Tag Archives: winemaker Jesse Katz

Aperture — (E)State of the Art

The 2022 Aperture Chenin Blanc. (photo by Carolyn Jung)
The 2022 Aperture Chenin Blanc. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

At Aperture Estate in Healdsburg, discover art all around — from what’s in the bottle, to what’s adorning the walls, to where visitors sip these beautiful Bordeaux-style wines.

After all, winemaker and founder Jesse Katz is the son of famed photographer Andy Katz, whose photos have graced the album covers of the Doobie Brothers and Dan Fogelberg, and who has published 15 photo books.

Andy Katz’s work has brought him to more than 90 countries. And it was on many of those travels with his father, especially to France, that inspired Jesse Katz’s passion for wine-making.

The sleek building that houses the tasting room. (photo courtesy of Aperture Estate)
The sleek building that houses the tasting room. (Photo courtesy of Aperture Estate)

In fact, the winery takes its name from the aperture of a camera lens, which controls the amount of light that hits the camera sensor that affects the exposure of the image. In that vein, Jesse Katz likens what he does to “shedding light” on what Bordeaux varieties grown in its 120 acres of estate vineyards in cooler areas of Sonoma can be like.

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