HALLECK VINEYARD AND MUSICIAN JOSH GROBAN TEAM UP ON A LABEL THAT SUPPORTS YOUTH ARTS EDUCATION
story by Eric Schwartzman
When he answered the phone in 2013, Ross Halleck didn’t know who the Grammy award–winning, multiplatinum singer/songwriter Josh Groban was.
Ross lives in the rolling hills of Sebastopol, California, where he grows grapes and makes wine at Halleck Vineyard. His first release, from the 2002 vintage, was called “exceptional” by Los Angeles Times wine columnist Dan Berger and earned the title of “Best of Class, #1 Pinot Noir in the United States” at the Pinot Noir Summit.
Pinot, which Ross has been making ever since, is Groban’s favorite wine variety. The musician had tasted Halleck’s wine and was calling to invite him to collaborate on a project: He wanted to join forces on a new Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir to benefit youth arts education through his Find Your Light Foundation. But Groban wasn’t about to just slap his name on just any bottle. He wanted to make a wine that would be just as remarkable as the Halleck Vineyard Pinot he’d tasted—one that Pinotphiles would jones for. And he was ready to roll up his sleeves and become part of the winemaking process.
Ross and his ex-wife Jennifer Halleck begat three sons, all of whom went on to become artists. Their marriage ended in 2002, but they still co-parent their fourth child—namely Halleck Vineyard itself. Side by side, they produce fewer than 2,500 cases of their distinctive, cool-climate Sonoma County wines each year for their wine-club members and for the intimate tasting salons that they host at their Sebastopol estate. After listening to Groban’s music, they were sold. The reason they’d started their microwinery, after all, was to build community through wine.
There are countless similarities between making music and making wine. For starters, both are callings that require creativity, technique, and improvisation; there is no scientific formula for producing a great wine any more than there is for composing a hit song. “You can have all the technique in the world, but you either have the ear for great music or you don’t,” says Groban. “The same thing goes for wine. You can know everything about wine. But as a winemaker, you either know what tastes good or you don’t.” Adds Ross, “We use metaphors to describe the flavors and the smells of wine because language isn’t big enough to express our experience. We’re trying to have shared understanding, but the understanding is far less important than the experience of sharing.”
When Groban came to visit Halleck Vineyard, he and Ross tasted 24 60-gallon barrels of Pinot Noir and narrowed it down to their three favorites. After taking a break for a drive down the foggy Sonoma Coast—because in winemaking, as in art and life, it’s important to take breaks to clear your palate and rejuvenate your senses—the duo went back to the winery for a barrel blending session and decided to mix the Haas Vineyard Pinot with the Farm Vineyard Pinot. (The 2014 vintage that Ross made from the latter went on to be judged “Best of Class” at the 2019 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the world’s largest American wine contest.) The result: Halleck Vineyard Find Your Light Pinot Noir.
Groban got his start at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, a free public school teeming with aspiring actors, dancers, musicians, and artists. “In a world where we’ve never been more confused, where there’s never been more anxiety and division, arts programs are suffering—they’re the first to get cut,” he points out. “And it’s because of collaborations like ours that we can raise the funds to make sure that future generations can pursue their professional dreams as well.” Groban was also a finalist in the Los Angeles Music Center’s annual Spotlight, a youth-arts awards program whose alumni include American Ballet Theater principal dancer Misty Copeland and Grammy Award–winning jazz recording artist Gerald Clayton.
Ultimately, the Hallecks produced four vintages of the Find Your Light Pinot Noir with Groban. “This [wine] is the closest thing I’ve tasted to a French Burgundy. I get just a little bit of spice, a little bit of earthiness—it just feels absolutely perfect,” says the singer, who has just announced that he will be performing as the demon barber of Fleet Street in Sweeney Todd on Broadway come February. “People have different tastes. I don’t love a super-sweet Riesling, for instance. It’s not a wine I enjoy. . . . You’re never going to please everybody all the time. But you try to make something that’s your expression in your voice. This wine is our voice together.”
As we move into the season of giving, order all four bottles and enjoy them with friends as you support the next generation of artists who will help us dream about how the world could be (in spite of the way that it is). And join the Halleck Vineyard Inner Circle Wine Club while you’re at it.
Eric Schwartzman is editor of the Sonoma Wine Tasting Blog and author of The Digital Pivot: Secrets of Online Marketing.
