Mac McDonald, one of Napa's handful of African-American vintners, produces eight Pinot Noirs. His Vision Cellars wines are sold locally. (Chris Farina / The Detroit News)
The film "Sideways" and its obsession with Pinot Noirs pale in comparison to the passion of Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars, in Windsor, Calif., who produces eight different Pinots.
McDonald, 66, tasted his first one, a French Burgundy, quite by accident as a young boy and never forgot. It was a taste that shaped his life.
This week, the down-home winemaker was visiting retailers and restaurateurs in Metro Detroit, wearing his trademark Dickies bib overalls and straw hat, putting on no airs -- because he doesn't have to. In a little more than 10 years' time, his wines have lit up the scoreboards at Wine Spectator and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and graced every White House table since the Clintons.
McDonald is in the forefront of African-American vintners who are not only making wines to impress the geeks, but to educate minorities on the finer points of wine appreciation.
"My goal is to get more African-Americans enjoying wine and being knowledgeable," McDonald says. "It bothered me that in my travels around the country, I did not see them at my wine tastings." As a result, he was instrumental in forming the Association of African American Vintners in California. The Web site, http://www.aaavintners.org/">http://www.aaavintners.org/, notes that of the 6,000 wineries in the United States, fewer than a dozen are owned by African-Americans. The vintners promote wine education at special events.
McDonald was raised in rural Texas, 89 miles south of Dallas, where a group of doctors used to hunt. He recalls one who was always teased for bringing French wine to the hunt, which was "un-American" in Texas. Embarrassed, the man handed McDonald, just 12, the bottle of Burgundy and told him to keep it. And yes, he grins, he tasted it -- "no child protective services in those days," he laughs.
At that early age, he said was called to make wine, and his high school coach told him he should plan to go to California.
McDonald would go on to spend a 32-year career at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco with endless weekends in Napa Valley, where he would hook up with the ultimate mentor, Charlie Wagner, owner of Caymus, and his son Chuck, to learn the ins and outs of growing and making wine.
"It's time for you to have your own winery," the senior Wagner told McDonald in the mid-1990s, and he connected him with some of the best vineyards in Monterey and Sonoma, offered financial backing and let him make the wines at Caymus.
"Lil ('my wife, partner and boss') came up with the name Vision Cellars," McDonald says. "That's because she said it was my vision."
Today, his 4,000-case winery has bottles in the best stores and restaurants in California -- and Metro Detroit.
The brand
Wines: Vision Cellars Pinot Noirs are styled to be like Pinots used to be in Burgundy, France -- food-friendly, not overoaked, not ponderous, with alcohol under control. Grapes are from such famous California vineyards as Coster in Russian River, and Gary's Vineyard, Las Alturas and Rosella's in Monterey's Santa Lucia Highlands.
Price: $38-$65 and upward
Available locally: Select restaurants including Forest Grill and Townsend Hotel, Birmingham; retailers Holiday Market, Canton; Plum Market, Ann Arbor, West Bloomfield; Papa Joe's, Birmingham. For a complete list of locations, go to http://www.detnews.com/wineblog">www.detnews.com/wineblog.
Wine ssilfven@detnews.com">ssilfven@detnews.com (313) 222-2440
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