce in 1965, she transformed her only asset, a small acreage of fallow in the Silicon Valley, into a vineyard of 3,300 Cabernet Sauvignon vines which she planted by hand after nurturing them from cuttings. Inspired by the revolutionary Californian wines of the 1950s, Kathryn’s idea was equally rooted in passion as it was necessity for her family. She honored her interests in wine and land conservation while recognizing she needed to build something that could support her and her children. The motivation of providing for your children resonated with me when I first heard her story, and I admire the authentic and courageous methods she took to do so while staying true to her personal interests.

“It was my effort, my gamble, my land, my money. If David Bruce and Martin Ray could do it, so could I.” Kathryn Kennedy on why she put her name on the bottle.

After selling her first two harvests to Mount Eden Vineyards, she started producing her own wine, birthing her eponymous label Kathryn Kennedy. Quickly, her Estate Cabernet Sauvignon became a benchmark of Santa Cruz wine and is still highly sought after 50 years on due to its high quality and low quantity produced per year (less than 600 cases). Before her death in 2009, Kathryn was completely devoted to preserving the land and winemaking heritage of Santa Cruz through natural farming, and her 8 acre vineyard has been certified organic by the CCOF since 2007. Her son Marty, who has served as Winemaker and President of Kathryn Kennedy Winery since 1981, carries on this legacy today.

The wine I enjoyed the other night is composed from a collection of extremely small lots (hence the name) of Cabernet Sauvignon grown by small and even residential growers on the east side of the Santa Cruz mountains that Marty has connected with throughout his time in the business. This wine is able to be sold at a small fraction of the cost of Kathryn Kennedy Estate Cabernet and is made in a more ready to drink style, contrasting the deeply structured, ageworthy estate wines. At first glance, I was pleasantly surprised by the choice to have the wine under a screw cap. For those who don’t know, screw caps are a more sustainable closure option than natural cork and also reduce the risk of cork taint which affects 3%-5% of all wine. Although used on a number of inexpensive and mass produced wines, the screw cap (Stelvin closure) is not an indicator of the wine quality within. As the global wine industry plans for the future, more and more producers are adopting this closure when appropriate.

Being a relatively young person in the wine community, it is almost embarrassing to write about California Cabernet; a category of wine that has dominated the American wine market for decades. If I ever had a cool-kid wine card, it would be shredded by the natty bros for its mere mention, despite the existence of a number of old school producers whose ethos very much align with the natural wine movement. Classic grapes grown in classic regions and made in classic styles don’t automatically indicate conventional viticulture and vinification methods were employed. The natural wine movement’s energy toward forgotten grapes and lesser known regions have inaccurately and unfortunately vilified the classics even when they align with the values that the movement endorses. We don’t have time now for all I’d like to say about this disconnect, but I’ll come back to this in a later letter. There is an extreme oversaturation though, for example when I type Cabernet Sauvignon into my order entry program at work 890 SKUs populate. So, why give it any more air time?

“The dotcom boom fuelled demand for limited-production, so-called cult Cabernets, so that for a time they sold like hot cakes via over-subscribed mailing lists. So ripe are many of these wines that they can be drunk on release and some taste so sweet and alcoholic that they can sometimes seem, to a palate raised on the more angular charms of red bordeaux, closer to hot chocolate than wine.” Wine Grapes (Robinson, Harding, Vouillamoz, 2012)

After doing some light research into Kathryn Kennedy, I found it astounding how little information there is online about the wines. For being a legendary producer among wine dorks, it is incredible how few articles can be found and the deliberate lack of social media presence was surprising. Maybe that explains why none of my buyers under 40 have any clue about the brand despite working in a severely Cabernet dominated market (not to mention a market saturated with buyers who deeply value sustainable, organic, estate wines). It made me wonder, am I missing something? Did some horrible venture capitalist buy the property and compromise the quality? (If so, please sound off in the comments.)

Many wine professionals that I interact with have a thinly veiled, broadly stroked bias against American wine (especially Cabernet), and you know what? I get it. Due to astronomical demand, some of the California producers that helped put American wine on the map have morphed into overpriced, industrialized junk. Carefully crafted marketing campaigns sell low quality wines of mysterious geographical origin for premium prices. These aren’t sins of the American wine industry alone; these are global tactics of capitalism. Lucky for us humans, we have a special knack for pattern recognition. This means when we witness the negative effects of industrialization on the quality and price of goods, those who give a damn have the power to change it.

Per my last email, I am making a conscious effort to reach domestically more often. There are copious numbers of vintners and winemakers in America who are concerned with responsible farming, terroir driven wines, and a fair price. They could be in the modern and experimental vein like Wild Arc Farms or classic and old school like Kathryn Kennedy.

Back to the wine… 2019 Kathryn Kennedy ‘Small Lot’ was luscious but fresh, classic yet surprising and the perfect compliment to my fireside unwind. It was true Cabernet, brambly and rich, strong green core, well integrated oak and firm alcohol content. These are all qualities that have worked to its detriment in gastronomic communities who favor a wine with less tannin and alcohol to match with an array of delicate food flavors. Yet, it was perfectly true to what I have learned about Santa Cruz wine through my coziness with the great wines of Ridge Vineyards. For me, there will always be a time and place for these rich, historic wines.

As I sat by my crackling fire, enjoying the wine, I felt connected to Kathryn; a mother, farmer, and legend whose grit and courage trasncends time and location. Drinking a wine that bears her name is inspiration to keep blazing on in the name of passion, legacy, and preservation of our beautiful world. A reminder that you can create your own destiny even when the framework of your dream doesn’t exist yet. Clear evidence that being a mother can be exactly the force you need to accomplish your personal goals. I can only hope to create something that my children can have to feel connected to me 50 years or more in the future.

‘til next time! <3