{"id":2409,"date":"2024-10-14T13:17:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T13:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2409"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:19:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T13:19:41","slug":"winemaker-interview-series-olivia-brion-and-cantadora-wine-tasting-with-kira-ballotta-september-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2409","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker Interview Series – Olivia Brion and Cantadora Wine Tasting with Kira Ballotta \u2013 September 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kira<\/a>On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, we once again interviewed<\/span> Kira Ballotta<\/strong><\/a>. Kira is the owner and winemaker for<\/span> Olivia Brion<\/strong><\/a> and Cantadora<\/strong><\/a> wineries. She is an impressive woman and a great storyteller. She also does a lot to support women’s causes and donates some of the proceeds from her Cantadora wines to those causes. In our Zoom interview, we covered five of her new-release Olivia Brion wines and three of her Cantadora wines. Our<\/span> previous interview with Kira was in June of 2023<\/strong><\/a>. We then covered four of her Olivia Brion wines and three of her 2019 Cantadora wines. Check out what we learned from Kira this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits Kira shared.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 All of Kira’s wines are made at<\/span> Obsidian<\/strong><\/a> winery.<\/span>
\n\u2022 Taquine White is a blend of 50% Falanghina & 50% Cortese. Cortese is the main grape of Gavi wines.<\/span>
\n\u2022 The Gewurtztraminer is from 55-year-old vines from the Harvest Moon estate.<\/span>
\n\u2022 The “Mon Amour Interdit” is a chillable red wine. The blend is 50% Grenache & 50% Syrah<\/span>
\n\u2022 All the fruit in Kira’s wines is organically farmed.<\/span>
\n\u2022 The Cantadora “Heart of Gold” of Chardonnay is from the Linda Vista Vineyard in Napa Valley. It is organically farmed by Steve Matthiasson. This wine celebrates the<\/span> story of Dr. Michelle Asha Albert<\/strong><\/a>.
\n\u2022 The Cantadora “Energizer For The Ages” red blend is 40% Grenache, 40% Mourvedre & 20% Syrah. This wine celebrates the<\/span> story of Janet Y. Spears<\/strong><\/a>.
\n\u2022 The Cantadora “Dream Builder” Tempranillo celebrates the<\/span> story of Nancy Hom<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Olivia<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Olivia Brion 2023 White Blend “Taquine White<\/strong><\/a>“<\/strong> (California) $32 (KWGTP 91<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span>
\n2. Olivia Brion 2023 “Le Capitaine Pinot Noir Rose”<\/strong><\/a> (Santa Cruz Mountains) $32 (KWGTP 91<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span>
\n3. Olivia Brion 2023 Gewurztraminer “La Photographe”<\/strong><\/a> (RRV) $37 (KWGTP 90<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span>
\n4. Olivia Brion 2022 Red Blend “Mon Amour Interdit”<\/strong><\/a> (Amador County) Chillable $40 (KWGTP 90.5<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span>
\n5. Olivia Brion 2021 Pinot Noir “Willowside Vineyard”<\/strong><\/a> (RRV) $50 (KWGTP 93<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span>
\n6. Olivia Brion 2021 Pinot Noir “Black Ridge Vineyard”<\/strong><\/a> (Santa Cruz Mountains) $55 (KWGTP 93<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cantadora<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Cantadora 2022 Chardonnay “The Heart of Gold”<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $45 (KWGTP 91<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span>
\n2. Cantadora 2021 Red Blend “The Energizer For The Ages”<\/strong><\/a> (Amador County) $50 (KWGTP 92.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span>
\n3. Cantadora 2021 Tempranillo “The Dream Builder”<\/strong><\/a> (Amador County) $50 (KWGTP 93.5<\/span><\/strong>)<\/span><\/p>\n

You can find reviews of past and future Olivia Brion wines that we cover on the Olivia Brion KWG winery page<\/strong><\/a> on our website. For Cantadora wines, please check out the Cantadora KWG winery page<\/strong><\/a> on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! Ken <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, we once again interviewed Kira Ballotta. Kira is the owner and winemaker for Olivia Brion and Cantadora wineries. She is an impressive woman and a great storyteller. She also does a lot to support women’s causes and donates some of the proceeds from her Cantadora wines to those causes. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2000,92,1998,13,2629,2630,25,2631,1541,11,1540,123,1997,2557,12,2632,1201,1187,102,2633,43,113,2001,90,126,8,6,240,1292,1288],"tags":[483,2616,1697,1974,491,2614,2394,2626,2391,1493,2621,1509,2623,2627,2612,2609,2624,2613,1508,2628,507,2622,1973,2358,492,2610,1165,1469,2611,2625,633,2608,2619,2620,2618,2634,2102,2615],"class_list":["post-2409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amador-county","category-california","category-cantadora","category-chardonnay","category-cortese","category-falanghina","category-gewurtztraminer","category-graciano","category-grenache","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-mourvedre","category-napa-valley","category-olivia-brion","category-organic-farming","category-pinot-noir","category-pinot-noir-rose","category-red-blend","category-red-wine","category-russian-river-valley","category-santa-cruz-mountains","category-syrah","category-tempranillo","category-white-blend","category-white-wine","category-wine-ratings","category-wine-recommendations","category-wine-reviews","category-wine-tasting","category-winemaker","category-zoom-wine-tasting","tag-amador-county","tag-black-ridge-vineyard","tag-california","tag-cantadora","tag-chardonnay","tag-chillable","tag-cortese","tag-dr-michelle-asha-albert","tag-falanghina","tag-gewurztraminer","tag-graciano","tag-grenache","tag-harvest-moon","tag-janet-y-spears","tag-la-photographe","tag-le-capitaine","tag-linda-vista-vineyard","tag-mon-amour-interdit","tag-mourvedre","tag-nancy-hom","tag-napa-valley","tag-obsidian","tag-olivia-brion","tag-organically-farmed","tag-pinot-noir","tag-pinot-noir-rose","tag-red-blend","tag-russian-river-valley","tag-santa-cruz-mountains","tag-steve-matthiasson","tag-syrah","tag-taquine-white","tag-tempranillo","tag-the-dream-builder","tag-the-energizer-for-the-ages","tag-the-heart-of-gold","tag-white-blend","tag-willowside-vineyard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2409"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}