Mother-Daughter Winemaking Teams
Jacqueline (left) and Patti (right) the mother-daughter team of Ojai Pacific View vineyard and winery.
Vero focuses on small wine and olive oil producers, of which most of them are family run. So, it’s not a big surprise that we have some mother-daughter teams which are part of the Vero producer community. In this article we are highlighting two of them, which lie on different sides of the world:
Ojai Pacific View Vineyard and Winery in Southern California and
Vigna Petrussa estate winery in Fruili, northeastern Italy.
Let’s hear their stories!
In our first team, Patti (mother) and Jacqueline (daughter) own Ojai Pacific View, a vineyard and winery that grows Dolcetto grapes. Their California wine Dolcetto has won multiple awards across vintages, including Best in Class and a Double Gold Medal for their 2020 vintage. Patti lives in Southern California, and her daughter Jacqueline has lived in Piedmont in Northern Italy, a mecca for wine lovers, for over 10 years. When Jacqueline is not helping her mother with tasting wine, she first worked for over 10 years as a chef in a local Piedmontese restaurant, and now is a certified sommelier and a Vero Collaborator. Jacqueline and Patti have worked with Vero before in many VeroTalks, such as THIS one where Patti was live from her winery and Jacqueline live in Piedmont, Italy cooking up some of her favorite recipes from the restaurant.
Francesca (left) and Hilde (right), the mother-daughter team behind Vigna Petrussa
Our second mother-daughter duo crafting Italian wine, are Hilde Petrussa and her daughter Francesca of Vigna Petrussa estate winery in Friuli, Italy. When Hilde retired at 50 from teaching she took over the vineyards and Italian winery from her own mom. Francesca represents the third generation of women to look over this estate. In the US for less than only a few years, first imported by Vero, they have been lauded with great reviews and all wines getting 90+ point scores, such as when Italian wine critic Ian D’Agata citing Vigna Petrussa as ‘one of Italy’s best and most under the radar estates’. These mulitple awards and recognitions are a testament to their hard work in the vineyards and handcrafting their wines with passion, creativity and lots of motherly care. One can truly say with Vigna Petrussa that wine is in the blood of the Petrussa women.
The inside scoop of working with mom and daughter
We talked with both mother-daughter teams about what is it really like to work together. We wanted to know the ups and downs, and the joys that can come with sharing not only personal relationships, but also business interests between mothers and daughters.
Pour yourself a glass of Pacific View Dolcetto or Vigna Petrussa Refosco and read on to see what Patti, Jacqueline, Hilde, and Francesca have to say.
How did you wind up working together? When did you start?
Patti: I wanted to plant vineyard on our ranch in 2011. At the time, Jacqueline was attending a local university in California and still a large part of daily life on the ranch, so she was naturally a part of the decision making in the initial founding of Ojai Pacific View.
Jacqui: Yes, while in school I was working with my father building the irrigation and rainwater systems. Also having an interest in wine, I enjoyed helping Mom consider varieties that we could grow. During all this work and school, I had started cooking and baking as a stress relief. One evening I found a bottle of what we called ‘test wine’ that had been opened, and decided to use it to experiment a little in the kitchen; thus, was born the ‘wine candy’ part of my mom and I’s business relationship. Mom really liked what came out of that evening experiment and decided to create what was The Wine Candy Company.
Francesca: My mother and I started to work together a few years ago. Initially, I started to help out and just lend a hand to my mother during conferences and wine events, especially the international ones. Little by little, I started to help with all aspects of the business.
How do you both divide responsibilities?
Patti: Who does what is a question that depends on who is where! With Jacqueline living and working in Italy, we have had to build a unique rhythm that ebbs and flows depending on who is in what country. This was even further upended last year; since Covid started, Jacqueline hasn’t been able to travel home at all.
Jacqueline: I used to be the ‘bureaucracy’ person, but now Mom looks after a lot more of that with my just playing a ‘moral support’ type role. In the past, when I would pick the days I would be home in California, we would set up a lot of appointments for whatever needed to be done at the time. More recently, since Covid, there have been lots of Zoom meetings. I also call Mom daily too just to talk.
Hilde: I watch over and manage the wine production, both in the vineyards and cellar, while my daughter works mainly in the business side of things.
Francesca: Yes, I mainly do the business activities such as participating in online events (tastings, conferences, B2B). I also do the marketing for everything.
What’s it like to work with your mother/daughter? What’s the best part? What can be difficult about it?
Patti: The best part is how Jacqueline and I balance each other well, plus, it’s nice to know you can always trust your business partner. A difficult part is that being separated across continents has been doubly difficult: I haven’t been able to see my business partner, and more painfully my daughter. It’s a double emotional whammy.
Jacqueline: For me, I consider all the time we get to spend together a huge blessing of our businesses; it allows me to spend a lot of extra time with my mom when I otherwise might not be able to. A difficult part for me is when disagreements arise; sometimes as a daughter, it can be difficult to drive my point home and still feel I am maintaining parental respect.
Hilde: Our favorite aspect of working together is that we both have two different point of views. We both have different visions coming from our different ages and experiences and that puts a different light on our business.
Francesca: Negative aspects? I don’t think there are any. Maybe sometimes is can be tricky to blend new ideas with old traditions, but I feel very lucky that my mother is always open to hear new ideas.
How do you differentiate your ‘free time’ and ‘business time’ in your relationship? Does ‘business’ ever spill over into mother-daughter time? How do you manage that?
Patti and Jacqueline: It’s nice to be able to spend business time doing ‘fun’ things, like wine tasting or cooking, but everything tends to bleed together, and eventually even our daily calls end up dealing with business too.
Hilde: Our conversations, even those personal ones, always end up about business. There really isn’t a hard line between work and family.
Francesca: In this moment there are a lot of changes in not only the wine market but also in the business, there is always something to discuss and talk about. This can make it harder to draw the line.
What’s your favorite memory or story of working together?
Jacqueline: I really treasure the memories of Mom and I tasting our way around Northern Italy in those early years when we were picking out the grape to plant. We went to so many different wineries and restaurants and really had so much fun… but really just the fact that we have an ‘excuse’ to travel together is pretty great.
Patti: My favorite memory comes actually from one of our businesses, The Wine Candy Company’s, early stages. Jacqueline and I did a ‘candy tasting’ to try out several of Jacqueline’s candy recipes and trials to figure out which we liked best. The only problem was, Jacqueline had not yet figured out how to cook all the alcohol out of the candies! After a few hours of tasting and tasting, we starting laughing and came to the realization that we were actually drunk! After that, Jacqueline tweaked her cooking times and temperatures to make sure she cooked out all the alcohol.
Francesca: I think that my best memories are created when we get to travel together. When we get to go to events and conferences we take an opportunity to cut out a few moments to relax and explore new cities and restaurants.
Hilde: I agree completely, our best memories working together is when we travel, but, most importantly, the joy we share from having a common vision and then making that dream happen!
Taste the Wines of Ojai Pacific View and Vigna Petrussa, and other Women Owned Wineries
For those of you that know our curation style, you know that we love to support small producers, like these two women owned wineries, and bring you unique fun wines. Whatever it may be, we just love to search them out. And you can enjoy these curations by trying a selection of different wines and different winegrowers from our portfolio. We sell to both businesses and consumers across the US:
We are enlarging our network of distributors around the country. Reach out to us if you are interested in distributing our wines.
We sell to wine stores and restaurants in certain states - contact us if you would like more info.
We do corporate gifts and sommelier guided wine tastings. Email us and we’ll tailor unique and sustainable corporate gift ideas.
If our farm crafted wines and olive oils are not in your local shop or restaurant, you can buy wine online here in our VeroShop, and we’ll ship it to you, including wine gifts, and we ship to most states. Want some sort of mother daughter holiday ideas for gifts? Then try some wines from these mother-daughter teams, Ojai Pacific View and Vigna Petrussa, or even other Women Owned Wineries, with our Women Winemakers Red Wine Collection. Buy this set today that has shipping included and free shipping for any wine or olive oil added on to the order.
We also have an award winning wine club for true wine explorers that are seeking to continually discover unique, sustainable and authentic small production wines they never had. These are wines selected by our sommeliers and curated for each box.
This rare find, small production Dolcetto grown from a one acre single vineyard in Ojai, California. This 2017 california Italian wine is Ojai Pacific View's inaugural vintage. This wine has aromas of fresh plums, notable acidity to balance out the fruitiness and rustic tannins.
This mother-daughter winery keep hitting home runs with their ‘experimental’ one acre vineyard of dolcetto on a mountaintop in upper Ojai, California, which started with an idea they brought back with them from Piedmont Italy over 10 years ago. Their super small production Dolcetto experiment is a success, backed up with back-to-back gold medals on their 2019, 2020 and 2021 vintages, and then winning Double Gold and Best of Class in the International Womens Winemakers competition.
The 2020 vintage produced only 23 cases and was aged for over a year in neutral oak. It is fresh and juicy with rich wild berry cassis-like taste. It's an approachable yet complex with a mineral-saline finish. And now, coming off of their wins in 2019 and 2020, Ojai Pacific View has now released the latest edition of their California Dolcetto, the 2021 vintage.
Overall, the wine is a dark purple color, the nose is complex with a mix of plum, herbs, flint and vanilla spice. The fruit and terroir of this old world new world dolcetto red wine that really stands out, thanks to the high altitude and marine fossil soil of this wine estate in upper Ojai.
Here is what other sommeliers are saying about this wine:
Sommelier Marc R. Kauffman:
“Fine wine from Southern California! Italian varietals have been attempted in California with some successes and some not so good examples over the years. The 2019 California Dolcetto from Pacific View Vineyard and Winery is a stunning success! Darkly brooding in the glass, aromas of cedar, spice and vanilla offer a promise of seriously complex wine. Dark cherry and blackberry flavors mingle and dance in your mouth. The tannins are smoothly integrated, and the finish is so smooth I did not want it to end! Harmonious is the one word I would use to describe this wine. This is the third vintage from a very small plot of Dolcetto grapes growing high above the Pacific Ocean in a secluded spot north of Los Angeles. Available only in limited quantities direct to consumer or to a few select restaurants it is well worth the effort to search it out.”
The Dolcetto red wine, hailing originally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte, is a juicy wine with a ripe acidity and flavors of plums. Ojai Pacific View, located on a mountaintop in California, has a unique position that allows great expression of their terroir to shine through in their Dolcetto.
In this Vertical Flight Tasting Duo, you can compare and contrast two vintages from the Ojai Pacific View vineyards in the 2020 and 2021 vintages. Shipping is also included in the Continental US for orders containing a VeroSet.
Ojai Pacific View and their Dolcetto have been awarded numerous gold medals, including a double gold and best of class, across multiple vintages.
Included in this box will be:
Crafted as a blend of native white varieties from Friuli, all 3, Friulano, Malvasia and Picolit are vinified separately in french oak barrels for 18 months before assemblage and then further aging in bottle for 6 months. This is an age-worthy, complex and intense white wine with aromas of chamomile, tangerine, mango and jasmine and exotic fruit taste, oily richness and long finish, as one would expect from this highly crafted white wine blend from Friuli.
Author Linda Milk’s tasting notes: “When we poured it into our glasses, the rich golden color made us think this would be a very flavorful white wine. We tasted lots of apricot and felt a velvety sensation on our tongue.”
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
Straw yellow with bright green hues, lingering and vibrant bouquet recalling white peach, sage and tomato leaf. Ian D'Agata who cites Vigna Petrussa as ‘one of the best estates in Italy’ describes this wine as ' a less overtly green Sauvignon Blanc than most people are accustomed too, but offers plenty of refinement and sneaky concentration.'
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
This blend of cabernet franc, merlot and pinot noir has a ruby red color with intriguing notes of a vanilla spice blueberry pie. On the palette, the dark fruit persists along with freshness, delicate tannins and an elegant, saline finish. Aged in oak barrels for 24 months.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery
This is an unoaked Schioppettino from a women owned winery who spearheaded the rebirth of Schioppettino in the 'birthplace' of the grape which is Prepotto, Fruili. Having a deep purple-garnet color, it has notes of black pepper and dark fruit. Its taste is tangy, fresh and juicy with a long clean finish. Pairs with many dishes from hamburgers to roast pork. World renowned wine critic, Ian D’Agata calls this Schioppettino a ‘very pretty wine’ and named it a 'Best Buy Italian Wine'.
Some fun facts about this wine:
Vigna Petrussa also calls this wine ‘RiNera’, or a nickname for ‘Ribolla Nera’, local term given to the wine.
The grapes actually come from Prepotto but since it is not aged in oak the winery is not 'allowed' to put Prepotto on the label.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
Prepotto is the birthplace of the hard-to-find Schioppettino varietal. It gets its name from the Italian 'schioppare' or to burst, since the grape 'bursts' in your mouth when you eat it. Aromas and tastes of black pepper and plums. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged for two to two and a half years in oak barriques. Strong cheese lovers love to indulge in this wine.
Gold Medal Decanter, plus many other awards. Vigna Petrussa's oak-aged 2019 Schioppettino won the prestigious 3 Bicchieri Award by Gambero Rosso.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
This limited production wine from the birthplace of the Schioppettino varietal is made only in the best years with carefully selected fruit from which Hilde Petrussa makes her own Pied de Cuve native wild yeast. Aged in tonneau for 36 months then 6 months in the bottle. It has a complex nose ranging from black pepper to dark berry compote, allspice and some wild animal fur. Due to its well balanced acidity, tannins and smooth taste, it is a great midway for both Pinot and Cab lovers.
This wine was awarded
a Silver Medal by Decanter
Top Italian Wine in the Go Wine Cantine d'Italia 2024 Guide
90 points by 5starwines
4 crowns by 'Vini Buoni Italiani'
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
Light fragrance recalling sweet acacia honey and dried fruits. This nectar is made from hand selected grapes, dried in crates and refined in French oak barrique. This is produced in a limited run of only 1000 bottles per year.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
This is Schioppettino red wine is made only in the best years and is made with 100% air dried grapes, or apassimento, like Amarone. It is a rich red natural wine with concentrated flavors made with native yeast fermentation. A delicious 'meditation wine,' its slight sweetness makes it an Italian 'sweet wine' alternative for Port. Pairs incredibly well with dark chocolate. Or you can pair it with flavorful meat dishes, like wild boar.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
“Run, don’t walk to find and grab this bottle. It is a prime example of the harmony and complexity this style of wine is capable of expressing” is how VinePair describes this wine in their list of 13 of the Best Sweet Wines.
Fruity, spicy and balanced, this multiple award winning women-made dessert wine, Picolit, is the rarest and most treasured varietal in Friuli, the extreme North East of Italy.
It is made from hand-picked and air-dried picolit grapes that went through noble rot, as with the best dessert wines in the world. Fermented and then aged for 18 months in french oak barrique. Only 1200 bottles were made, and we have the last few available so be quick to grab this meditation wine to sip and savor.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
These indigenous grapes will allow you to taste the land of Friuli, in the North-Eastern corner of Italy. This specially priced set of two wines from the woman winemaker who world-renowned Italian wine critic, Ian D’agata cites as ‘one of Italy’s best’ estates with all 90+ rated wines. Shipping is included in the Continental US and any wines added onto order will have free shipping.
Vigna Petrussa is a certified sustainable and biodiverse women-owned winery.
Included in this box are:
Vigna Petrussa Richenza Oak Aged White Wine Blend Biodynamic (91 points James Suckling)
Vigna Petrussa Refosco Red Wine Biodynamic (90 points James Suckling and Decanter)
A versatile red wine grape, Schioppettino is an indigenous grape to the North-Eastern corner of Italy, the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Second generation woman winemaker Hilde Petrussa’s passion for her craft comes shines through with her schioppettino wines, and one can understand why she was an important part in the grape’s rebirth.
With this set, you get two of Hilde’s variations of the schioppettino grape, an unoaked Schioppettino, and a more classic style Schioppettino di Prepotto aged in oak, with shipping included to the Continental US.
This set includes:
To taste more styles of Vigna Petrussa’s schioppettino wines, add on to your order, with free shipping (always in the continental US): a Schioppettino Riserva and Perla Nera, a dessert wine made from 100% air-dried schioppettino grapes.
This set includes two highly regarded dessert wines, one from women-owned winery in Friuli in North Eastern Italy, Vigna Petrussa, who world-renowned Italian wine critic, Ian D’agata cites as ‘one of Italy’s best’ estates. The other is from the other corner of Northern Italy, in the Canavese where chestnut barrels allow the wine to age to amazing complexity. Shipping is included for the Continental US and any wines added onto your order as well
Included in this box are:
