Do you remember your first crush? Laely does, but she’s more likely to tell you about the boy she sat behind in fifth grade math class than that day in 1995 when she made her first wine.  

She doesn’t spout the technical talk. She talks about the feelings and passion she has for wine and life itself. But she can afford to be happy. She just got back from a trip to Bali, where she relaxed and toured local vineyards. I’ve never wanted to be a woman before, but I did after chatting with Laely. Not just any woman, I wanted to be Laely Heron, one of the world’s top female winemakers.  

I’m only emphasizing the gender issue because Ms. Heron does. She’s proud that 10 years ago she was among a handful of women who started a wine company from scratch. But she’s very modest, too. She say’s she got into the wine business almost by accident.   

A Winemaker is Born  

That fortunate accident started 41 years ago. Her parents were young when she came along. Her father was a mining engineer, and when Laely was nine they started a world tour. Her parents weren’t wine drinkers, although she remembers a jug of Almaden Mountain Rhine in the fridge and leisurely Sunday afternoon dinners with wine when they lived in Algeria. But she credits her parents with providing her with an insatiable curiosity and determination that helped her go from producing 500 cases of wine in 1995 to 60,000 today.   

World traveler Laely attended the University of Colorado and spent her junior year in Bordeaux at the Institute of Enology (Grape School). There she discovered her love for great wine. Laely worked for Lindemans Wines and ran a restaurant in Copenhagen. In 1995 she returned to the U.S., broke and looking for a job. Over lunch in a San Francisco restaurant she asked a friend in the wine industry for work. He said "no, start your own business." Anticipating the trend in Merlot, she headed to France.   

In the tiny appellation of Saint-Chinian in Languedoc-Roussillon she met up with two vineyard owners who loaned her enough grapes to make her Merlot. It was pretty with cherry fruit and a touch of strawberries, but it had structure and backbone, like a sturdy French farmer’s wife just the thing to nose it ahead of the flood of Kool-Aid Merlots hitting the market.   

Today, Laely makes seven wines. She doesn’t have her own winery. Instead she’s what’s termed an Alternating Proprietor winery. She’s legally bonded as a winery, but sublets space in southern Napa Valley from another winery. She’s also a negociant, since she buys her grapes. But she always makes her own wine: The original French Merlot, a Californian Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and a Chardonnay. This summer she brings out a wine from Terra Alta, an up-and-coming wine region located in Spain’s northeast, next the red hot Priorat region.   

I tasted the Chardonnay and was delighted. It was very much like a French Macon-Villages or even a Saint-Veran, but a bit more substantial. And at $9.99 there’s a big, big difference in price. It had a bit of cream, a touch of nutmeg, and some lemon and green olive fruit flavors. No wonder Heron wines are catching on. Very few wines deliver as much for this price. I was enchanted with what she termed a "judicious" use of oak. Laely gets her French oak barrels from a guy she calls a "cooperage freak." He recently purchased a stand of timber in the Forest of Trouncer, which is first growth. He thinks it makes for a tighter, more gnarled grain.  

Great Wine Experiences  

Laely told me about two great wine experiences in her life. One was three years ago when she got a phone call from the head sommelier for the Four Seasons hotel chain. Her Cabernet Sauvignon had placed in the top 10 out of almost 1,000 other Cabs in a blind tasting done by a panel of 12 wine experts.   

The second was when she was 20, in Amsterdam. She was on a date with a "cute guy who was a bit of a twit." It was at an elegant Asian restaurant. He handed the wine list to Laely and told her "pick anything you want." She guiltily chose a 1953 Chateau Margaux, a Cab, Merlot, and Petit Verdot/Cabernet Franc blend. Today, the wine costs $615.51 retail and it’s $2,520 at Charlie Trotter’s Restaurant in Chicago. She doesn’t remember his name, what she ate, or the price of the wine, but she can still taste that first sip.  

"Complex, velvety, with flavors that intermingled licorice, hay, tobacco smoke, and fruit," she recalls. "The texture was fascinating, thin then thick. It was wonderful."   

As I write this I can still feel her passion and awe for that exquisite vintage of Chateau Margaux'a passion and awe she puts into her wines, only they’re more affordable. Yes, I still want to be Laely Heron, but even more than thatI want to go out with that twit from Amsterdam.