For Los Altos resident Kevin Lee, dedicating his winery to his wife was a no-brainer.
“If it wasn’t for my wife, I wouldn’t be able to do something that I totally love,” he said.
Lee quit his job in tech marketing in September to pursue his lifelong passion for wine. Each bottle of Marchelle wine is inspired by Lee’s family. The brand’s label, featuring a gnarly old vine, was designed by his daughter, a junior at Los Altos High School, and the name Marchelle is a fusion of the names of Lee’s wife, Michelle Wong, and his business partner Greg La Follette’s wife, Mara.
“It’s about love, passion and family,” Lee said. “Our love for our wives, our passion for winemaking and bringing the family together along with friends.”
Ironically, Wong is allergic to alcohol.
“I can only drink one glass, and that’s my limit,” Wong said.
While at first Wong wasn’t too thrilled about her husband quitting a stable, full-time job – especially with two kids still needing to be put through college – she quickly warmed up to it after realizing the impact Marchelle Wines could have.
“It’s an opportunity to come together and remind each other of why we’re all here, which is community, family and love, but it’s also an opportunity to really preserve California wine history,” Wong said. “Having two children, we want to be able to model for our children to follow your passion.”
A lifelong dream
Growing up in Silicon Valley, Lee’s goal was to “go as far away from tech as possible,” but after a year and a half in textbook publishing, he realized, comparatively, tech wasn’t so bad. But still, his passion lay elsewhere.
Lee’s interest in wine was “lifelong,” he said. His first memory of wine was Manischewitz, a sweet kosher wine that “literally tastes like grape juice.” His parents weren’t Jewish, but it was their wine of choice. In college, he’d opt for wine over beer at Greek parties. After graduating, he became friends with a co-worker extremely passionate about home winemaking.
“I thought it was better than anything that I’d tasted in college, and it opened my eyes to different varietals,” Lee said.
But it wasn’t until he met “legendary Sonoma winemaker” Greg La Follette at a dinner party that he realized he could turn his passion into something tangible, Lee said.
“That wine dinner with him about 15 years ago changed my whole perspective on wine,” Lee said. “And it was for me an epiphany, like an ‘aha moment.’”
La Follette began to teach Lee about winemaking, and from there, they became friends. About two and a half years ago, La Follette’s business partner at his winery decided to retire, so Lee stepped in, and the pair started Marchelle Wines.
La Follette’s previous partner took all of the finished wine product, and La Follette took all of the wine that was still in the barrel. This jump-started Machelle because it allowed them to bypass the 10-24 months it takes to go from grape to wine. Only six months after starting Marchelle, they bottled their first wine.
From vine to bottle
“We feel that wine is made in the vineyard first,” Lee said.
For example, Marchelle’s van der Kamp Vineyard Pinot Noir is made from grapes grown on a fully organic vineyard on Sonoma Mountain and farmed by the van der Kamp family, Lee said. Furthermore, Marchelle doesn’t inoculate its wines with a third-party yeast and only uses native wild yeast fermentations.
“We believe trying not to add any outside substance into the wine is better, even though it’s harder,” Lee said. “The ingredients in our wines are grapes, and that’s it.”
Marchelle Wines operates out of Ross Road Custom Crush, a custom crush facility in Sebastopol, alongside 10-15 other small boutique wineries. While they’ve owned a small Pinot Noir vineyard near Occidental the past three years, they won’t be able to use the grapes until next year because the grapes are currently under contract with another winery.
Lee’s favorite wine variety is Pinot Noir, particularly those from Sonoma because they’re “more nuanced and more ephemeral,” and pair better with food due to their lower alcohol percentage, he said.
Wong’s favorite white wine from Marchelle is the Lorenzo Chardonnay, which she often gives as a gift.
“Mara always says that the Lorenzo Chardonnay is like sex in a bottle, and I have to agree with her,” Wong said.
Marchelle Wines celebrated the launch of its first sparkling wine over the weekend at its shared tasting room in Calistoga. The Vault Calistoga features nine small boutique wineries, including Marchelle, according to the website.
Lee and Wong poured Marchelle Wines at last month’s Downtown Wine Stroll in Los Altos and are working on getting their wine at more restaurants and bottle shops throughout California. Select Marchelle wines are available for purchase at Draeger’s in downtown Los Altos.
For more information, visit marchellewines.com.
