We are excited about the Bibiana Gonzalez Winemaker Dinner on April 5th, and you can now also come meet and taste with the winemaker behind Cattleya and Alma de Cattleya wines on Saturday April 6th for an in store wine tasting at Taylor’s Wine Shop!
For Bibiana González Rave, crafting exceptional wine takes soul, passion and a deep connection to the land. Born and raised in Colombia, Bibiana had little exposure to wine culture. By the age of 14, she knew she would become a winemaker. She moved to France, to study viticulture and oenology in Cognac. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Bordeaux, graduating with honors.
Bibiana’s constant pursuit of excellence brought her to work with some of the best wineries in France, including Château Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion and Château la Dominique in Bordeaux, Michel & Stephane Ogier and Domaine Clusel-Roch in Côte-Rôtie, Domaine du Scheidecker in Alsace and Domaine du Devevey in Burgundy.
Bibiana’s first vintage in California was 2004. She worked six harvests in three years, traveling to South Africa to work harvests at Soronsberg Cellars in the Tulbagh region. Back in California, she worked at La Crema, Peay Vineyards, Au Bon Climat and Qupé before Lynmar Estate, where she was winemaker from 2009 through early 2012.
Her label Cattleya was conceived in 2012 and so was Bibiana’s career as Consulting Winemaker. Since then, she has earned a remarkable series of accolades and rave reviews for all her wines and those of her clients. She was named one of Wine Enthusiast’s first “40 Under 40: America’s Tastemakers” in 2014 and in 2015, she was named “Winemaker of the Year” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Over the past six years Bibiana was exclusively Consulting for Wayfarer and Pahlmeyer.
In 2016, she started a new label, Alma de Cattleya, initially for distribution only in Colombia. She then partnered with her husband and the experienced wine distributor Jorge Mario Correa to create a Colombia-based boutique online shop, Tomo Vino.
Bibiana is married to winemaker Jeff Pisoni and together they craft Shared Notes, an homage to Sauvignon Blanc and their only joint winemaking venture. The couple have two young sons, Lucas and Diego.
