feature || winery
in a kayak on a north-woods lake. “I just knew that I had to follow that passion,” he says. Before long, he had sold his St. Paul house and moved to northern California’s wine country. After some backbreaking vineyard work, Baker fastened onto the idea of doing podcasts about making wine. “I produced my podcast as an excuse to get into wineries and do my own investigation,” he admits. National Public Radio ended up putting his podcasts on its Web site, where they gained a sizeable following. Baker’s podcasts about making his own Pinot Noir at an innovative, new customcrush facility in San Francisco called Crushpad led to him being hired there in 2006 to manage its Web site — a job that evolved into various other responsibilities, including helping others make their wine. One of those people was Serena Lourie, who was taking a break from her health-care career. Baker and Lourie came to realize that they shared a vision of a life that revolved around making wine. In 2009, they turned that shared vision into a reality when they moved together from San Francisco to Healdsburg, where they immediately
started making wine under the Cartograph label. Cartograph is in a sense a virtual winery, as Baker and Lourie own neither a production facility nor a vineyard. They have been fortunate, though, to find excellent sources for their small lots of Pinot Noirs and Gewürztraminer; the most important of these is the Floodgate Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, which also provides grapes to some of the most prominent Pinot Noir producers in the region. Both Baker and Lourie contribute regularly to a blog chronicling their fledgling winemaking venture. And as befits someone who got into the wine business through his podcasts, Baker says they rely heavily on social media to get the word out about their wine: “Our most loyal customers are people who we met online.” David Mahoney writes about travel, wine and the environment for a variety of national and regional magazines. A former senior editor at Sunset and the editor of Minnesota Monthly, he was also the founding editor of Drinks and Real Food magazines.
valley view
LEFT Minneapolis architect Tim Bjella designed Dan Gustafson’s ridgetop home, which literally towers over the fog-cloaked Dry Creek Valley. RIGHT Healdsburg Modern Cottages in Healdsburg, California, owned by Minnesotan’s.
60 Artful Living
| Winter 2011
Artful-LivingMag.com
A Cottage for Rent Healdsburg, once a sleepy, little farm town, has blossomed into a tourist hot spot in recent years, yielding a bumper crop of finedining and luxury-accommodation options. One of the more distinctive places to stay in town is the Healdsburg Modern Cottages, owned by Chris Poseley — a former Minnesotan who now has homes in Healdsburg and San Francisco — and his mother, Connie Remele, who lives in Minneapolis. Tucked away on a quiet side street just a couple blocks from the central plaza, each of the four cottages is named for a modern designer — Charles (Eames), Ray (Eames), George (Nelson) and Eileen (Gray) — and features sophisticated furniture pieces reproduced from its namesake’s original designs. A swimming pool offers a cool respite after a day of winetasting. With gas fireplaces, flat-screen TVs, spa baths and wireless Internet access, the cottages combine the amenities of a hotel with the privacy of a vacation rental home. healdsburgcottages.com