What Boutique Napa Winery has New York Roots? Crossby Roamann a Boutique Napa Winery with New York roots
Often when I am impressed, I have difficulty organizing my ideas, and this was the case with Crosby Roamann. So I got very excited because this story is very inspiring. New Yorker-born Seann McBride moves to Napa after a few career changes. After working for Folio Wine, he made his dream come true. Sean become a winemaker doing very elegant Pinot Noirs for his small boutique winery.
Wow, did that summary impress you already? Wait, let me tell you the fine details.
Crossby Roamann, from storytelling to winemaking
Sean grew up in New York City with a documentary filmmaker father and a mother who worked in financial communications. Both understood the power of informative storytelling and shared that with their son. Therefore, Sean ended up studying Philosophy and Latin at university. It was during this time that Sean was first exposed to fine wine. Growing up, his family occasionally had wine on the table. For instance, Franzia for his grandfather or a bottle of inexpensive Montepulciano for family pizza night. In college, his education began while working as a stock boy at a wine and cheese store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As he relays, “I wanted to find an
American wine that tasted like the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo I grew up with, only to learn that it didn’t exist.Therefore, this seed would become my fascination and obsession with the world of fine wine.
After college, he took his first trip to Italy, visiting areas that produced the wines he had explored. It nurtured the seed that would grow into his love for fine wine and food. Upon returning home, while working at his mother’s communications firm, Sean decided to study English Literature at Columbia University. He aimed to be a writer but ended up working as a production assistant on shows like Sex and The City and MTV Cribs ultimately left him feeling hollow, searching for his own story to tell. Still waiting to be fulfilled, after landing a job at Twentieth Century Fox, he decided to start in a new direction – studying at Brooklyn Law School.
It was during law school that Sean and his wife Juliana took a trip that changed the course of their lives. On route from San Francisco for a wedding, they drove up Highway 1 along the coast through Stinson Beach through the Marin Headlands, crossed the Petaluma Gap and Sonoma Mountain, and went to Napa Valley. Hence,they saw themselves in paradise and were determined to return.
Crossby Roamann a Boutique Napa Winery with New York roots
As they began raising their twin daughters in Brooklyn, Sean joined a tasting group, and they produced their first barrel of Napa Cabernet in 2007. They returned to Northern California, began scouting custom crush locations in Napa for the 2009 vintage, and settled on a small family-run estate called White Rock Vineyards. Sean spent most of harvest 2009 in Napa, learning the craft of winemaking from Christopher Vandendriessche. By mid-2010, Sean and Juliana had sold their apartment and drove west to California with their daughters. Intent on learning the craft, Sean made wine at White Rock for five years. He simultaneously made wine at Michael Mondavi’s FOLIO winery for three years before the couple opened their winery in the Crusher District in 2015.
For Sean, family comes first, but his goal as a winemaker is to make delicious wine that everyone can enjoy. For this avid home gardener and cook, sharing wines and the fruits of all their labor with friends and family is the greatest gift.
Crossby Roamann Wines and their Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs.
Single Vineyard Pinot Noir grapes from diverse vineyards in the Anderson Valley, Santa Cruz Mountains, the Sonoma Coast, and Carneros are used by Crosby Roamann to create a stunning range of wines. Winemaker Sean McBride is obsessed with the idea of producing terroir-driven wines that uphold traditional values. He works with various alternate partner vineyards based on site-specificity, viticultural techniques, and good old-fashioned good vibes. With a nod to his Irish heritage and twin daughters, a few vineyard lots are named after ancient and modern Irish girl names. In addition, the winery’s unique logo is based on the oldest recorded coat of arms for the McBride family. I recently tried their Single Pinot Noirs below.
Fiadh Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley (SRP: $48)
Light ruby on the eyes and elegant aromas of graphite, vanilla, and musk is present. The palate presents cooked fruits, earthy notes of mushrooms, a very rounded, lengthy finish, and an elegant mouthfeel.
“Fiadh” is an Irish girl’s name meaning “wild” and “untamed” – just like this wine.
Aisling Vineyard Pinot Noir, Los Carneros, Napa Valley (SRP: $42)
Medium ruby with fruit-forward aromas and flavors of strawberry, black tea, and black pepper, like chocolate-covered strawberries on the finish. A very easy-to-drink Pinot Noir, an honor the crowd pleaser characteristic of California’s cold weather Pinot.
Aisling is an Irish name meaning “dream” or “vision.” Aisling is also a poetic genre developed in Irish poetry.
I genuinely admire the persistence of a dreamer when the dreams are now their reality…
Martha C. aka WineDivaa
Wines of California – Read more
