Sally Blum is a winemaker who crafts ultra premium wines for small, family-owned wineries, including McEvoy Ranch and several others, with vineyards in a total of 23 AVAs, from Anderson Valley to the Yakima Valley.
She is also a partner in two brands: Stereograph, produced with her husband, Max Blum, and Abloom, which she produces with winemakers Molly Hill and Ashley Hepworth.
Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?
Sally Blum: I come from a family of scientists and was headed down that path as a college student majoring in biology, but it didn’t feel right. During a study abroad program in France … I fell in love with wine culture. I found the connection to the seasons, nature and food very inspiring. I changed course and went to graduate school to study winemaking at UC Davis, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.
My “unicorn wine” was a bottle of 1989 Chateau Clinet that was gifted to me by my Uncle Jim, a wine lover and wine mentor to me. When I started grad school at UC Davis, he gave me a case of 1980’s Bordeaux wines. At the time, I had no idea how special these wines were.
I took the bottle of Chateau Clinet to a party at my friend Maya Olds’ winery, Sky Vineyards, and it blew us all away. There were people at the party who knew much more about wine than I did at the time, and they gently explained to me that this wine had received a perfect 100-point score from Robert Parker and was the breakout vintage from Chateau Clinet, the wine that put them on the map as a great producer.
What is your favorite thing to drink at home?
I think wine is like music. If you love it, you want to try a little bit of everything and experience a wide variety of styles… I’ve spent the majority of my career in the Napa Valley, and I think that Napa cabernet is one of the world’s great expressions of terroir. But after a long day blending big red wines, I love a glass of an aromatic white variety.
Where do you like to go out for a drink?
In addition to making wine, I’m a busy mom of teens, and for that reason I don’t get a whole lot of time to go out. But some of my favorite spots include the Rutherford Grill and Compline in Napa, Emporio Rulli in Larkspur, Bird & The Bottle in Santa Rosa and Passatempo Taverna in Walla Walla. My local hangout is Ausiello’s Homeslice in Santa Rosa.
If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you want to be drinking (besides fresh water)?
I think aromatic whites would be the best match for island life, so I’d definitely take plenty of McEvoy Ranch whites and their chillable red.
McEvoy Ranch,5935 Red Hill Rd., Petaluma, 707.778.2307, mcevoyranch.com.
