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Background
Scott Schultz's passion for wine was ignited when he moved to Napa from Chicago in 2007. Scott began his transition into the winemaking world after a move to Napa for employment as Wine Director at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Napa Valley. As he explains, “everyone I met was a winemaker, so on my days off I followed people around to see what they were doing." Before he knew it, he had secured the cellar master job at Realm Winery. That was followed by working with Arnot-Roberts, and then joining Pax Mahle in the same capacity working on the Pax and Wind Gap labels.
Scott’s passion for winemaking grew so significantly that he decided to start his own project, Jolie-Laide, in 2010. Soon there after, he met Jenny who had zero experience in wine, but she graduated with a chemistry degree from Villanova and was working in pharmaceuticals. Interestingly, someone gifted her a wine class, and she was like, “Oh, this wine thing is cool. There’s obviously science in wine.” She came to UC Davis, got her master’s degree, and then started working in the industry where Scott met her.
Winemaking
Scott and Jenny’s approach is a natural one, a 'less is more' ethos. But their keen eye for finding great fruit from only sustainably and responsibly-farmed sites, coupled with an impressive natural talent, lead to consistently delicious wines.
Their winemaking method is simple: grapes are left whole cluster, foot crushed, and aged in neutral oak. All ferments are done with native yeasts, for both primary and secondary fermentations (no inoculation), and the musts tend to be low pH/high acid, allowing for no added SO2 at the press, and minimal at bottling. They work with a handful of growers, all of whom farm organically (none certified); it is their ability to seek out spectacular vineyard sites which allows them to be hands off in the winemaking process.
To this day, Jolie-Laide shares a winemaking space with Pax and several other like-minded producers in Sebastopol. However it was just announced on 5/18 that a new winery is under-construction in Sonoma with an expected opening date of August 2023!
Bottle Label Art
One feature to note – the labels change every year, featuring a different artist or art collective. “Our wines are a celebration of the year and seasons in which they are made, always unique and different, no two bottlings are ever the same.”
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