Ottavino Ricci Vineyard St. Laurent Los Carneros 2021

A former musician, Shalini Sekhar pivoted from her Master’s Degree in Flute and Piccolo Performance to a career in wine. After completing her studies at Fresno State University in Enology and Viticulture, she began her journey into winemaking marrying the same combination of art and science that fueled her passion for music. This junction in her career inspired the name of her brand; Ottavino is the Italian word for piccolo.

Her experience with boutique producers and Pinot Noir started during her time at Williams Selyem. What followed was a series of exciting roles with small clients where she worked to execute their visions for their boutique brands, beginning with Copain Custom Crush (now Punchdown Cellars), then Bluxome Street Winery, and finally, ROAR wines, where she made wine for Waits-Mast Family Cellars, Furthermore, Neely Wine and several smaller brands.  In 2020, Shalini launched her own small brand under the Ottavino label, exploring Grüner Veltliner and St. Laurent. She was introduced to us through a mutual friend, and it only took one sip of her St. Laurent to capture our hearts!

St. Laurent is planted in extremely small quantities in California. In fact, the Ricci Vineyard, which Shalini sources from, is the only commercial vineyard that grows St. Laurent in the country. It is a small-berried varietal that is often likened to Pinot Noir. It originated in Austria and makes dark, assertive, and sometimes quite tough wines. This is a varietal that takes shrewd winemaking to tame its aggressive traits. Shalini utilizes a fermentation called carbonic maceration to help soften the tannins. During this process, the berries are left whole rather than crushed, and fermentation kicks off intercellularly, meaning that the skins have less impact on the juice that is pressed off after fermentation is finished. The color of this wine is beguiling – a deep, purple hue which one would expect in a wine full of drying tannins. Instead, the palate is plush with flavors of macerated cherry, clove, and peppercorn. We have hailed this as the perfect pizza wine. So close up the kitchen and dial your local joint for delivery tonight; you will thank us!