"“I'm 12 years old. We're in Burgundy, and all of a sudden, glasses of wine start to show up in front of me,” remembers Katz, “I'm looking around wondering if I'm going to get in trouble with my parents. That was just kind of my first introduction to wine.”"
"“There are so many microclimates,” he explains, “We have more soil diversity in Sonoma County than there are in all of France.”"
"“My goal,” he says, “is to give a sense of place and time every year with each vintage.”"
"In photography, an aperture is the camera's pupil, the opening through which light enters. To find the correct aperture, a photographer must be attuned to his subject. He must take into account the quality and strength of light, always keeping the depth of field in mind. Aperture and exposure are the X and Y axes of photography."
Jesse Katz grew up around photography and vineyards through his father, Andy Katz, whose long-term projects chronicled famous wine regions. At age 12, Katz’s first exposure to wine came in Burgundy when glasses appeared in front of him. After becoming a winemaker and working at prestigious vineyards worldwide, he opened Aperture Cellars in Healdsburg, California, naming it for his father’s photographic influence. He connects the camera aperture concept to winemaking by emphasizing attention to light, depth of field, and subject-specific conditions. As winemaker, he evaluates each lot across 200 acres in five AVAs, accounting for microclimates and soil diversity. He focuses on cooler plots in Alexander Valley and aims to let conditions shape the wine, delivering a sense of place and time each year.
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