Zack Raines
Kuhlman Cellars Winemaker
Why Make Wine?
Zackary Raines
Harvest season is a reminder of the cyclical nature of the world. We all experience seasons of growth, bounty, dormancy, and rebirth. The fruits of that cycle, if tended correctly, will carry us through the seasons of drought and freeze. All things that grow must change. It is true of vines and it is true of communities. In celebration of the nature of change, we are excited to welcome Zachary Raines to the Kuhlman Cellars Team.
Zachary was born to the wine world. His family raised him in the middle of the Paso Robles wine boom. He has the unique experience of spending his rebellious youth around the sons and daughters of sought after winemakers and vineyard owners of the 80s and 90s.
Why Texas?
Zack felt it was time to make changes and take on new challenges in his life. Texas provides an opportunity to break out of a pattern, to step out of the comfort zone of the predictability of Paso viticulture. Zack makes it clear, “I'm not going to make Paso wine in Texas, I’m going to make Texas wine in Texas.” The challenges of viticulture are apparent but he is confident in his abilities as a winemaker. “Wine making is wine making. no matter where you are, unlike viticulture. You monitor for faults and adjust for conditions.”
While Zack was delighted to find bold, dry, complex red wine in Texas he is also excited to work on the white wines. “The best grapes are the ones you can see every day” and with this in mind he is enthusiastically anticipating working on Kuhlman’s Estate White and Roussanne.
Growth is change, without change we stagnate, and good wine is never stagnant. To repeat Zachary, “The wine is a living organism, transcending into something that will be greater than itself.” It is because of these growth opportunities that Zack, with his wife and three children, moved to Texas and is excited to be here.
As are we, Zachary.
Welcome to the team!
When asked why he chose wine making and not some other aspect of wine or some other passion all together he waxes poetic about the cycle of the vineyard and the multifaceted nature of wine making. “You’re never doing the same thing.” he says, “The wine is a living organism, transcending into something that will be greater than itself.”
Charismatic and always on the way to some other task, Zachary confesses “I love working with my hands.” He explains that wine making for him is “part mechanical, part science, and part art.”
“I love the alchemy of wine making.”
Zack comes to us from ‘Dubost’ in Paso Robles and the question that looms over his transition is one of regions. California and Texas are notoriously dissimilar. Texas has a warmer climate, it is less predictable, and the vines here are not quite in their “old vine” era.
