Weather
The Pine Tree, News for Calaveras County and Beyond Weather
Amador Angels Camp Arnold Bear Valley Copperopolis Murphys San Andreas Valley Springs Moke Hill/West Point Tuolumne
News
Business Directory
Weather & Roads
Sports
Real Estate
Search
Weekly & Grocery Ads
Entertainment
Life & Style
Government
Law Enforcement
Business
Wine News
Health & Fitness
Home & Garden
Food & Dining
Religion & Faith
Frogtown USA
Calendar
Polls
Columns
Free Classifieds
Letters to the Editor
Obituaries
About Us

Coming Soon...
Friday, Mar 22
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program
Saturday, Mar 23
All Day Saturday, March 23: Green Sand Molding & Foundry Practice Workshop at Knight Foundry
All Day Calaveras Gem & Mineral Society's Gem & Jewelry Show is March 23 & 24
10:00 AM Calaveras Gem and Mineral Show 2024
10:00 AM Calaveras Gem & Mineral Show 3/23 & 3/24
Sunday, Mar 24
All Day Calaveras Gem & Mineral Society's Gem & Jewelry Show is March 23 & 24
All Day Our Sunday Edition with Local Features, Local Specials & More Every Sunday All Day Long!
Until 05:00 AM Calaveras Gem and Mineral Show 2024
Until 05:00 PM Calaveras Gem & Mineral Show 3/23 & 3/24
Tuesday, Mar 26
01:30 PM Calaveras Community Blood Drive, Tuesday March 26
Friday, Mar 29
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program
Sunday, Mar 31
All Day Our Sunday Edition with Local Features, Local Specials & More Every Sunday All Day Long!
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program

Log In
Username

Password

Remember Me



The Grapvine

Calaveras County Wine News & Happenings!

She Wines!
The beginning of Chatom Vineyards has always been a talking point. The fact that in 1980,
Gay Callen moved all alone from San Francisco to a remote ranch in Calaveras County, with a vision to
start a vineyard - makes a lot of people stop in their tracks. Especially when you throw in the fact that
Gay’s education and professional career had been based in technology & marketing and that the majority
of the local ranchers thought she was completely crazy for planting a vineyard in the Esmeralda Valley.
Since then however, Gay has built and preserved one of the most respected wineries in the Sierra Foothills
- a winery that for a large part of it’s history, has been operated almost entirely by women. However, we
must not leave out the fact that there has always been men working in the vineyard and the cellar as well.
In fact, the same two men David Bassham & Larry Rush have managed the vineyard since it first began in
1981. For the most part though, Gay has always kept a talented group of women in key positions on her
team.

Women like Mari Wells, a very accomplished winemaker that became part of the Chatom team
in 2002. Chatom Vineyards had then become a winery not only owned by a woman and mostly operated
by women, it had a female winemaker as well! That fact began to get around and Chatom became known
as the “female winery.” So when Mari had extra Zinfandel in the cellar, she had the idea to
blend it and create a red wine made “by women, for women” and to call it “She Wines.” The idea took
off from there and the first She Wine was released in July of 2004.

Today, Chatom can’t exactly call itself the “female winery” anymore. Mari has moved on and in
her place Gay hired an incredibly talented winemaker, named Mark Künz. Mark embraced the She
Wines and helped to produce the next vintages of a Merlot blend and Semillon, which were released in
2005. In keeping with the “Girl Power” theme Chatom also decided to donate proceeds from the She
Wines to women’s health related charities ~ donating partial proceeds from the She Red towards Heart
Disease Research and partial proceeds from the She White towards Breast Cancer Research. And let’s
just say, “this is only the beginning .”

Not only is today's woman spicy, sexy, smooth and sensual ~ she also looks out for her sisters!

Created on 07/11/2006 09:52 PM by thepinetree
Updated on 08/08/2006 01:46 PM by thepinetree
 Printable Version

What's Related
These might interest you as well
Local News

phpws Business Directory

Photo Albums

Web Pages


Mark Twain Medical Center
Meadowmont Pharmacy
Angels & San Andreas Memorial Chapels
Bear Valley Real Estate
Gerard Insurance
Bank of Stockton
Fox Security
Bistro Espresso
Chatom Winery
Middleton's Furniture
Bear Valley Mountain Resort
Cave, Mine & Zip Lines
High Country Spa & Stove
Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
Sierra Logging Museum Calaveras Mentoriing
Jenny's Kitchen

Copyright © The Pine Tree 2005-2023