Oxlee Graham - Jennie shares Her Winemaking Secrets Pt. 1-6

Welcome. Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forest Kelly. Welcome to another episode of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast. I'm Forrest Kelly and we have a guest co host today.

It is so good to be back. Would you like to guess who the co host is today?

Hey, Doug, hurry or we'll miss the show.

Oh, we know that it's Doug is in the title. Yes, your, your buddy Doug, who who knows nothing about wine but loves to talk about it.

And you are the host of your main. That's the whole objective as guest hosting on today is to get a little exposure for your podcast. Tell me about it. Yes. Forest is so gracious to come on my podcast and I love to return the favor. Mine is walk and roll live disability stories.

Walk and roll live.com if you want to check it out. And who are we interviewing? Who are we going to give a rough time tag teaming today?

Well, we're going to talk with a young woman who is at Oxlee and her name is Jennie.

I'm Jenny Murphy. I'm the owner and winemaker of Oxlee Graham Wines.

Okay, let's get to your background. I see you said after graduating from UC Davis with a degree in chemistry, that kind of puts you in line with what you're doing now.

Tell me about that story.

Yeah, so I graduated with my degree in chemistry and wanted to do forensics, but graduated at the exact wrong time in the economy and counties weren't hiring. I went to UC Davis.

So I went to the career fair and there were two many wineries that were looking for chemists and looking for people to work in the wine labs during harvest. So I thought, hey, that's a great kind of plan B. Let me try that and see if I like it while I kind of wait for the economy to bounce back.

Then I took an internship at Corvel Champagne in the Russian River Valley and just fell in love. I loved kind of the art of it. I loved working with my hands.

I liked how small the industry was and so thought when that internship was over after seven months, I'm going to try that again.

And so I started looking for jobs and wanted to find a big lab with big toys and kind of all the big chemistry nerdy stuff that I love, but ended up at a very small winery that didn't have much of a lab at the time. Paul Hobbes Wines in the Russian River Valley as well. Paul loved the fact that I was a chemist.

He wanted someone to come in and revamp the QC procedures and all of the Instruments, and I got to kind of build my own little lab there. And so that ended up being a great next step for me as a chemist.

I love that story, because that's just so relatable, I think, to everybody, whether they're a wine aficionado or not. But those paths that lives take, you know, that are kind of unsuspected to where you arrive. So that is awesome.

But I'm curious, in that process of making wine and with your chemistry background, how many opportunities are there in the process of making wine from grape to bottle, are there for you to intervene to change the outcome of what the wine's eventually going to be?

So I think it depends on what type of winemaking you're talking about. I think for a chemist in general, there's a lot of opportunity.

When you're kind of looking at the chemistry of the wine, knowing the numbers is really important. So when you bring the fruit in, you want to look at the chemistry, see what you need to add.

I personally am a winemaker that's always made wine without inoculating. So I don't add any yeast. I don't add any bacteria.

So I need to just feed the natural yeast and bacterias that are coming in with good nutrients for the yeast. I gotta keep the bacteria at bay until I'm ready to go through that secondary fermentation. So I need to add a little sulfur.

But I like to be very natural with my winemaking. But there are bigger houses that, you know, those numbers mean everything.

When I was at Corbel, something I found really fascinating is that they're trying to make the same exact wine every year. And, you know, wine is not the same. Vintages vary a lot.

And so for them, they need to know the exact numbers, what color that wine is, all of those kind of trigger points, so that they can make decisions to kind of create this wine that is the same. And that's really hard winemaking. That's challenging.

And so a lot of the bigger houses, wines that, you know, people love at the grocery store, those are hard wines to make because you're making a really distinctive product. And so science becomes really important in that type of winemaking. What I do, I love to know the numbers.

I want to know every number so I can make an educated decision. But really, I'm working with a little bit of acid and some sulfur, and that's pretty much all I'm adding.

But I need to know that it's healthy and that I don't need to add more sulfur. I Like to keep my numbers really low.

So the numbers are important, but they're more of a benchmark for me where for other winemaking styles, it can be hugely important. How you drive the winemaking.

Do you miss forensics?

I don't. I like. I like the outdoors and I like seeing the sky. And I think with forensics, I might have been a little bit more stuck in a lab.

That's when you know you've made the right decision. When you go to college to be, you know, like you said, forensics, to go into forensics. And you deviate from that. And now you are where you are.

You don't look back with regret.

Exactly. I tell my mom sometimes I say, you know, I really wanted to do something that helped people. And she said, honey, you are helping people.

People need wine. So I find solace in that. Definitely. I think I made the right decision. I love the different things I can do every day.

You know, my day is never the same. So that's kind of fun.

The name is. So it's two words, correct? Oxlee, O X L E E. Graham.

Yes. Two words told. I make it sound like one, so. Right, yeah. And you say that you are women owned and family driven. Is that a good thing?

The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast Yes, I think so. I am pretty much a one woman show. I make all the decisions. I make the wines, I sell the wines, I deliver the wines once they're sold.

So I'm pretty much carrying out every day to day operation. But then I really rely on family and friends to kind of help keep things moving. So if I have a bigger project, I need more hands.

Usually I'm calling in my parents. My sister, she. My sister actually designed the label. My brother in law helps me a lot with my website.

So it's a business that is owned by me, mostly run by me, but it definitely wouldn't run the same way if I didn't have all the support from my family and my friends.

There's a whole organization, have you tapped into that? Of female owned wineries? I've seen that organization. I haven't. I've reached out to them a couple times. I haven't heard back from them.

Just was curious too where the name came from.

I named the winery after my grandmother's. So Oxley and Graham are their maiden names.

Being a woman owned winery, I wanted to really lean on the strong women that came before me and kind of the lessons that my grandmother specifically taught me, you know, things that I see in myself, that I saw in them. And they really bestowed on me, you know, strength and honesty and hard work and perfectionism and all these things that they kind of shared.

And they were both such different women, but successful in their own ways. And so I really wanted to kind of honor that and pay it forward when I decided to start the winery.

My Granny Oxley had recently passed away, and so it was kind of that moment of paying homage to them and my love for them. And they were such a big part of my life, so I wanted to kind of honor that with their names.

Plus, I just love the name Oxley, and I think together, it's just a beautiful kind of representation of what we're doing.

So Oxlee, now that's your. That's a nickname for your grandma.

That is her maiden name.

Her name.

So.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah. So it's also my dog's name.

So I got a puppy right after she passed and named him Oxley, and then decided to start a winery and thought, I'm going to still use Oxley. But now everyone thinks, oh, you've named it after your dog. That's cute. But it's not named after him.

And your dog is Scottish. He's a Scottish.

He's a Scottish terrier.

Yeah. Okay, I see that on the. On the. Your website. Yeah, yeah.

I've started a couple of businesses, and I made them in with my mother, who's still with me, but she named him after my mom and dedicated him to my mom, so that's why I was asking. Woman owned and woman operated. That's a good thing. Yes, it's a great thing.

I know you said you interned and you. You went through that transition trying to find a job and getting it, but then when did it actually turn over to, I'm going to do it myself?

So I worked at Paul Hobbs for about 12 and a half years, and throughout that time, I kind of grew within the company. I started in the lab as the analogist and then grew to the assistant winemaker. Winemaker and then director of winemaking fairly quickly.

But I just really absorbed every lesson I could while I was there. So, you know, whether that was winemaking and how we worked with clones or how I fermented things, I got to really play and experiment.

Paul was very gracious in letting me kind of be creative and drive the style a little bit. So I kind of absorbed every detail, every lesson. I cared very much about what barrels we put on the wine and what corks we closed the bottles with.

So all of that. But then also as the director, I got to learn a lot of the business end of things.

I was writing all the monthly tax reports, and I was, you know, working on budgets.

And so there was kind of this drive for me to continue learning and continue just developing business skills on top of production skills and wanting to continue to learn about different varietals and areas where the grapes are grown. And so I kind of thought, you know what, I just want to start my own project. And I was still at Paul Hobbes when I did that.

And I wanted to kind of delve into other areas. Santa Cruz Mountains and Mendocino, other varietals that I hadn't had the opportunity to bott on its own, like Petite Perdot.

I decided I was just going to kind of jump off and make a few cases for myself and then learn the business side. And so then that kind of quickly just grew into, you know what? I'm just going to do that solely as a business. And I kind of left Paul Hobbs.

I stayed on for a little bit as a consulting winemaker for him and then broke off and just completely am doing Oxley Graham now.

But it was something I just really felt like as a winemaker, it's such a creative job that I wanted that freedom to continue to create and learn new things. So I lovingly call this project Pinot and My Weirdos. I mostly make Pinot, but then some off the beaten path varietals as well.

Owner and winemaker Jenny Murphy of Oxlee Graham Wines. And I had never made a wine that color before, so I was a little panicked. But the resulting wine is The Best five Minute Wine Podcast.

You know, part of being a business owner, and you've got to pump up your chest and you've got to tell everybody, you know, it may not be your personality, but you got to get out there.

You didn't make that jump from working at Paul Hobbs to saying, you know, because based on the cork, I want the specific cork and I want the specific barrels you made. Partly the jump was because of challenges and competitions and judgments and things.

Your wine and what you were putting out there was getting some awards, right?

Yeah. At Paul Hobbs, I got to work with some amazing fruit.

He had some great estate vineyards and also worked with Dextaur fruit, which is highly regarded in Napa. And so I was making 100 point wines for Paul, and there's multiple 100 point wines that we made as a team there.

And really, you know, we were getting great scores. And I just felt like it was time to kind of, you know, put those skills to good use and try something completely new for myself.

Now, let's put that in reference, 100 point wine. And I know the point spectrum.

So for those that don't know what 100 point is, you just make a wine and you put a cork in it and bottle and put a great fancy label on it, and you can get a 75. Right. Or what do you. What is. Put it in perspective for us?

When you look at the score ratings, there's all different classifications, and I think anything above a 95 is called a classic wine. There's a lot of wines in the 70 to 80 range. Anything above 90 is pretty darn good, and 100 is considered perfect. So that is kind of the scale.

So it's. You know, most of our wines were the 90 to 97 range, and then we had a few in the. In the hundred.

So that was kind of a good, good, you know, pat on the back for. For myself and my team as well.

So that tells you that, hey, I can hang with the big boys.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It always feels good. I say I don't care about scores, but it always feels good to get that 100 pointer. You know, can you put it into. Words what your goal is for the wine? And how would you describe the wines that you produce? And also, what do people love about your wine?

My wines for the Oxlee Graham really want to produce wines that are elegant, fresh, delicate, and they're lower in alcohol, so they're really kind of fruit forward, but really unique wines. My tagline is sort of, I want to make unique wines that tell authentic stories.

So for me, I made a Pinot Noir in 2022 that was really light in color, almost like. And I had never made a wine that color before, so I was a little panicked. But the resulting wine is this beautiful, complex, savory, complete wine.

So when I put it in front of people, it kind of surprises them, which I like. I like kind of to shock people a little bit.

And that's sort of my passion with Pinot is that I feel like it can be so complex and so different depending on where it's from. So my Pinot Noirs are kind of from all over the Northern California area, from Mendocino all the way to the Santa Cruz Mountains.

And each wine really has its own identity, its own personality. I think of the wines like people, so I talk about them with their own kind of quirks and personalities and.

But that's what I find so fascinating about winemaking. And I think when I kind of Put my line up in front of people, they're really pleasantly surprised with how different each wine is.

So I'm not the winemaker that kind of has everything lined up and they all taste identical. They all have their really, their own identities.

And then I really delve into kind of varietals that maybe some people haven't heard of or haven't had a lot of experience. Experience with. So I make a white blend that's Chenin blanc and pique pour blanc, petite Bordeaux bottled by itself. I'm making an Albarino in 24.

So kind of a little bit different. I like unique and I like different.

But, yeah, I definitely have that creative side that I think winemaking really kind of fulfills both my nerdy science side and my creative side. Best five Minute Wine Podcast so can.

I ask you this?

So it sounds like between Corbel and the other winery, you have a science side to you that you want to go into forensics, but you obviously have a creative side. Wasn't being fulfilled. So I think both those things are being fulfilled with your winery.

Yeah.

And I don't.

I don't mean any disrespect when I say this to Corbel, but it's, you know, in your description, it kind of sounds like they're the McDonald's of wine. You know, they're trying to make it precise because that's one of the things that I think is the success of McDonald's.

You can go into a McDonald's in California or want a New York, and you're getting the same product because it's the process. But with you, you don't seem to mind if you're even the same. Wine comes out a little different each year.

That is, I think the smaller wineries, that tends to be that it's a little bit easier to make wine that way, but it is more creative and more fun because you don't have sort of that, you know, what you're kind of trying for. Every year doesn't have to be the same. It can be better. It can be different. It can.

You can kind of grow as you figure out how the vineyard likes to perform and what barrels work well with it. And so I think there's always these incremental improvements you can make every year, which is really exciting as a winemaker.

But, yeah, I definitely have that creative side that I think winemaking really kind of fulfills both my nerdy science side and my creative side. But I actually almost double majored in college and drama and chemistry. But I Couldn't fit all the. All the lab time in, so I had to. Yeah, so.

And I went to performing arts high school and where I grew up in San Jose. So there's definitely that creative side to me that I like.

All of that marketing and the labels and the package and, you know, just coming up with unique wines that I think are really exceptional.

Tell us where you are in California.

So I make the wines in Sonoma County, California. Santa Rosa is where the winery. I'm currently in the motion of moving my production from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa, but it's all in Sonoma county.

And that's wine country. Just what is it south of wine country? It is the heart of Sonoma County Wine country. It is just to the west of Napa. And then your vineyards that you work with, who are they?

So I work with up in Mendocino, I work with Alder Springs vineyard, which is pretty well known, and there's a lot of producers making wine from there. They grow so many different varietals. Stu, the owner, is just.

He is a perfectionist, and his fruit is great and his team is great, so it's really fun working with them. In Sonoma County, I have a few different vineyards.

I have one in the Petaluma Gap region called Gaps View, one in Russian River Valley Occidental area called Tenuda Ridge, where both of those are Pinot Noir. And the Albarino vineyard is also in Russian river, kind of in Windsor area.

The other Sonoma county vineyard is Fountain Grove District McCoy Vineyard, which is where the Petit Bordeaux comes from. And then the furthest south vineyard is my Santa Cruz Mountains vineyard galley, which grows Pinot Noir.

Okay, perfect. Yeah. I was just looking at the website and the pictures of the vineyards, which kind of surprised me that they were actually on hills.

Yes, I like cool climate. So that's kind of one of the things I look for when I'm looking for a new site. Some of the different varietals, like Albarino, I have less choice.

But I really was lucky to find Russian river because it's a lot cooler than a lot of places that varietal has grown. But I like cool climate, I like hillsides. So it's really fun to kind of see scout vineyards, and I'm choosing vineyard partners.

Most of them are family owned, smaller, kind of run vineyards that you can really get to know the people that are farming it and, you know, know that they're doing right by the land and. And the people that they have helping.

Right. And it's A little easier because they're family owned. A little easier to align with what your vision is with theirs.

And yes.

Yeah. Don't have to go through corporate loopholes. Go ahead, Doug.

Yeah, I was just curious what wine pairs well with the best five minute wine podcast?

What wine I should be drinking while I'm doing The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast?

Correct. Do you have a suggestion?

I would drink my white blend. I have a beautiful white blend from Alder Springs Vineyard. That's Chenin Blanc and Pic Pour Blanc.

And it's just a really fun middle of the day wine to kind of enjoy your podcast.

Good answer. So she's saying that we also align with fish, Doug. That's right. Yeah.

You got it. Yeah. So easiest way to kind of get the wines is to order straight through the website, which is oxleegrahamwines.com

So I see an events part. Are you branching out to try to participate in events?

Yeah. So part of being new is just getting that kind of foothold and getting people to interact with the wines and meeting new people.

And so I really am trying to book a lot of events, a lot of accounts that I've visited. You know, wine shops, wine bars, they've been really receptive to the wines, really excited about the wines.

And so there's a great shop in Sacramento that has been so happy to host us and we have a couple events lined up with them. Yonex. They're wonderful. They're also women owned and so that's really fun. And just kind of big wine events that.

Willow Glen is my hometown in San Jose, so I love doing that event, kind of meeting people. There's an anniversary event I'm doing in October that is a huge supporter of mine, another wine shop in San Jose.

So kind of a dappling of different things, but just trying to get people to interact with the wines is kind of the goal with the events.

Do you ever get down to the Inland Empire, the Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Riverside area?

I just did my first trip down to LA with the wines in June and I didn't get that far east.

If you're still. We'll. We'll keep you in touch. But Doug and I participate in a Brew Abilities is what it's called.

And so this coming year when they have their events, we'll reach out to you, see if you want to come down and enjoy the show.

Yeah, that'd be great.

What's. What is your space? You're in the current space and you said you're moving space. Is it because of money? Or you're expanding or what?

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so part of being small is, you know, you are using I custom crush is what is called. And so I use somebody else's space. I basically rent out some space.

And one of my big pushes for moving to the new space is that I will have access to a tasting room so then I can host people and by appointment host some events and some tastings. And so that's kind of huge again as a push for a small brand is to kind of get people to interact with the wine.

So that's kind of the big impetus to move is the access to the tasting room. It's a little bit more of a co opy space and I'll have a little more access to the wines. So that's kind of the push.

I'm a very hands on winemaker, so I like to be there and work with the wines and I do all my own analysis still. I have my little mobile lab I bring with me everywhere.

So that's something just to have access to the building and kind of off hours that, that helps a lot as a winemaker like me, that has a busy schedule. But the new space is going to be in what we call coffee park here in Santa Rosa.

And there's a lot of wineries and breweries and different things kind of within the complex. So it'll be a good kind of space to get some foot traffic, I hope.

Yeah, exactly. And then you might have to hire somebody to help you out with a tasting.

Yeah.

Besides family, where to get your wines. I notice physical locations are mostly centered around Northern California. Anywhere else.

Yeah.

So easiest way to kind of get the wines is to order straight through the website, which is Oxley O X L e e gram wines.com and then on the website there's also a tab that shows the find us under the events and you can see where we are placed. And we are mostly in Northern California, Bay area right now.

I am hoping there will be some Southern California shops that will pick us up after my last visit. So those will get added as they get placed, but it shows where the wines are, what wines are where. So those are kind of the two best resources.

All righty, let's get, let's get your web address again, your Insta handle and maybe a phone number as well. And then if somebody is intrigued and says, okay, these 100 point wines, I want to taste one, what would you say?

This is the one you gotta taste you're most proud of.

So our kind of calling card on the website is our Dale's Pinot Noir. It's named after my mother. So each of the wines also carries the name of a woman that's been inspirational to me.

So the Dales Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is sort of our calling card. What you'll see most out in the wild, as I say.

So that really captures, you know, the nuance, the complexity, kind of the velvety tannin that I like to extract from the Pinot Noir. So that's probably the best intro to everything we do, to my pedigree, all of that. But really, any of the wines are going to be fantastic.

And the Petit Bordeaux is something that when I started the winery, I knew I was making Petit Bordeaux. That's the thing I looked for the hardest to find. Kind of a special site to make that wine.

It's a wine I used to make as a blender at Paul Hobbes and always thought it deserved its own bottling. So that wine I'm super proud of, and I think it's really fantastic.

Those are probably the two I would jump on the website order first, but the white has been super popular, especially with the warmer weather we've been having in California. So they're all good?

Yes. Okay.

Okay. So our website is oxleygramwines.com that's o x l e egramwines.com our Instagram is oxleygramwines and our phone number is 700-785-24030.

Awesome, Jenny.

Yeah, no problem. Thank you both.

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