It produces Cabernet Sauvignon grapes with beautiful fruit flavors, spice and a brightness and firmness to a wine that ideally represented the combination of Mama Ester being a fun lady who was also a serious business woman.

Spirits A storyteller who focuses on wine and the people who make it.

The boy, Rolando Herrera, also nicknamed the little devil in his family, who could typically be caught doing everything he wasnt supposed to be doing, like climbing trees and pulling their goats tail, would only sit still on a wooden bench in the kitchen next to his grandma, named Mama Ester, as she made fresh tortillas.

Rolandos Mama Ester was a marvel of a human being and she had her own fierce inner fire.

The little boy, Rolando Herrera, would go on to not only become a Napa Valley winemaker but also own his own winery.

But for a couple months each year, during the summers, the family would go back to Mexico to live with Mama Ester and so she was a constant force in Rolandos life.

The founder and former winemaker, Warren Winiarski, must had seen something in Rolando as he invited him to become a cellar rat - constantly keeping the cellar clean as the majority of the work in the winery is cleaning.

And it was love at first sight when he saw the tanks, barrels, the cellar at 17 years old he knew that this would be his future.

Within three years he was promoted to cellar master and he stayed there ten years with Warren until that fire inside of him demanded another big challenge, and despite his great working relationship with the legendary Warren Winiarski, he needed to be more than just a cellar master.

The way they talked about the soil and the various parts of Mother Nature got me really excited and so I took the job as it reminded me how my grandma used to talk about the land.

For three years he would work 247 during harvests during his time at Chateau Potelle and in spite of it being a lot of hard work it was an amazing experience; Rolando was the cellar rat, the cellar master, the assistant winemaker, the lab technician, the vineyard manager he was doing it all.

Rolando left Chateau Potelle to become head winemaker at Vine Cliff Winery and then after that, director of winemaking for Paul Hobbs Consulting while starting his own winery Mi Sueo in 1997 with his wife.

After a few years of working for Paul Hobbs he realized that he couldnt give him 100 as he was trying to get Mi Sueo off the ground and so he made the tough decision to go his own way.

Rolando not only noted his wifes innate connection to the land but her incredible palate has always been great to have around when it came to helping him blend the wines.

So in 2003, Rolando and Lorena took the leap to give all of their energy to Mi Sueo, which is Spanish for my dream.

Rolando also developed a line of wines honoring his familys name called Herrera wines inspired by his time spent with Paul Hobbs.

The Herrera wines are single varietal small bottlings with each wine coming from three or four barrels that are noted as being extraordinary by Rolando when he is doing the final tasting before bottling.

Rolando also started his own vineyard management company as he had hired another company to manage his vineyards in the past as he felt he could only take on so much but his frustration with the work not living up to his standards really got to him and the last straw was when his vineyards did not live up to the great 2002 vintage in his opinion.

This way he can make sure that Mother Nature is allowed to always give him the best grapes as wine is mainly made in the vineyards.

Yes he loved what he did but when one is too busy trying to build something, the roots of what drives a person is not so visible to his consciousness.

Many times one has to live a lot of life before the mysteries of his character is revealed which many times is rooted in his childhood.

And this year is the first release of the Mi Sueo single vineyard named after his Mama Ester located in the Coombsville AVA of Napa Valley as he has been waiting for the right vineyard to represent this special woman for many years.

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