Robert Goyette
Mr.Goyette's winemaking ability is better described as an innate sense than a technical skill. If there are ‘green thumbs' in gardening, then Bob has a ‘purple thumb' when it comes to making wine. This natural sense revealed itself many years ago when Bob was part of the start of the boutique winery movement in California.
The ‘boutique' wineries were the small wineries that were intent on making wines that pushed past the ‘functional beverage' that had been made up to that point. This includes wineries like Ridge, Monterey Peninsula, Calera, La Crema, and Kistler. All of these wineries distinguished themselves by making small lots, vineyard designated, and by using traditional French techniques, which were innovative at the time.
Bob was one of the founders of La Crema. This winery could be characterized as contributing to the California boutique winery movement by bringing Burgundian methods to California and Californian wine-afficionados in a gonzo kind of way. Unfortunately the winery met its financial demise, but the name has carried on (now owned by Kendall-Jackson) because it represents the quest for quality that was the love of these pioneers.
After La Crema, Bob contributed to the winemaking effort at Chalk Hill Winery, followed by the Benziger Family winery. It is at Benziger that he hit his stride again. And it was there that he helped develop--along with his friend and fellow winemaker, Bruce Rector--the Imagery Series.
Imagery Series was a refuge of terroir winemaking. Because the Benzigers were making Glen Ellen at the time, and because that program had grown to gigantic proportions (which was not the original intent of Mike Benziger and Bruce, but was the Midas touch of Bruno Benziger) Bob and Bruce felt that the Imagery Series needed to be created for three reasons: 1- To avoid pigeon-holing of Glen Ellen's winemaking abilities. 2- To give the winemaking staff a venue to express themselves on the micro scale, because they all had small winery backgrounds. 3- To keep the jewel-like lots of grapes that were to be found throughout the state from being ‘blended away'.
As the lead red-wine maker, Bob was responsible for the elevation and success of the Imagery Series, and won more than his share of gold medals, best of class, and best of show awards. And in retrospect, Bob, with his charming way of being and making wine, was able to re-capture the spirit of the California boutique era.
On the personal level, Bob is a frequent traveler to Europe's centers of art & wine. There, he explores his photographer's eye using ancient vineyards and ancient structures as back-drops. Just like his photographs, Bob is a very interesting combination of true poet, bon vivant, home-body/monk and eligible bachelor. Here's how he describes his winegrowing way: "I keep one eye on the successful traditions of Europe, and the other closely attuned to the grapes at hand. Using my own palate as a spring-board, I determine if the wines are really appealing to drink, rather than just done in a proper manner. I keep trying to work towards the best syntheses of the New & Old World traditions, while intuitively striving for wines that appeal to connoisseurs as well as people that just like wine. To me, it's all about balance and about listening," Bob says.
Bob's hope for his new Robert Goyette Wines is that, at the end of the bottling line, they will evoke what he terms "the positive connotation" of beauty, as it is experienced not only through the senses, but also, and perhaps more importantly, through the emotions. This means that the wine's various elements must be in balance according to their strengths...and frailties. High notes need to be counterbalanced with low notes, long ones with short ones, and all of them need to come together harmonically on the palate in order to make wines Bob can call his own.
