Benovia Winery
“[Pinot is] very thin-skinned and temperamental. It’s about subtlety; not power. It’s the heartbreak grape,” Mike Sullivan, co-owner and winemaker
The difficult and fickle nature of the Pinot varietal is precisely what Benovia co-owner and winemaker Mike Sullivan finds most appealing about his favorite varietal. “It’s very thin-skinned and temperamental. It’s about subtlety; not power,” he says. “It’s the heartbreak grape.”
Benovia’s style of Pinot is “one foot in the old world, and one foot in the new world,” according to Sullivan. The winery embraces the regional character within the vines to create wines that are flavorful and food friendly. “We want to strike a balance between richness, acidity and wines that are savory,” says Sullivan. The winery ages its wines for 16 months in barrels and an additional six months in bottles.
For Benovia, labor is life and life is fulfilling. It’s a credo Mike has embodied throughout his life, spending his summers tending to his family’s vines on Sonoma Mountain while he pursued an enology degree at Fresno State. Mike went on to establish Benoiva Winery with Mary DeWane and Joe Anderson in 2005. “It’s a delight and an honor to be recognized,” he says. “Especially since we’re a small, independent, family-owned winery in the Russian River Valley.”
Despite being a smaller operation, Benovia is big on philanthropy. Co-founders Mary DeWane and Joe
Benovia’s line of balanced and expressive, limited-production wines are even more than they seem. Sullivan prefers to view each of them as a unique and distinctive adventure. “Tasting the wines here is a discovery,” he says. “Where people can stop in and find out which ones they love.”