Domaine Nicolas-Jay: Producer profile

Jay Boberg is loosening the ratchet-straps that are securing harvest bins to a flatbed trailer in preparation for the picking of Pinot Noir in the Nysa Vineyard the following dawn.

It is a late-September evening in the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the Nysa site offers a stunning panoramic view of the area, including the estate vineyards of neighbouring Domaine Drouhin Oregon.These quarter-ton bins have been hauled here by Furiosa, a rusty Dodge Ram 250 Cummins Turbo Diesel, affectionately named after Charlize Theron’s character in Mad Max: Fury Road. This weathered truck has become somewhat of an entrenched character at Domaine Nicolas-Jay, and in a sense solidifies the healthy, grounding humility that runs throughout this project.Ex-music industry power player Jay Boberg’s role in the winery runs the gamut from co-founder, winery-planner, field-sorter and harvest-bin transporter. It seems that the higher up the ladder you are in a project, the larger the chasm can be between people’s perception of that role and its reality.

‘When I’m in the market, setting up appointments with wine buyers, I often get the feeling that my music industry executive background leads them to think that I’m “the establishment” or something,’ says Jay. ‘People think I’m just the guy writing the checks and that other people get things done.’

Just minutes prior, as we headed up the washed-out dirt road leading to the Nysa Vineyard, Jay had been recalling the story of how it was his now-neighbours, Véronique Drouhin and David Millman of Domaine Drouhin Oregon, who originally encouraged him to start a winery project in the Willamette Valley.

Mere moments later, almost as if on cue and surely with ears ringing, Véronique herself drove by. With a surprised and joyous wave, she pulled over to catch up, talk over the vintage conditions, and watch the imminent, and soon-to-be stunning, sunset.

It was a serendipitous and full-circle moment, and one that brought into a different focus both how far Oregon has come with its status as a world-class winemaking region, and also how it very much feels like a tucked-away secret that only those in the know are in on.

The early years

The genesis of Domaine Nicolas-Jay occurred in 1987, when Jay Boberg met his now-business partner Jean-Nicolas Méo over conversations of wine and music at a dinner party hosted by Jay’s sister.

She had attended Penn State University along with Jean-Nicolas while he was studying abroad. Two years later, he would return to Burgundy and prepare to take the helm of Domaine Méo-Camuzet, under the tutelage of Henri Jayer.

Jay’s tenure in the music industry began in 1979 with the founding of IRS records, which would go on to launch and/or hone the careers of artists such as REM, Black Sabbath and Fine Young Cannibals. In 1993 he would become the head of Universal Music Publishing and MCA Universal Records, where he could name The Roots, Mary J Blige and Sublime as clients.

Throughout this time, a love for the great wines of the world ran deep. Serious talks of the two beginning a winery project in Oregon started in 2012, with the official creation of the label occurring the following year.

Many apt corollaries appear at the intersection of music and wine: the winemaker functioning as the producer of an album; and the blending process being analogous to the mixing of individual tracks. You can even liken the character of a wine to that of an audio signal: on one hand, a wine can be bright and clean, more treble-driven; or it could be weighty and expansive, with more prominent bass frequencies. This musical thread flows throughout the ethos and execution of winemaking at Nicolas-Jay. The team itself can be viewed this way, with Jay wearing the executive producer hat, also mirroring his role of planning, guidance and mentorship from the record label days.

The players

If his A-list, headlining act is Jean-Nicolas Méo, then his tried-and-true studio session player is Tracy Kendall. With a master’s degree from UC Davis and experience making wine in both hemispheres, Tracy serves as the executor of daily logistics at the winery and third pillar of the project as a whole. This combination of indie-rock-minded guidance, traditional Burgundian winemaking, and level-headed diligence attains a free spirited precision and class in the resulting wines.

At present, a visit to Domaine Nicolas-Jay entails being welcomed into a charming 1920’s Craftsman house in the heart of Dundee. This is the antithesis of increasingly popular flashy and fancy tasting rooms that overlook picturesque vineyards; this is a real home. There is a charm and soul to the tasting experience, which is markedly (and thankfully) absent of smoke and mirrors.

You are greeted and led by Jonathan Ziemba, director of consumer sales and hospitality, whose background includes a sommelier position at Chicago’s three-Michelin-starred Grace. His personable and humble approach matches that of service at a fine restaurant, and one that makes you feel instantly at ease and taken care of – not one in which you’re reminded how fortunate you are to have scored a table.

The wines of Domaine Nicolas-Jay clearly show the pedigree of both their affiliations and their influences. Across the board they are perfumed, expressive and well-integrated, providing a nuanced and plush drinking experience now while having the stuffing to provide an even more multi-faceted one in the future.

Winemaking

Unsurprisingly, winemaking practices are derived from those of Domaine Méo-Camuzet: grapes are harvested and field-sorted into quarter-ton bins normally used for picking cherries, in order to reduce stress and breakage among individual berries. Fruit is entirely destemmed before a four- to six-day cold soak ensues. Pump overs are favoured for the initial stages of fermentation, while punch-downs are used towards the end before the wine is barreled down.

This regimen of gentle handling, or ‘vine to vat’ as they have coined it, is integral in achieving their silky, snappy texture. Once in barrel, the wines spend 15 months in French oak, the majority of which is François Frères.

The single-site wines receive about 50% new oak, and for the signature Willamette Valley blend about one-third of the wood used is new. This latter blend is the centerpiece of the project, and allows Jean-Nicolas greater freedom in combining vineyard sources than the esteemed and historical holdings of Méo-Camuzet make possible.

The vines

The flagship of the Nicolas-Jay vineyard sources is their 5.5ha organically farmed, own-rooted estate site, Bishop Creek. Pinot Noir vines were planted in 1988 on the site’s sandstone, silt and shale soils, with a mainly southwest aspect.

While tasting the fruit from dozens of sites to narrow down possibilities, Bishop Creek was an early standout. ‘We liked the structure and the intensity, and of course the fact that it is own-rooted. And that was before we knew it was for sale,’ says Jean-Nicolas. ‘It is densely planted and on a slope – Bishop Creek is a very Burgundian-looking vineyard.’

Even outside of Bishop Creek, most of the fruit that Nicolas-Jay works with comes from own-rooted vines, which tend to instill another level of aromatic intensity and length on the palate than vines that have been grafted. Working with own-rooted vines adds to the list of things that Jean-Nicolas gets to play with in Oregon that just aren’t possible in Burgundy. ‘We know we are at risk there, but nonetheless, when you make wine in Europe it’s just not something you can do.’

Since the founding of the winery in 2013, Nicolas-Jay has crafted its wines in neighbouring cellars – first at Adelshiem Vineyard and later at Sokol-Blosser Winery. In mid-2018 however, it secured a 20ha property in the Dundee Hills, which will serve as the permanent home for the winery. Plans for planting an estate vineyard at this site are already underway.

‘We will plant the estate vineyard in two phases,’ says Jay Boberg. ‘The first will be using existing clones from Bishop Creek, and the second will involve Jean-Nicolas bringing Méo-Camuzet plantings over from France.’

With a home base and a growing roster of estate vineyard sites, this at once new yet established producer has positioned itself to be inescapably present in the conversations of the top names in the Willamette Valley.

Tasting the Domaine Nicolas-Jay range:

Domaine Nicolas-Jay: the facts

Date founded: 2014

Location: Willamette Valley, Oregon


Owners: Jean-Nicolas Méo and Jay Boberg

Production: 3,500 cases

Area under vine: 5.5ha at Bishop Creek with additional fruit sourced from the following vineyards: Temperance Hill, Hyland, Knight’s Gambit, Nysa, Hopewell, Momtazi, La Colina

Domaine Nicolas-Jay: a timeline

1987: Jay Boberg and Jean-Nicolas meet at a dinner at Jay’s sister’s house in Philadelphia, where Jean-Nicolas and Jill were enrolled at Penn State University in a Masters program

1989: Jean-Nicolas returns to his family’s domaine, Domaine Méo-Camuzet, and works alongside Henri Jayer, preparing to take over winemaking in 1991

2011: Véronique Drouhin and David Millman of Domaine Drouhin Oregon encourage Jay Boberg to look into the Willamette Valley for a future wine project

2012: Jay approaches longtime friend Jean-Nicolas about starting a winery together in Oregon

2012/13: Jean-Nicolas makes many trips to Oregon to visit cellars with Jay, tasting fruit from more than 200 vineyards

2013: Domaine Nicolas-Jay is officially founded

2014: Nicolas-Jay purchases the organically farmed Bishop Creek Vineyard

2014: The winery produced its inaugural Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, as well as estate bottlings from Bishop Creek Vineyard and Nysa Vineyard

2015: Chardonnay is planted at Bishop Creek Vineyard

2018: Nicolas-Jay buys a 20ha property in the Dundee Hills and begins work on their building a winery and planting additional estate vineyards

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