Meet Janie Willheim: Paso Robles Winemaker
This interview has been edited for clarity and was featured in the May 17, 2023 issue of Merobebe.
Merobebe
If you could visit any wine region in the world, where would you go?
Janie Willheim
I'd love to visit Mosel Valley. Visiting the riesling Mecca of the world would be pretty incredible – to see their vineyards planted next to breathtaking rivers and castles.
Merobebe
What's your favorite non-wine drink?
Janie Willheim
My favorite non-wine drink is for sure a Naked & Famous cocktail. I love a good mezcal drink!
Merobebe
If you could only bring one (bottomless) bottle of wine to a deserted island, what would it be?
Janie Willheim
If I could bring one bottomless bottle of wine to a deserted island, I'd bring a Grand Cru Champagne or Trimbach Riesling... that's two different wines but it's too difficult for me to choose!
Merobebe
What first interested you in wine, and what was the catalyst in finally making the switch from working in hospitality to making your own wine?
Janie Willheim
As a teenager, I was intrigued by the amount of varied creative paths that you can choose in the world of wine, leading me to choose Wine & Viticulture as my major at Cal Poly SLO even though I had no idea what I was going to do with that degree.
After a couple years of schooling, I still was not totally sold on going into the wine industry as a career, and more just enjoyed the idea of learning about it. Then I worked my first harvest in 2014 and got my hands dirty, and did all the vineyard sampling, and played with juice fermentations, and discovered how much I enjoyed manual labor and the processes of winemaking.
I have worked a couple different hospitality and restaurant jobs to dip my toes in different sides of the industry and to have the opportunity to get in touch with more of the international wine scenes outside our CA wine bubble. At this point, I have no intentions of wanting to have my own winery because I love having my own small wine label on the side to fulfill my creative desires.
Merobebe
What excites you the most about the wine you’re making?
Janie Willheim
The basis was my excitement to create rieslings that change the California narrative that riesling only makes sweet wine – how wrong that is! I was up to the challenge of opening up people's minds and palates to the concept that rieslings can also be made in a dry, complexly beautiful style, like in Alsace or Germany where there's a wide spectrum of rieslings being produced.
I worked an eight month stint at a three Michelin star restaurant called Manresa in the Bay Area where one of the master sommeliers introduced me to world class wines, including famous riesling producers, that blew my mind! That's when I got the idea stuck in my head. If I were to ever make my own wines one day, I absolutely had to make rieslings.
I knew I needed to differentiate myself in the California market where there's now close to 4,400 wineries. I enjoy working with unique varieties like Valdiguie and Counoise which - when grown right and treated with enough love - make delicious wines and can help promote biodiversity in the fields. I also enjoy learning about grapes' intriguing backstories and histories in other countries, and how they found themselves in California.
Merobebe
Winemaking is such a complex and involved process. What are some of your favorite parts of winemaking?
Janie Willheim
By far my favorite part of the process is sherpaing along juice fermentations into wines by checking up on them everyday and giving the liquids daily movement in ways like punch downs or stirring. The wonderful, fruity smells and tastes of the fermentations blow me away by the time harvest rolls around each year and is something I always look forward to. It makes the long hours at the sorting table, aching muscles from the cellar work, and the expensive costs of winemaking all so, so, so rewarding.
As well as seeing people enjoy the wines you make! That's a pretty great feeling too.
Merobebe
In your experience, do you think there are any biases or stereotypes that influence the way customers perceive or interact with female winemakers/sommeliers compared to men?
Janie Willheim
I can only speak on behalf of my own lived experiences, but I feel lucky to have entered the industry at a time when there have already been a lot of other women that did a hell of a lot of leg work to open the door for more female winemakers/cellar workers to be taken seriously. I'm happy to say that I've received amazing support from most of the winemakers and vineyard managers that I've worked with.
The glaring lack of diversity that exists in the world of wine is the real issue at hand. It’s time to make wine more accessible for all different types of people and not just the white, wealthy elite. Nancy Gonzales who makes Ulloa Cellars in Paso [Robles] started her wine label the same time as me in 2019, and was shockingly the first self-identified Latina winemaker in our region. The way I've seen our community elevate Nancy and her amazing wines speaks highly of her hard work, and I hope to see a lot more of this for others.
Merobebe
What makes Paso Robles such a great location to make wine?
Janie Willheim
Paso was the place I wanted to settle into because of the genuine feeling of community over competition that exists. Everyone loves to recommend each other's wineries because there's so much love and appreciation for each others' craft.
I'm especially grateful for the family of winemakers that I've found myself in. I work full-time at Desparada Wines under Vailia From (the owner/winemaker) who is married to Russell From (owner/winemaker of Herman Story.) The two of them have inadvertently created an incubation space for their employees to create their own wines, which allowed me the opportunity to start making wine at Desparada where they're still made. Since I didn't have millions of dollars to start with, this setup allows me to make small batches of wines in a way that feels fun and exciting without the intense burden of being forever indebted to loans.
Merobebe
Anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up?
Janie Willheim
I've learned that there's a good amount of wine drinkers that, like me, care about the negative impact of the wine industry on our environment. It’s caused me to only work with vineyards that care about regenerative farming. For the sake of the wine industry and humanity itself, it's time for all business owners to step up if they haven't already and do whatever they can to find sustainable solutions. It will allow people to be able to continue producing and drinking wine without using large amounts of water in the cellar & vineyard, or using harsh pesticides/fungicides/insecticides that are killing our bee & other insect populations, and the awful effects of mono farming on our soils and ecosystems. The more biodiversity, the better!
Merobebe
Where can people learn more about your wines?
Janie Willheim
Feel free to follow me on Instagram at @janiewillheimwines – where I don't post often – or just come visit me at Desparada winery in Tin City [in Paso Robles] where I work full time! I sell my wines there and through my distributor Amy Atwood Selections who places them in different wine shops & restaurants around California.