Page 48 - Hong_Kong_&_Macau's_Best_Restaurants_English_edition

SAVOUR WINE & SPIRITS
Chris Hanson at his
Sonoma distillery
Braiden Albrecht of
Mayacamas
Ian and Braiden Albrecht are
the young brothers running
Mayacamas winery
46 | T .DINING 2018
them, it’s a throwback to the days when
things were done simply, naturally and with
integrity. Hanson of Sonoma is the first
certified gluten-free, USDA-organic, non-
GMO vodka in the world.
Though they’re from a generation often
criticised for impatience and entitlement,
the brothers knew that there could be no
shortcuts when it came to meeting the
labelling requirements. It took 155 different
iterations to find the recipe they ultimately
settled on for their classic vodka; they
work closely with organisations including
California Certified Organic Farmers, the
Gluten Intolerance Group, the Non-GMO
Project and 1% for the Planet to ensure the
quality of their ingredients, their facility and
their business practices. Chris and Brandon
rent winemaking facilities to make the
grape base for their spirit. However, as their
host winemaker is not certified organic,
they must endure long sessions of audited
cleanings of the fermentation tanks each
time they load them with grapes.
A walk around their facility made it clear
the multiple touchpoints the Hansons have
with their final product—from the hand-
peeling and chopping of fresh cucumbers
to the stirring of vats of California chilli
peppers, you won’t find any lab-produced
essences in their flavoured vodkas here. As
Chris put the final label on a bottle, he joked
that they’re like David going up against the
corporate Goliath monopolies of vodka.
With a bottle of Hanson of Sonoma
habanero vodka stashed securely in
my backpack, I drove a little more and
wandered into a warehouse in Sebastopol,
following a tiny sign marked “Wind Gap
Wines”. I wasn’t sure what to expect—all
I knew was that I was set to meet Carlo
Mondavi, the grandson of legendary
winemaker Robert Mondavi.
There was rock music pumping and the
space was buzzing with activity as forklifts
zipped back and forth, and fermented grape
must was shovelled from tanks to bins. I
saw the back of a guy with his head inside
a tank—and lo and behold, that turned out
to be Carlo. Much like Hanson’s start-up
model, he was renting facilities at Wind
Gap Wines to produce RAEN. It’s a brand
he recently started with his brother, Dante,
which focuses on making cool-climate pinot
noir from the Sonoma Coast—a far cry in
flavour profile from the big, bold cabernet
sauvignons his father (Tim) and grandfather
(Robert) are known for.