For Dot Wine co-founder Lise Asimont, great wines begin in the vineyards. Photo by Christina Gavin
By Keesa Ocampo
One of California wine country’s most influential women is Lise Asimont, who is a force to be reckoned with in the world of ultra-premium winegrowing. Lise has worked with some of the biggest and best wine brands in California, meticulously managing acres of vineyards to optimize wine quality while promoting sustainability and responsible land stewardship. These vineyards were her universities, where she learned to speak the language of the soil, translating it to the grapes, and letting the wines tell the great California story.
After long days on the vineyards, Lise and her husband, Shawn would blind taste wine. He simply could not find her a Pinot Noir that she loved so he dared her to make her own. In 2016, they launched Dot Wine. Lise and Shawn created a simple formula to make wines they love: take exceptional fruit from exceptional vineyards grown by exceptional growers, and bring them straight to consumers with the least possible intervention.
Winemaking still continues to be a male-dominated craft but every year, more women of color are breaking ground, blazing trails, and entering into the wine industry. Lise recalls starting her career 24 years ago and finding that the only other women of color in the industry to take her under their wing were the handful of field workers she worked with, who helped her understand the Mexican American field laborer culture. “Being Filipina, I resembled a Latinx field worker, but lacked the language and culture to be an effective manager. They changed that by guiding me and inviting me to their homes to learn Spanish and cook alongside them,” Lise shared. “There are far less women of color on the winemaking side of the industry, however the few are extremely collaborative and supportive.”
Grape-growing and wine-making are meticulous processes that take patience, love, and nurturing. Lise shares that her favorite part is, “Definitely being in vineyards; how we do the best with what scientific knowledge we have about viticulture, but it’s really about your boots in the vineyard and being at peace that Mother Nature drives each vintage. It’s really humbling when you know that no matter your accomplishments, there is always much you need to learn in vineyards.”
Viticulturist and vintner Lise Asimont and her husband, Shawn Philips, published hort couture gardener.
Photo by Christina Gavin.
But often, and more frequently it seems in recent years, Mother Nature has intervened in powerful ways. California’s wine country has seen some of the most devastating fires that have not only taken entire vineyards, but also the homes of those who tend to their care. Lise’s family has been evacuated from their home thrice in the last four years.
In the wine industry, the 2020 vintage changed everything. “Prior to that time, wildfires and smoke exposure really only affected specific regions and the fires and risk occurred later in harvest around October. In 2020, much of California, Oregon and Washington were affected at the start of harvest and then additional fires occurred,” Lise says. “For Dot Wine, we lost over half of our production due to the 2020 fires. We were able to produce three beautiful wines that year, and I highly recommend that any 2020 vintage wine you buy is not only precious, but beautiful. As the gatekeepers of wine quality, winemakers are not going to make smoke tainted wines and ruin our reputations.”
The earth and its winemakers are resilient with the layered challenges they face. As with any product, success and quality start from the very beginning. Whether it’s an idea, a canvas, or a seed, each step of the process shapes the final outcome. That is the story of every bottle of Dot Wine.
When asked about the most remarkable lesson that the volatility and dynamism of the industry has to offer, Lise shares, “Have a true north in your work and be authentic to that and yourself. I’m never going to be a middle-aged white male making wines from my family’s palatial estate, and that’s a common image portrayed in the wine industry. But I am a middle-aged Pinay working mom in a mixed race marriage, and we were amazed to find out that the consumer world is welcoming and needing this representation.”
Such is the brand story of some of the best Pinot Noirs and vintages coming from wine country today. Every vintage, different. Every sip, the best of California soil. This happens when you only make the wines you love in true Lise Asimont style.
2018 Lyrik Pinot Noir, $45
Vintner’s Pick: “I’m currently in love with the 2018’s. It was such a big vintage, but the wines are gorgeous, deep and complex.”
2019 Chardonnay
Author’s Pick: “This is one of the most beautiful California Chardonnays I’ve ever had - unoaked and exploding with tropical pineapple and floral Meyer lemon. Finding something as remarkably perfect in its balance and quality will be very difficult.”