VGS Chateau Potelle Winery

Chateau Potelle was born when we moved from France in 1980, to be part of the California winemaking adventure. We wanted to be creative in making wine rather than being constrained by the years of traditions that existed in France. Our vision at VGS Chateau Potelle is to produce wines with style and character that are representative of their birth place. Like for each of us, our "roots" provide us with a unique culture, a set of mores and traditions...a style and character. After all, people from the California coast and the hills of Tennessee embody vast differences! Our job as winemaker is to respect and exploit the unique qualities of our "roots"...to craft wines with a sense of style and personality. Winemaking, like parenting, is an art always reinvented. Every year it's different, just as every child is different. There are guidelines, of course, but no defined set of rules. You adapt to accompany each as they develop and grow. Control does not really work... If nature has given our grapes unique personality, why should we attempt to alter their course with excessive manipulation, or the use of technical specifications -- jamming them into the mold of "standardized" wines? Have you ever tried to "standardize" your children? They run away!!! Wine is like salt and pepper, it's another spice to food. Some may say, wine is art, and we agree, but one that is meant to be swallowed – not stared at. Yes wine is unique and special, but that should not put it on a pedestal. Wine is not an ego thing...it is a pleasure to the senses. YOUR senses. Not others'. Yes, it is OK to have your own taste – that is what wine, and parenting, and life is all about! But just in case you are having trouble deciding what your taste is....VGS keeps it simple: good things speak for themselves.