The Magazine of Rice University
SUMMER 2018
The WINE WILDCATTER At Rhys Vineyards, Kevin Harvey’s attention to detail, data and dirt is producing wines of complex beauty.
ALSO in this special issue
From iced coffee and bubble tea to craft beer and sipping tequilas, our summer issue highlights the innovative spirit of Rice alumni in the beverage industry. Recipes, too!
P H OTO BY J E F F F I T LO W ; I L LU ST R AT I O N BY LU CY E N G E L M A N
SUMMER 2018
contents 4 Beans
Hot, cold, brewed, frothed or pressed, coffee takes on many forms and our baristas are ready to fill it to the brim.
12 Grapes
Some grow, some produce and some recommend — these Rice alums know their way around the vine.
24Mixing Fruit & Fizz fresh fruits and vegetables, our recipes are sure to quench any summertime thirst.
28 Hops
There’s a science to brewing beer, and Rice’s brew crews have turned hops and dreams into a stout business.
34 Spirits
From homegrown Texas whiskey to Mexican blue agave tequila, entrepreneurship plays a key role in successful distilling.
44 Leaves
New kinds of tea — kombucha, bubble and herb — are tipping teapots the world over.
The Magazine of Rice University
Featured Contributors Rose Cahalan ’10 (“On the Nose”) is managing editor at the Texas Observer in Austin and also edits the magazine’s arts and culture coverage. Previously, she was senior editor at the Alcalde, the University of Texas at Austin alumni magazine.
Ray Isle ’85 (“Taste of Success”) is the executive wine editor for Food & Wine magazine in New York City. A native Houstonian, he has been nominated twice for a James Beard Award and has twice won the IACP Award for Narrative Beverage Writing.
Keith Dannemiller (“The New Agave”) is a documentary photographer based in Mexico City, where he has lived for the last 30 years. He exhibits his photography throughout Mexico and the United States and publishes his photojournalism internationally.
Maya Kroth (“The New Agave”) is an Atlanta-based freelance print and radio journalist who primarily covers human interest stories in Latin America. Her work focuses on women, urban design, food and drinks, culture and travel.
The Magazine of Rice University SUMMER 2018 Rice Magazine is published four times a year and is sent to university alumni, faculty, staff, parents of undergraduates and friends of the university. Published by the Office of Public Affairs Linda Thrane, vice president EDITOR
Lynn Gosnell ART DIRECTOR
Alese Pickering CREATIVE SERVICES
Jeff Cox SENIOR DIRECTOR
Dean Mackey SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jackie Limbaugh GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Katharine Shilcutt (“The Founders”) is a native Houstonian who previously served as managing editor at Houstonia Magazine and food critic at the Houston Press. She is currently a media relations specialist at Rice.
Alice Levitt, author of several stories in this issue, is a Houston-based freelance writer specializing in food, travel and medicine. Most recently, Levitt was the dining editor and critic at Houstonia Magazine.
Tracey Rhoades EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Kyndall Krist ASSISTANT EDITOR
Tommy LaVergne SENIOR UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff Fitlow UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER
Jennifer Evans PROOFREADER
Stacy Zarin Goldberg (“Capital Brew”) is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C. Her work has been shown at galleries along the East Coast and her photographs are regularly featured in several local, regional and national publications.
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Nico Oved (“Taste of Success”) is a Canadian photographer who specializes in portrait, food and lifestyle photography. He currently lives in Oakland, Calif., but previously lived in Brazil, where he became fluent in Portuguese and worked on his samba skills.
INTERN
Taegan Howells ’18
THE RICE UNIVE RSITY BOARD OF TRUSTE ES
Robert B. Tudor III, chairman; Edward B. “Teddy” Adams Jr.; J.D. Bucky Allshouse; Nancy Packer Carlson; Albert Chao; T. Jay Collins; Mark D. Dankberg; Ann Doerr; Douglas Lee Foshee; Terrence Gee; Lawrence H. Guffey; James T. Hackett; Tommy Huie; Patti Lipoma Kraft; Robert T. Ladd; L. Charles Landgraf; Brian Patterson; David Rhodes; Ruth J. Simmons; Jeffery A. Smisek; Amy L. Sutton; Gloria Meckel Tarpley; Guillermo Treviño; Scott Wise; Huda Y. Zoghbi. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE RS
David W. Leebron, president; Marie Lynn Miranda, provost; Kathy Collins, vice president for Finance; Klara Jelinkova, vice president for IT and international operations and chief information officer; Kevin Kirby, vice president for Administration; Caroline Levander, vice president for global and digital strategy; Yvonne Romero Da Silva, vice president for Enrollment; Allison Kendrick Thacker, vice president for Investments and treasurer; Linda Thrane, vice president for Public Affairs; Richard A. Zansitis, vice president and general counsel; Darrow Zeidenstein, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations.
MAGAZINE.RICE.EDU
I N T H IS ISSU E, W E SE RV E U P all things beverage related — from unconventional pairings and creative recipes to stories about alumni experts in the wine, beer, tea, coffee and spirits industries. There’s more! Find online exclusives and web extras at magazine.rice.edu. WEB EXTRA
ON L I N E E XC LUS I V E
How to Make Kombucha Camella Clements ’02, an avid fermenter and teacher, takes you through the process step by step in her homemade kombucha recipe.
Nice People When Ryan Levy ’97 (pictured above) decided to leave a law career and pursue his interest in the culinary field, he and partner Ian Eastveld went all in — attending Le Cordon Bleu, starting a restaurant and ultimately opening the Houstonbased Nice Winery. His business model? “Follow your passion with reckless abandon.”
ON L I N E E XC LUS I V E
The RayZyn Tour In addition to fine wines, owner Andrew Cates ’06, and his family also created The Wine RayZyn Co., which sells Segassia Vineyard’s dried merlot, cabernet and chardonnay grapes as snacks. Today, Cates is promoting the tasty products via a nationwide tour.
ST ORY E X T R A
Cold Brew Is Extra Hot Austin-based Chameleon Cold-Brew was founded by Chris Campbell ’01 and Steve
Williams in 2010. Last fall, the fast-growing, communityfocused company was sold to Nestlé. Campbell remains as CEO and preserves Chameleon’s commitment to direct trade and sustainable sourcing. ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Worldwide Wine Expert As a leading executive at Treasury Wine Estates, Robert Foye ’88 brings an international perspective and discerning taste to the business of wine. We talked with Foye about his recent relocation to the U.S. from China as well as the complicated business of wine distribution.
E DITORIAL OFFICES
TO P R I G H T: P H OTO BY TO M M Y L AV E R G N E
Creative Services–MS 95 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 Phone: 713-348-6768 ricemagazine@rice.edu
On the Cover
Social Media Do you tweet? Rice Magazine shares news and views — and connects with alumni around the world — via our Twitter account. @RiceMagazine
POSTMASTE R
Send address changes to: Rice University Development Services– MS 80 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 © July 2018 Rice University
Photo by Nico Oved
Are you more of a visual person? Would you like to see more of Rice’s beautiful campus? Catch our behind-the-scenes photos, campus shots and more via Instagram. @Rice_Magazine m aga z i n e . ric e . e du 3
Beans Ana Builes ’14 travels the world to discover how coffee goes from bean to cup. Logan Beck ’09 creates a retro-futuristic coffee shop in Houston. We serve up Rice Coffeehouse by the numbers. Chris Campbell ’01 shares a recipe from his pioneering cold-brew business.
WORLD CAFÉ After graduation, Ana Builes spent a year visiting the biggest coffee-producing countries in the world in an effort to discover the secrets behind one of the world’s most popular drinks.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANA BUILES ’14
m aga z i n e . ric e . e du   5
Santos, a seasonal worker, picking cherries during the harvest
Ana Builes ’14 spent a postgraduate year traveling the world courtesy of a Roy and Hazel Zeff Fellowship for independent study. The Colombia native chose to study coffee’s journey — through its production and its people — around the world. “I started my journey in Central America and made my way through South America, East Africa and Southeast Asia. Throughout, I explored coffee from bean to cup and got to meet the incredible people involved in the production of our favorite brew.” Builes illustrates different stages of coffee production — harvesting, processing and selling — through the perspective of farmers from three countries. 6
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MEXICO
Where I learned how coffee is harvested on a large farm I started my journey in Mexico, where coffee is predominantly grown in the southernmost state of Chiapas. It is not a plant native to the Americas. Coffee, born in Ethiopia, flourished in the colonial New World of appropriated land and slave labor. The coffee tree was first introduced to the lush shores of Hispaniola, what is now the island split by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From there it quickly spread all over Central and South America. I spent my first day in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas, in a small museum dedicated to coffee. The museum was quiet at that early hour, and I struck up a conversation with its only other inhabitant, a thin man who filled the empty rooms with a boundless stream of stories. Ricardo, coincidentally, was a coffee farmer. He would become my first guide into the world of coffee. After telling him of my planned travels around the world, Ricardo offered to take me to his farm the next day. At dawn,
we met at an empty gas station and began the seven-hour journey into the mountains. Ricardo, of course, did all the talking. In the passing hours, some of the topics mentioned were these: faltering coffee farms in Mexico eaten up by pests that thrive in the rising temperatures of a heated planet; the struggle of growing coffee trees in a country where politicians care only about the kinds of trees that grow money and powerful friends; the beautiful promises of fairtrade cooperatives and the ugly truths that lay beneath. “These cooperatives, the ones you like — they sneeze and they catch pneumonia. In other words, it’s not easy, is it?” After a bruising last push through the mountains, we arrived at the farm. The coffee trees were arranged in neatly spaced rows across several hills, like lines drawn on a sheet long enough to fit one of Ricardo’s stories. We walked through the endless rows of green while Ricardo explained how the coffee was grown and harvested on his farm. The coffee we drink every morning is actually the seed of a small cherry, grown in tropical, mountainous places around the world. Although there are thousands of coffee species, only two are widely grown: Arabica and robusta. Arabica is grown at higher altitudes and produces better quality coffee — this is what you will find at your regular Starbucks. Robusta, as the name implies, is made of hardier stuff and can hold its own at lower altitudes while producing more coffee per tree. Ricardo, like most farmers in the area, chose the route of quality over quantity and planted only Arabica on his farm. “We do it, how do the gringos say? State of the art. We want to grow the best coffee to get the best price possible.” Starting in late December each year, the farm swells with migrant workers drawn to the ripening cherries, ready to start the harvest. I joined the harvest for a day with Santos, a young woman from northern Guatemala who had been coming to the
farm every season for the past five years. Throughout the day, Santos made her way across the rows, carefully picking only ripe, red cherries and slowly filling her costal. Once the large basket was brimming with fruit, she made her way down the hill toward the central processing station. At the station, Santos stood behind other pickers with her costal. Once her turn came up, a manager dumped the
THE COFFEE WE DRINK EVERY MORNING IS ACTUALLY THE SEED OF A SMALL CHERRY, GROWN IN TROPICAL, MOUNTAINOUS PLACES AROUND THE WORLD. heavy basket of cherries into a container lined with measurements. A woman with a ledger sat nearby, carefully noting the volume next to each picker’s name. At the end of the season, Santos collects her earnings by the weight of her harvest. After the cherries were measured, the manager pulled a lever and released the bottom of the container, spilling hundreds of cherries into a vast vat where the processing began.
KENYA
Where I learned how the cherries are processed to separate the coffee bean from the fruit Powered by water, the cherries are forcibly removed from the sticky seeds of what eventually becomes coffee in a widely used method aptly called wet processing. In Mount Kenya, I joined a small cooperative in the midst of the hectic harvest. Farmers with small plots of land picked the cherries themselves and carried them down the road to the wet mill to begin the process. Daniel, the president of the cooperative who owns the mill, invited me to stay with his family for a couple of days. Before the harvest began, Daniel walked me around the limits of the small town. The farmers divided their land into tracts of coffee and tea. As we walked, we saw bended waists emerging softly among the tea leaves. Each woman carried a basket on her back and efficiently picked her way through the rows. At the edges of the town, I noticed barbed wire fencing holding back the wild forests of the mountain. “That’s to keep the elephants from trampling us,” Daniel explained. Daniel and the rest of the farmers are Kikuyu, the most populous and politically significant ethnic group in Kenya. Brought to the country by Scottish mis-
The coffee harvest near Nairobi, Kenya
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sionaries, coffee was originally plunder for Kenya’s British colonizers. After the country’s liberation, coffee cooperatives became the source of new African political and economic leadership. Kenyan coffee, with its consistent quality, became highly sought after the world over. Now, however, some farmers wonder whether the famously finicky bean is worth the expense. We walked back to the mill where farmers had spread the day’s harvest on a tarp. Before loading the cherries into the mill, Kenyan farmers take the extra step of sorting to pick out any defects, like green cherries. This is another layer of quality control that goes into the production of a great coffee. Once finished, each farmer carried a bucketful of cherries to the mill and dumped it in the running water to begin the process. The cherries were channeled into a pulper, a whirling machine that peels off the fruit and leaves behind the sticky beans covered in pulp. The beans were then carried along a waterway into large tanks, where they sat for hours to allow fermentation to remove the pulpy exterior of the bean. In Kenya, unlike most countries around the world, the beans are then fermented again to ensure a truly clean and complex cup of coffee with no latent taste of rotting fruit. After fermentation was finished and the beans manually washed, the coop-
erative moved the coffee onto large drying racks to bring down the moisture content. At this point, the coffee bean is surrounded by a thin skin called the parchment. Drying the coffee properly requires patience and exquisite precision — not too fast, not too slow, not too dry, definitely not too wet, but just right. The Goldilocks treatment can take weeks depending on the weather, and at any point, years of hard work can be undone. Now we waited and watched.
VIETNAM
Where, after all that work, I talked to a farmer about the difficulty of selling coffee Finally, the coffee must be sold. At the end of my travels, I stayed with a farmer in the highlands of Central Vietnam. The rest of the country is hot and humid, but deep in the mountains in the midst of the rainy season I shivered my way through the nights. A friend from a nearby city agreed to take me on the back of his motorcycle out to the small farm. We drove through the torrential rains fast enough that the droplets became bruising bullets, and I stopped trying to keep my eyes open. After several hours we arrived at the small house where the farmer, Djim, came out to greet me. My Vietnamese barely stretched to include “thank you,” and he did not speak a word of English. Surprisingly, the language
A greenhouse where future coffee trees are nurtured
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that connected us was French. “Ça va?” French colonists originally brought coffee to Vietnam. Most of the coffee production was centered on the Central Highlands of Vietnam — high, cool places where coffee grew well. After the French left and Americans came in, the center of Vietnam became a boundary splitting the country between colonialism and communism. Nevertheless, coffee, the colonial invention, persisted. After the war, Vietnam became the second-largest producer of coffee in the world. Instead of relying on highquality Arabica, Vietnam decided to bet big on the hardier robusta, flooding the market with cheap coffee. Most of the Vietnamese harvest grows up to become the instant coffees of the world. There are, however, a few farmers in Vietnam who reject the ecological disaster that is the current model of coffee production. One of those farmers is Djim. Djim is an ethnic minority, known by the French as the Montagnards, a catch-all term for the various indigenous groups settled in the mountains. The Montagnards were sympathetic to the French and American cause and joined in the fight against the communist North. Many turned back to subsistence agriculture after the disastrous war, planting rice and coffee. Djim and his family decided to work with Arabica beans. It was a big bet in a country that prizes big returns and has little interest in coffee research and production. After two days of quiet, I drove with Djim and his family farther up the mountain to his small plot of land. The farm was next to an encroaching construction site that had stripped the mountain dry. We spent the next couple of days silently pruning the trees, only stopping to eat a lunch of tofu and veggies they had thoughtfully prepared when they found out I did not eat meat. Through our broken French, occasionally improved by a quick flip through a tattered French dictionary, Djim told me about the struggle of living off the unexpected. Coffee busi-
Overseeing a coffee plantation in Chiapas, Mexico
nesses do not come to Vietnam looking to purchase high-quality coffee. He joined a cooperative of indigenous farmers who hoped to collectively improve the quality of their land and harvest. The cooperative has grown and the idea of quality Vietnamese coffee is not the contradiction it once was. During the war, the Montagnards chose to ally themselves with foreigners. Now, Djim and his indigenous cooperative are once again looking to the outside world, hoping to convince coffee drinkers to start their morning with a cup of Vietnamese origin. Like most coffee-producing countries, Vietnam exports almost all of its coffee to the Western world. Much of the coffee that Djim has sold throughout his lifetime has been bought by traders and then sold to far-flung places, places only his coffee would go and he would never reach. The money has never been good — Djim makes just enough and some-
MUCH OF THE COFFEE THAT DJIM HAS SOLD THROUGHOUT HIS LIFETIME HAS BEEN BOUGHT BY TRADERS AND THEN SOLD TO FAR-FLUNG PLACES, PLACES ONLY HIS COFFEE WOULD GO AND HE WOULD NEVER REACH.
where it is sold to Western tourists and the few Vietnamese aficionados willing to invest in quality coffee. Mexico, Vietnam, Kenya — these countries are representative of the major coffee-growing regions around the world. Once the farmer is done with the beans, they are packaged, shipped, roasted and prepared at a coffee shop near you. Through these farmers, I learned to appreciate coffee as not merely a commodity but as a story — a story that starts at a farm but ends at a coffee shop.
times less to support his family. The cooperative is hoping to change that. Instead of small farmers each selling their coffee for a pittance, together they can collectively bargain for a better price and better partners. Most of the coffee is still destined for foreign lands, but now a small trickle is making its way to coffee shops in Ho Chi Minh City,
Ana Builes lives in Washington, D.C. Although she has a day job, she recently started her own company, the Capital Grind, to share the story of coffee through tastings and presentations. The best cup of coffee she’s ever had came from Ethiopia, but as a proud Colombian she would deny this if asked. She hopes to one day own her own farm. m aga z i n e . ric e . e du 9
1. GET A THEME “NASA is just a shining beacon in the history of Houston,” Beck says. The space theme was easy to riff on and allowed for the tagline “One small sip,” and a retro-futuristic design, but it also draws NASA employees and astronauts to the fledgling business. Guests have included Kjell Lindgren, the first person to slow-brew coffee in space. 2. SOCIAL MEDIA RULES The themes of rockets and space exploration have helped to build a following on Instagram with posts referring to “otherworldly” brews and “stellar” snacks. Also, there’s an endless amount of space photography from early Apollo missions that is now in the public domain.
Cuppa Design How did Logan Beck build one of Houston’s most unique coffee spots? These five small steps led to his giant leap.
LOGAN BECK ’09 started out as a barista at Rice Coffeehouse. The visual arts major’s background in photography and sculpture led him and Eric Hester ’07 to start a design and fabrication company called rootlab. In that capacity, he has designed furniture and fixtures for many of Houston’s favorite cafés, including Boomtown Coffee, Momentum Coffee in Spring, Texas, and soon, Catalina Coffee. But at the beginning of 2018, Beck, Hester and partner Lauren Ferrante opened Giant Leap Coffee, a locally focused coffeehouse in Houston’s East End. 10
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4. KEEP THE BARISTA IN MIND Beck leaned heavily on Catalina’s founder Max Gonzalez for his coffee expertise and for tips such as the ideal height for an espresso counter. Beck designed the espresso cups and the team at rootlab fabricated them by hand. 5. LOCAL MATTERS “We place an order with Amaya Roasting and have the freshly roasted coffee in our hands the next day,” Beck explains. “I wouldn’t consider sourcing our coffee from anywhere other than Houston.” The support of the coffee community helps, too. — ALICE LEVITT
P H OTO S F R O M TO P : C I N DY JA N E T T E ; LO G A N B EC K
3. POINTS FOR ORIGINALITY Instead of a “boring drop ceiling,” Beck and the rootlab team designed an art piece that draws customers to the café — and asks them to turn their eyes skyward. Rootlab fabricated the triangular steel grid completely in its workshop, then cut it in half to transport and fit it through the doors of the shop, only to weld it back together inside before installing it.
Caffeinating Campus
Rice Coffeehouse draws students, faculty and staff to its bustling home. How bustling? See these numbers.
Matcha + Chameleon ColdBrew = one mighty fine drink
85,000 cups of coffee
were sold last year.
Thirty-six thousand of those were poured in mugs customers brought in themselves. So, in an average day, baristas pour 400–600 cups of drip coffee.
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C O F F E E H O U S E P H OTO S BY J E F F F I T LO W R EC I P E P H OTO C O U RT E SY O F C H A M E L EO N C O L D - B R E W
the number of students employed by the coffeehouse at a given time. Ten of those are managers.
94 the number of different menu items that were entered into the system in the last three years.
$2
the cost of a large cold brew,
0
the ideal antidote to a steamy Houston morning.
the number of flat whites currently on the menu,
but baristas will be happy to custom-make the trendy espresso drink to order.
100%
of the coffeehouse’s beans come from local purveyor Katz Coffee.
They originate from around the world, including Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Colombia and Guatemala, but they’re all roasted in Houston.
95¢
the cost of any order of drip coffee if you bring your own cup.
5¢
of every Nutty Bee latte goes to the Planet Bee Foundation, which educates children to help combat the current bee crisis.
Make Your Own Nutty Bee
In a 12-ounce cup, combine 1 shot of espresso, 1 pump of hazelnut syrup, 1/2 pump of vanilla syrup and a liberal squeeze of honey. Top with steamed milk, to taste. — ALICE LEVITT
You’ve probably seen those glass bottles of cold brew with the distinctive chameleon logo. But did you know an Owl is one of the pioneers in this coffee industry? Austin-based Chameleon Cold-Brew was co-founded by Chris Campbell ’01 and Steve Williams in 2010. Since then, the company has scaled up in scope and success and last fall was sold to Nestlé. Read our Q&A with Campbell at magazine.rice.edu. RECIPE
Dirty Cold-Brew Matcha Latte 1/4 cup Chameleon Cold-Brew Vanilla Coffee Concentrate 2 tablespoons honey 3/4 cup chilled coconut milk 1/8 cup hot water 1 teaspoon ceremonial-grade matcha powder Whisk together hot water and matcha until smooth. Stir in honey and chilled coconut milk. Fill a glass with ice and cold brew, then top with matcha mixture. Optional: Dust with matcha powder. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 11
GRAPES Tech investor Kevin Harvey ’87 produces perfect wines at Rhys Vineyards. Alumni experts reveal trends to watch for in 2018. Star sommelier Belinda Chang ’95 pairs wines with each of Rice’s residential colleges. David ’94 and Heather Kuhlken ’96 produce awardwinning wines in Central Texas.
TASTE of SUCCESS Kevin Harvey’s wildcatter spirit and obsessive attention to vineyard data is producing California’s most distinctive, sought-after wines.
BY RAY ISLE ’85 PHOTOS BY NICO OVED
m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 13
Left: Skyline Vineyard is located atop the hill that Rhys winery is carved into.
I
F YOU’V E M A DE A BU N DL E in the Silicon Valley venture capital tech investor world, there are two ways to go about making wine. The first is to buy a multimillion-dollar estate in Napa Valley, hire the best consultants money can buy to grow your grapes and make your wine, then release yet another $250 bottle of cabernet into the world. Extra points if you refer to it as “iconic” before anyone’s even tasted the first drop. Then there’s the Kevin Harvey ’87 way, which is to get completely obsessed with pinot noir back before the variety ever pinged onto people’s radar, and to start thinking a whole lot about dirt. Harvey is the owner and brain behind Rhys Vineyards, which over the past seven or eight years has become one of California’s most sought-after producers of pinot noir. You won’t see Rhys wines in stores; almost the entire production is sold directly to members of its mailing list, though a small amount of wine lands on the lists of top restaurants around the country. He’s also a hyper-successful tech investor, a career that started while he was still at Rice; Apple’s subsidiary, Claris, bought his startup software company, StyleWare, just a year 14
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after he graduated. Harvey, a Houston native (whose father, Reese, is professor emeritus of mathematics at Rice), headed west to Silicon Valley, eventually becoming a founding partner of Benchmark Capital and, according to Forbes magazine, achieving a net worth of more than $250 million by age 35. Not bad for “a Texas boy with modest ambitions,” as he describes himself back in his Rice days. Amidst starting and funding software ventures, though, Harvey got bitten by the wine bug. Following his arrival in California in 1988, he started drinking big cabernets, but “then in 1990 I tasted a pinot — a Gary Farrell wine from the Allen Vineyard — and never went back.” A trip to France pushed him over the edge into winemaking, but not necessarily for the reasons one might expect. “My wife and I were at the George Cinq in Monaco, which is all gilded and full of gold leaf, and I could barely breathe in the place. The sommelier came over very haughtily and asked, ‘What region do you choose for the wine?’ and since I didn’t know any region, really, I just said Alsace. As a result, we ended up drinking really sweet, fruity wine with our roast duck — and he clearly enjoyed every single moment of our discomfort. After that, I thought, I’m going to learn this.” By 1995, Harvey had convinced his wife, Catherine, to let him plant 35 grapevines in their backyard in Woodside, Calif. Great start, but as it turned out, 35 vines wasn’t enough fruit for even one barrel of wine. So he talked her into letting him plant a full quarter-acre. “And that,” he says, “was enough for a barrel.” These days, Harvey is making a lot more than a single barrel of wine. Rhys owns 150 acres of land in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains (its home base), Sonoma County and Mendocino, and Harvey is in the process of developing his ninth vineyard. His Rhys winery occupies a 30,000-square-foot underground facility near Los Gatos, the tunnels lined with dozens of small stainless steel fermentation tanks that allow Harvey and winemaker Jeff Brinkman to ensure that every single lot of grapes from every aspect of their vineyards receives individual treatment. Brinkman, who joined Harvey in 2006, has been around for a lot of change. “Back when I started, we were still making wine in Kevin’s garage,” he recalls. What hasn’t changed is Harvey’s approach, which, as mentioned, tends to involve a whole lot of thinking about dirt, or, more technically, terroir. That’s the French term for the specific character of a vineyard — the way the unique combination of a site’s soil, altitude, exposure and other variables express themselves in a wine. “Terroir is what primarily interests me,” Harvey told me. “That’s why I have nine vineyards. Otherwise, I’d just have one big one.”
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He adds, “What I started out looking for are the physical properties of a Burgundy grand cru. Soil depth is key, for instance. The grand crus are on the middle of the slope in the Côte d’Or; you’ve got a 20- to 30-inch layer of clay over rock, so I looked for similar sites. That’s exactly what our Home Vineyard is” — the one effectively in his backyard — “but that was just luck.” Luck has played less and less of a role with every new vineyard development. Harvey’s a great believer in data, and detailed soil analysis plus weather stations at all his sites provide him with abundant statistical information that he feels has pointed him toward ideal vineyard locations. “Basically, it’s because of all the instrumentation in our vineyards that I know where to look for land,” he says. Even so, he adds, the whole process is a little like drilling for oil. “There’s a whole lot of things you can know, but at the end of the day, you just have to drill and find out.” In those terms, Harvey is a very successful grape wildcatter, because every single vineyard he’s developed so far produces remarkably distinctive wines. We sat down together with Brinkman to taste through a lineup of the 2012 Rhys pinots on a recent afternoon. All were superb, but what’s particularly impressive about them is exactly what Harvey has been after all along — the way each vineyard singularly expresses itself in the wine. The 2012 Horseshoe Vineyard Pinot Noir, for instance, with its cumin-like spice and baked earth notes, is a powerful, savory wine; by contrast, the 2012 Alpine Vineyard, which is about 300 yards away, but has a different soil structure, is more floral and fragrant, full of raspberry and toasted 16
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Left: A variety of tanks used for fermentation and aging. Right: A house on the Rhys property that holds offices and a dormitory for harvest interns.
coffee bean flavors. The 2012 Skyline, my favorite of the wines, repeats that coffee-espresso character but is more exotic, with wild strawberry and Asian spice nuances. Harvey has a fondness for Skyline, too. “It’s such a ‘boom’ terroir,” he said, tasting it and punching the air with his fist. “It’s always going to hit you with some things that other vineyards just don’t do.” For all his success as a businessman, Harvey’s focus right now is almost fully on his wines. “I have a fairly long tail — I’m on the boards of six companies. But still, in 2018, my time mostly flows to Rhys.” Not to mention his new wine project, Aeris Wines, which will focus on the Italian varieties nebbiolo and carricante. The first is the grape of Italy’s famed Barolo and Barbaresco wines, notorious for its poor performance when grown anywhere other than its home region of Piedmont; the latter is
a little-known Sicilian white grape from the slopes of Mount Etna, which Harvey is growing both in Sonoma and in Sicily. We tasted his 2014 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiore, the first release from the Sicilian side of the new project. It’s a gorgeously ebullient white, all honey and springtime flowers, full bodied and complex, and a convincing argument for his conviction that carricante is one of the great forgotten grapes of the world. Whether he can sell it is another question. I asked Harvey that, and he laughed. “With Aeris, we thought, well, because Rhys succeeded, how can we make something even less likely to succeed?” It’s hard to escape the sense that Harvey is a guy who delights in a challenge.
Editor’s Note: After this story was filed, we learned that the 2014 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiore was released at the end of April and sold out in one day. “People will buy on novelty first, then on quality later,” Harvey commented. “Honestly, whether they continue to buy and drink it is a big question.”
Small family wineries are being gobbled up by huge producers and most wine that is produced contains sugars, additives, pesticides and chemicals. Small family wineries are swimming upstream against the “trends,” and I think that’s what is worthy of discussion. — Ryan Levy ’97
Levy and partner Ian Eastveld are proprietors of the Houstonbased Nice Winery. They make their wines from sustainably farmed estate vineyards in Texas, Argentina and California.
Even though Napa is hugely popular, I see a move away from Napa to smaller, lesser-known regions. Wine bars were uncool for a while, but now they’re back on the rise — but more casual and fun. — Marie Stitt ’08
Stitt is a portfolio manager at Grassroots Wine, a distributor and wholesaling company based in Charleston, S.C.
Wine Watch We asked a few of our experts to comment on recent trends in the world of wine. Here in Washington state, spring is ushered in with one memorable rosé tasting event after another. It’s fascinating to see the many different varietals used — everything from Rhône and Bordeaux varietals to pinot noir, carménère, lemberger and pinot gris. — Marji Morgan ’75
Morgan is a professor of history at Central Washington University. Her radio talk show, “Lines on Wines,” highlights Washington winemakers and growers.
The overall trend that I’m seeing is people caring about who makes their wine. In the past, it’s been a lot of big names and big brands, and now I see more of a desire to have transparency of how that wine is being grown. — David Keck ’09
Keck, who studied opera at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, is a certified master sommelier. Last year he opened Goodnight Charlie’s, a Houston honky-tonk.
We are seeing a global rise in the interest of wine as consumers seek more travel, food and other life experiences. This provides an opportunity to move consumers up to higherquality wines and gives us ways to tell the consumer more authentic stories. — Robert Foye ’88
Foye is the chief operating officer and president of the Americas at Treasury Wine Estates based in San Francisco. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 17
College Wine Pairings Star sommelier Belinda Chang imagines a wine classification system attuned to your enduring residential college affiliation. BE L I N DA C H A NG ’95 is a Chicagobased sommelier and restaurateur and a three-time James Beard Award nominee (for her wine service in San Francisco and New York City and for her published wine writing) and a two-time recipient. Her formidable résumé includes a cooking stint at Houston’s Café Annie, where she switched from the back to the front of the house to pursue a budding interest in wine. She picked up a prestigious award while at Danny Meyer’s The Modern and has led wine and spirits programs at many leading restaurants in Chicago, San Francisco and New York, and has managed and operated successful wine programs and restaurants around the world. So, when Chang volunteered to match each Rice residential college with its best expression of wine, we couldn’t wait to see her pairings. — ALICE LEVITT
Will Rice College: Many wineries suffered terribly in last year’s California wine country fires. Now, they’re rising from the ashes — much like Will Rice’s mascot, the phoenix. Chang says we should all help by drinking wines like Mayacamas Vineyards’ and Stags’ Leap Winery’s “iconic” cabernets, Storybook Mountain Vineyards’ “killer zinfandels” and sips from Chateau St. Jean.
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Hanszen College: Chang is a Hanszenite and lived in the tower of the first floor her freshman year in full view of the swing. The Pisoni Estate on Califonia’s Monterey Coast also has a great swing. While there’s a six-year waiting list to buy Pisoni wines, Chang has a tip: Luli Wines. Luli pinot noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, was made by the same viticulturist and winemaker and is available at a much more swinging price.
Jones College: The first women’s dormitory calls for a female winemaker. Napa Valley’s Cathy Corison was nominated for a James Beard Award this year for her body of work. “Her cabernets are always rich, full, serious and yet always filled with finesse,” says Chang. Corison Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa does something we all wish to do — improve with age.
B E L I N DA C H A N G P H OTO BY L A N D O N N O R D E M A N
Wiess College: Wiess’ senior apartments, which once housed military couples, always made Chang think of barracks. An obvious pairing? Purple Heart Red, Napa. The Mondavi family in California has created this easy drinking Right Bank Bordeaux-style blend in collaboration with the Purple Heart Foundation, which funds veterans’ programs. Great wine is even more delicious when it has a purpose.
Baker College: Though she never ran the storied Baker 13, Chang recommends “naked” Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages. The pedigreed chardonnay from the Burgundy region of France is vinified in all stainless steel (the lack of oak defines the wine as naked) to retain the clean, bright character that the grape best expresses.
Brown College: The home of the infamous Bacchanalia party begs for Greek wine. A light, bright, Mediterranean white like Domaine Sigalas’ AssyrtikoAthiri blend from Santorini is the one she recommends.
Sid Rich College: Chang fondly remembers this elevated college’s “death from above” chant. “High elevation makes for some of the best wines in the world, so it made sense that the Sid Rich wine comes from the Andes,” Chang says. Cheval des Andes, Mendoza, Argentina is a collaboration between the Terrazas de los Andes winery and the team from Château Cheval Blanc in Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux.
Martel College: Martel wasn’t around in her day, says Chang, but its rooftop gardens and beach parties make her think of “St. Barts and all things rosé.” Whether you like your rosé all day or frosé, a bottle of dry, crisp rosé outdoors is always the right answer. The pairing? Louis Jadot Rosé, Beaujolais.
Lovett College: Lovett’s Casino Party calls to mind Bond — James Bond. But when Chang reflects on Bond’s time spent in casinos, she thinks not of his signature martini, but of Champagne. Taittinger Prélude Brut is her current house cuvée. It’s aged for five years with 50 percent chardonnay and 50 percent pinot noir. Made on one of the last family-owned maisons, this is a stunner worthy of “Casino Royale.”
Duncan College: Chang “will be super disappointed” if the magister of Duncan doesn’t have a bottle of Duncan Taylor Five Star Blended Scotch Whisky. Sure, it’s not a wine, but every cork dork needs a great scotch in his or her life. Chang lauds this one for its value — and the perfect name doesn’t hurt.
McMurtry College: The college’s sustainable design inspired Chang’s choice for McMurtry — Nicolas Joly Les Vieux Clos, Loire Valley. “Joly is one of the pioneers of the biodymanic wine movement and makes one of the most unique chenin blancs in the world,” Chang says. The former JP Morgan investment banker believes that he is merely assisting nature in making his all-natural wines. “His white wines are concentrated and can show salinity, beeswax, citrus and spice. You should know them,” says Chang.
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On the Nose
Forget California — a Texas family found success in the mercurial wine business by growing the right grapes for the soil and climate of home.
BY R O S E CA H A L A N ’ 1 0 P H OTO S BY TO M M Y L AV E R G N E
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A
s Highway 290 wends its way toward the busy Central Texas tourist town of Fredericksburg, it becomes increasingly clear that the Texas wine industry is booming. Tasting rooms and vineyards are strung along the road like baubles on a necklace, along with billboards hawking $5 Sangria Sundays, the Wine Shuttle (“Taste! Ride! Relax!”) and something called the Sparkle Package. Many of the buildings are of a faux-medieval style, their gaudy turrets and arches out of place among the prickly pear and juniper trees. One spot has an enormous wine barrel out front, calling to mind the scene in “Sideways” when a drunken Paul Giamatti pours a full bucket of red wine over his head and upper body. It’s all a little much before noon on a Sunday, which is why I breathe a sigh of relief as I pull into Pedernales Cellars. No gimmicks here — only a broad, gently sloping lawn with a postcardperfect view of the rolling hills. It feels wonderful to sink into a couch on the deck, shaded by a graceful canopy of live oaks, and watch barn swallows dart to and from the mud nests they’ve built under the eaves.
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It’s not long before the Kuhlken family — David ’94 and his wife, Heather ’96; their three sons, ages 16, 13 and 8; and their shaggy black labradoodle puppy, Otter — all come out to say hello. David is the head winemaker and president at Pedernales Cellars, while Heather, who also runs an environmental nonprofit, leads sustainability efforts and takes photos. The kids soon run off to check their game cameras elsewhere on the 150-acre property. As part of a conservation plan they’re creating, they’re eager to see how many deer and other critters have visited. Meanwhile, David and Heather beckon me into their geothermally cooled wine cellar and start telling their story.
RO OTS AN D W I N ES Wine runs in the family, as it turns out. “My parents first planted back in ’95,” David says, “when things were just getting started. And there were a few really good Texas wines, don’t get me wrong — but, frankly, it was a novelty thing.” Like other pioneer Texas winemakers, the original Kuhlken Vineyards focused on big-name varietals that were sure to sell — cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay. These were the grapes people knew and loved from California’s Napa Valley, but they were poorly suited to the mercurial Texas climate and harsh soil. Environment, or terroir, is key when it comes to wine, and 22
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From top: Great wine easily pairs with a perfect view on the patio. The Pedernales Valhalla (left) and Texas Viognier Reserve (right)
though grapes adapted to the West Coast’s cool, consistent weather could be coaxed into growing here, the result was “mostly garbage,” David says. By the mid-2000s, winemakers had learned that Spanish varietals were best for Texas. “When we started planting things that were adapted to a warmer, more variable climate, that’s when we started having success,” Heather remembers. Even as Texans quietly mastered great but obscure wines like garnacha and mourvèdre, the world didn’t seem to notice. For the Kuhlkens, that changed in 2012, when they entered their viognier in an elite competition in Lyon, France — and won a coveted double gold medal. “The tastings are blind,” David says, “so when they saw it was our wine, there was this crazy double take: ‘Oh, that’s from Texas?!’” More golds and double golds soon followed, in France as well as San Francisco, and two Spanish varietals, tempranillo and viognier, emerged as Pedernales’ top-shelf bottles. Today, the Kuhlkens are consistently ranked among the top winemakers in the state, and their wine club is more than 3,000 members strong. They’ve got a dozen full-time employees and produce an impressive 15,000 cases of wine per year. As the Kuhlkens’ star has risen, so has Texas’. There are now more than 300 wineries across the state, which is the nation’s fifth-largest wine producer. California still dominates, but within the last decade, Texas wine seems to have found its place. “With wine, you have to have a real sense of identity,” David says. “It’s taken a while to bring restaurants along, to show that there is a strong sense of what a Texas wine is — and we’re getting there.” A strong cooperative spirit persists, with Pedernales and other established vineyards frequently welcoming fledgling businesses to train, or co-op, using their facilities and connections. The still-growing market also offers entrepreneurs more creative freedom. “If you start a winery in Napa and spend the millions you need to do that, and then you say, ‘I really want to make [obscure wines like] teroldego and mavette,’ people will look at you like you’re insane,” David says. “There’s a target there that you have to hit. Here, we can play.”
Left: A cabernet vine hangs in the tasting room to remind the Kuhlkens of how far they’ve come. Right: Kyle Hahne educates curious wine lovers on a tour of Pedernales Cellars.
K E E PI N G IT AUTH E NTI C While the state of Texas wine is rapidly evolving, the industry is not without its growing pains. Some of the biggest Texas wineries, unable to harvest enough to meet demand, ship in grapes from California — then claim to have grown them here. The Kuhlkens support the effort to pass a law requiring that anything sold as “Texas wine” be 100 percent Texas grown (currently, 75 percent is enough). How can you know you’re really buying a Texas wine? Avoid any bottle bearing the tricky phrase “For sale in Texas only,” which is a loophole allowing sneaky winemakers to pass off out-of-state grapes as their own. And for taste, you’re usually safer choosing hot-weather varietals like tempranillo and garnacha over cabernet or pinot noir. It’s been a long road for David and Heather, who each worked for 10 years in software and education, respectively, before taking up the family business in 2006. Perhaps surprisingly, they weren’t wine fanatics from the start. “At Rice, I mostly drank Boone’s Farm,” Heather laughs. David adds, “I didn’t come at it because I was passionate about wine, particularly. But as an engineer and someone who likes the creative process, this is really appealing. Every year, you get a new problem to solve.” Though their work requires 70-hour weeks during “crush season” in the fall, they wouldn’t have it any other way. In the tasting room, a large, beautifully twisted cabernet vine is mounted over the bar: a reminder of how far they’ve come. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 23
Fruit & Fizz Cool and refreshing aguas frescas and ice-cold lemonade are high on Owls’ list of homemade summer refreshments. Rice lecturers set up a unique collaboration for students to learn about the flavorful tasting vinegars called shrubs.
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Aguas Frescas Literally “fresh waters,” these fruit-forward, colorful drinks are commonly available in Mexican restaurants and some grocery stores. Popular flavors include cantaloupe, mango and watermelon. And when the temperatures heat up in Houston, they can also be found on Rice servery menus.
RECIPE
Strawberry Watermelon Agua Fresca 1 pound diced, seedless or seeded watermelon (about 3–4 cups) 8 ounces strawberries, stems removed 1/3 cup basil leaves 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice 1 tablespoon sugar 1/4–1/2 cup cold water Add all ingredients to a blender and puree. For a less pulpy drink, strain mixture through a fine sieve. Chill and serve over ice. Serves 8. Recipe courtesy of Sarah Finster, executive chef at Sid Richardson College Kitchen m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 25
Lavender Lemonade
E V E RY T U E SDAY A F T E R NOON, R IC E FA R M E R S Market vendors serve local and fresh vegetables, cheeses, beverages, meats and prepared foods for customers from campus, the Texas Medical Center and nearby neighborhoods. Ripe Cuisine’s food truck is a popular destination, serving up vegan specialties and beverages like lavender lemonade.
RECIPE
Lavender Lemonade 1 quart water 2/3 cup agave nectar 3/4 cup lemon juice 2 tablespoons lavender buds Pinch of sea salt Combine water and agave nectar and bring to a boil. Add lavender and let boil 1–2 minutes. Turn off heat, cover and let steep for 30–60 minutes. Add lemon juice and salt, stir to combine, strain and allow to cool before serving. Serves 4. Recipe courtesy of Stephanie Hoban, founder and owner of Ripe Cuisine, a food truck café that serves a local and seasonal plantbased menu. The truck stops at the Rice Farmers Market every Tuesday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Learn more at ripe-cuisine.com. 26
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AG U A F R E S CA , L E M O N A D E A N D S H R U B P H OTO S BY J E F F F I T LO W
Shrubs R ICE L E CT U R E RS Sandra Bishnoi, Michelle Gilbertson and Lesa Tran Lu ’07 have been at the forefront of creating hands-on chemistry and natural science courses. Two years ago, Bishnoi and Gilbertson’s freshman chemistry and natural science classes collaborated with Houston chef Chris Shepherd. The project? To quantify chemical processes and identify the microbes present in the production of vinegars and, in turn, shrubs. Shrubs are old-fashioned tasting vinegars that have made a big comeback in the cocktail and restaurant world. Improving the chemical processes for making these vinegars in turn supports the local farmers whose produce Shepherd buys in large quantities — and reduces food waste. The class’s research was successful — “We looked at the alcohol, acidity, sugar, all those things,” said then-freshman Tareck Haykal ’19. “We found out that [Shepherd’s] vinegars are extremely alcoholic, more than the average wine. If there were bacteria in there, the alcohol should be converted to acetic acid, to be more acidic and less alcoholic.” The students discovered that the vinegars needed more acid — and they found a way for Shepherd’s restaurant to add it in and produce a consistent, delicious tasting vinegar. “What’s old is new again,” Shepherd said. “We’re doing something that has been lost for a very long time.”
RECIPE
Triple Berry and Mint Shrub 6 ounces blueberries 6 ounces blackberries 6 ounces raspberries 3 cups sugar 6 fluid ounces white wine vinegar Mint to taste and garnish To make shrub: Wash and dry all berries and combine with sugar in bowl. Stir for 5 minutes until berries start to break down. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave on counter for three days, stirring once a day. On the third day, strain off solids from liquid in a fine mesh strainer. Combine liquid with vinegar and discard solids. Store in a closed container in a refrigerator for up to two weeks. To assemble: Take a handful of mint, muddle in the bottom of a glass and add ice. Pour 3 fluid ounces of shrub over ice and top off with sparkling water. Stir to combine. Garnish with a mint sprig and enjoy! Serves 8. Recipe courtesy of The Hay Merchant
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The basement in Keck Hall, now known as Valhalla, was originally built as a smoking room in the 1920s. It was converted to a bar in 1971. Why is Valhalla not open on Saturdays? Because it’s reserved for private parties. Want to reserve? Go to valhalla. rice.edu and check the calendar.
HOPS
Doctoral student Hannah Pearce manages social events for the Graduate Student Association.
A legend (Brock Wagner ’87) and a newcomer (Nicholas Walther ’03) walk into the brewery business — we compare their paths. We ask other esteemed alumni brewers for their best unconventional beer pairing. On this page: All hail, Valhalla!
Spotted! Seiichi Matsuda, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies.
Where ties come to die.
Valhalla bartenders are notorious for writing negative Yelp reviews to preserve the cozy dive bar feel for the Rice community. They’ve even bribed patrons with a free drink in exchange for a poor review.
Starting at 95 cents, these are some of the cheapest craft beers in town. Rule No. 1: Bartender is always right. Rule No. 2: If bartender is wrong, see rule No. 1.
Is the red light on? That’s your sign that Valhalla is open.
While most bartenders are graduate students, other members of the Rice community can volunteer for onehour shifts.
Hungry? Check out the bánh mì, spring rolls or Jersey Mike’s Subs at lunch.
Feeling fancy? Pricier brews range from $2 to $10. Cash only — no exceptions!
Nikki Thadani, bioengineering doctoral student, manages more than 100 volunteer bartenders.
Usually occupied by thirsty graduate students and other lovers of Valhalla.
John Gawedzinski orders the brews and beverages when he’s not researching biomedical devices.
Valhalla, Annotated For nearly 50 years, Rice’s legendary graduate student pub has been the bar of choice for the smart crowd. PHOTO BY TOMMY LAVERGNE
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BROCK WAGNER ’87
NICHOLAS WALTHER ’03
The Founders Though he didn’t realize it at the time, Brock Wagner ’87 made Texas craft beer history in 1993 when he and Kevin Bartol ’81 started Saint Arnold Brewing Co. with $900,000 and a passion for making really good beer. Today, it’s the state’s oldest and arguably its most beloved craft brewery, with Wagner shepherding a new generation of brewers on their own paths to success. “One of the cool things is that you have people leave and become competitors and yet we’re all still friends,” says Wagner. “It’s a craft beer thing.” Nicholas Walther ’03 is one of those people who learned how to brew when he began working an entry-level job at Saint Arnold in 2008. “I knew that Brock was a Rice alum,” says Walther, who made sure to wear his class ring to the interview, adding with a laugh, “I don’t even know if he noticed it.” Less than a decade later, Walther launched Turtle Swamp Brewing in Boston with partner John Lincecum. Let’s look at the two founders’ production paths so far. — KATHARINE SHILCUTT 30
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WAGNER
WALTHER BREWERY
Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Turtle Swamp Brewing COLLEGE
Lovett
Hanszen MAJOR
Economics and managerial studies
Religious studies
TRANSFORMATIVE ON-CAMPUS EXPERIENCE
Learning how to homebrew from his RA at Lovett
Bartending at Valhalla
WAGNER
WALTHER
2008 BREWERY OPENED IN
1993
2017 BREWERY NAMED FOR
Arnold of Metz, the seventhcentury French bishop who famously advised parishioners to drink beer instead of the foul local water
WALTHER
WAGNER
The colonial name for the lowlands between Forest Hills and Jackson Square, where early Boston breweries set up shop thanks to the swamp’s surprisingly crystal-clear water
Pumpkinator, based on Walther’s original recipe for Divine Reserve No. 9, which was first brewed in 2009; Pumpkinator took top prize at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival. “Winning the gold medal for that beer was especially satisfying,” says Wagner, who’s not a fan of pumpkin beers.
Skwäshbuckle Imperial Porter, a rebranded version of Walther’s Divine Reserve No. 9, ideal for warming up during those blustery Boston winters. “But it’s essentially the same beer,” says Walther, who used 100 pounds of local squash grown by New England farmer Jim Buckle.
WALTHER COMES IN
MOST DIVINE RESERVE
STARTED BREWING BEER IN
1984
WAGNER
Cans and bottles
Cans and growlers
A VERY GOOD YEAR — 2017
Named MidSize Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival
Opened the brewery and taproom
HISTORIC UNDERPINNINGS
S A I N T A R N O L D P H OTO S BY J E F F F I T LO W T U RT L E S WA M P P H OTO S BY A DA M L ATO U R
SIGNATURE SESSION BEER FOR SUMMER SIPPING
Fancy Lawnmower
Nik’s Bitter (But Never Angry)
CURRENT CAPACITY
100,000 barrels per year
3,000 barrels per year
After moving out of its original warehouse off Highway 290 in 2008, Saint Arnold located to a former food service facility that’s more than 100 years old.
Turtle Swamp opened in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, “the original hub of beer in New England — and early America too,” says Walther.
CURRENT NUMBER OF YEAR-ROUND BEERS
12
7
WHAT’S NEXT?
Wagner’s adding new brews such as Orange Show (a blonde ale brewed with blood oranges) and opening an addition that will contain a restaurant, outdoor deck, beer garden and grassy area.
Turtle Swamp is gearing up to brew 10,000 barrels per year while becoming a neighborhood destination for families and tourists alike.
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Unconventional Beer Pairings A campus full of smart people who play as hard as they work is bound to breed skilled microbrewers. We asked some of Rice’s most successful professional brewers for their thoughts on pairing foods and brews. And we noted that Owl brewers love their India pale ales. — ALICE LEVITT
Jenny Lewis ’05
Co-founder and CEO, Strike Brewing Co., San Jose, Calif. I eat a lot of sushi. If you’re having a spicy roll, an IPA goes with that. Everyone’s palate is so different, though. Saying you can only pair this with that doesn’t make sense.
Adam Cryer ’01
Co-owner, Baileson Brewing Co., Houston I’m always interested by what hoppy beers do with food. You can always drink a light beer with fish or dark beer with meat, but thinking in terms of how different hop varietals play with different proteins and spices is more interesting. I want to try an American, citrus-forward IPA or pale ale with a fish, or go with a double IPA for heartier cuts of meat. I would go with bolder flavors, especially if it’s heavily spiced.
Rassul Zarinfar ’04
Founder and CEO, Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co., Houston I always pair gingerbread stout with savory. The way a really salty filet plays with gingerbread stout — it’s amazing. It’s straight out of flavor theory. You want to mix sweet with salty. When you pair the roast character of the gingerbread stout, it brings out the smokiness of the roasted barley. Malting barley is the same as caramelizing a steak — a nice, big, fatty ribeye. 32
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Nicholas Walther ’03
Founder, Turtle Swamp Brewing, Boston A good porter or stout will wash down any barbeque or grilled food. More traditional porters (much less roasty than you typically see) will partner with both fried fish and sushi. Big imperial porters and stouts go even better with sushi, particularly after being cellared for a year or five. Porters also go well with ice cream in a way that IPAs just don’t. I’m learning that New Englanders eat a lot of ice cream — even more per capita than in Texas — so you can’t rule out a beer to enjoy with ice cream as a float, or even made into ice cream.
Brock Wagner ’87 Founder, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston
Artichoke and amber ale is an amazing pairing. An artichoke is one of those foods that you can’t pair with wine, but the hops in beer and the flavors in the artichoke marry in a wonderful way.
Randy Ward ’99
Brewer and partner, HighWheel Beerworks (the brewing side of the Dorćol Distilling Co.), San Antonio I make a lot of redneck hors d’oeuvres at home. It’s very inexpensive and lowbrow. You take the best quality, handmade pickle — my favorite are jalapeño bread-and-butter pickles with little red chilies like you find in Chinese food. I’ll take a Wheat Thin, slap on some goat cheese and a pickle and pair it with an IPA. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 33
SPIRITS Iñaki Orozco ’05 plants an agave farm to craft high-quality tequila and mezcal from the ground up. Andrew Webber ’96 is on the cutting edge of creative distilling (quinoa whiskey, anyone?). Ryan Baird ’12 and Randy Whitaker ’12 utilize classmates to fund Houston’s first whiskey distillery.
The New Agave Making tequilas and mezcals that are meant to be sipped
BY MAYA K ROTH PH OTO S BY K E ITH DAN N E M I LLE R
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F
amily reunions at the Orozco Ranch in rural Mexico gave rise to some of the happiest moments in Iñaki Orozco’s ’05 life. Over the years, childhood afternoons spent splashing in a nearby brook turned into grown-up carousing with aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins in the small town of La Unión de San Antonio, Jalisco. “My only complaint was the crappy tequila they were drinking,” Orozco says with a laugh. When he whined about the cheap booze, Orozco’s father told him to shut up and do something about it — assuming, perhaps, that his son would just run down to the corner bodega to pick up a better bottle. He didn’t expect to be presented with a proposal to plant blue agave on the family’s land and eventually make their own tequila. Less than a decade later, Riazul Tequila was born, thanks in part to the training Orozco gained at Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, where he earned his MBA. Named after that sparkling blue stream where he used to play (río = river, azul = blue), Riazul is Orozoco’s attempt at bottling the joy he felt in La Unión, even as he rides out the challenges and uncertainty inherent in the life of an entrepreneur. Orozco’s first task was to get the blessing of the family patriarch, Uncle Benjamin, to grow agave on the family land. “It’s a pity you inherited the
Left: An exterior view of the main house of the Orozco family home in La Pitaya outside of La Unión de San Antonio, Mexico. Right: An interior view of the house. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 37
Orozco family good looks and none of the brains,” Benjamin told Iñaki, though he eventually acquiesced. Armed with precisely zero farming experience, Orozco bought 100 blue agave shoots from a friend of his brother’s, said a prayer to the tequila god, put them in the ground and waited. And waited. And waited. “Agave takes six to seven years to mature,” he explains. There was no guarantee of success, either, especially not at La Unión’s elevation (about 6,300 feet). In the meantime, Orozco arrived in Houston, ready to hone his inborn entreTop left: Family photographs in the dining room of the main house. Bottom left: Statue of a “jimador,” or agave harvester, outside the production facility. 38
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preneurial spark with real-world business skills. “Entrepreneurship is more of a spirit than anything else, but it’s important to polish it with education and contact with people who have been successful at it,” he says. “Rice gave me that pathway. It taught me how to start a company, how to value an asset, how to invite external capital sources and how to set up a functional organization.” By the time the agaves matured, Orozco was in his last semester of business school. The next step was finding a master distiller who would know what to do with the juice. He asked his professor for an extension on his midterms so he could fly to Jalisco and interview tequileros (literally translated as “tequila people”), finding a click with distiller Ruben Morales. Together, they spent the next three years tinkering with the recipe while Above: A “jimador” uses a “coa” to harvest the heart of the agave plant for processing into tequila by removing the spiky spines. Right: Hearts of agave are unloaded off of a truck and split in preparation for cooking. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 39
Orozco juggled a job doing business development for the ATM industry. The goal was to create a tequila that showcased the minerality of the highland soil and the flavor of the plant itself, rather than the cloying sweetness and overpowering alcohol profile of the downmarket brands his family used to drink. “Tequila has come such a long way,” Orozco says. “High-quality tequilas can go head-to-head with the finest scotches and cognacs.” By 2008, Orozco was ready to dedicate himself full time to Riazul, which today produces 60,000 liters of tequila per year; about 90 percent of that is sold in the U.S. It’s distributed in 36 states, mostly in bars and restaurants. Last year, as the U.S. continued to see surging demand for Mexican spirits, Riazul added a mezcal to its portfolio. “Every distillate of agave is a mezcal,” he explains. “Mezcal is the grandfather of everything.” Tequila is made with one specific agave variety — Weber blue — in one specific place (within the tequila’s denomination of origin), but mezcal can be made from several different plants in one of nine Mexican states included in its denomination of origin. The production process differs, too: Tequila distilleries typically operate with industrial efficiency in facilities gleaming with stainless steel equipment such as the autoclaves that steam cook the agave hearts, or piñas, to extract their juice. Mezcal, on the other hand, still uses a 200-year-old artisanal process in which the piñas are cooked in earthen pits underground, lending the spirit its smoky profile. As a result, there’s more variation in the flavor of mezcal. (Some community rituals even call for hanging a chicken breast or a chunk of iguana meat in the still during distillation, though Orozco’s mezcal doesn’t go quite that far.) “The sky’s the limit in terms of the profile that you can give a mezcal versus a tequila,” says Orozco, who sells his mezcal under the Riazuleño label, producing about 7,000 liters last year, 95 percent of which was sold stateside.
From top: Arturo López Boites checks the sugar level and the progress of fermentation in a tank. Gilberto Jasso García is the “maestro tequilero,” or master tequila blender. 40
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In entering the saturated premium agave market, Orozco now finds himself competing with the likes of George Clooney, who recently added “tequila tycoon” to his resume. He’s hoping the personal story behind Riazul helps his brand stand out from the pack — though he recently signed his own celebrity spokesman, whose identity he couldn’t yet reveal. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing his industry is a looming agave shortage, which spurs price fluctuations that have historically pushed small producers like Orozco out of the market altogether. “If tequila continues to grow at this rate, it might impact everyone,” Orozco explains. “We’ve been cognizant of managing our agave supply with our tequila inventory to ride through the ups and downs that agave goes through. Your best bet is to have your own agave.” Which, of course, Orozco does, thanks to that fateful decision made so many years ago in La Unión. Not such a silly idea after all, was it, Uncle Benjamin? Top: A shipment of Riazul tequila is loaded onto a container for transport to New York. Right: Bottles of Riazul at the production facility’s warehouse in Arandas. m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 41
With a Twist Taste a creative take on distilling
A N DR E W W E BBE R ’96 L EA R N E D A T H I NG OR T WO at Rice that might surprise you. A double major in biology and anthropology, he’s putting both areas of study to work as CEO, co-founder and co-distiller at Corsair Distillery in Nashville, the first distillery in the city since Prohibition. This year, the business celebrates its 10th anniversary with special releases, including a limited-edition brandy. — ALICE LEVITT
Why distilling?
Long story short, my business partner [Darek Bell] and I were working on a biodiesel idea. Biodiesel made from fry grease was kind of stinky, and I said, “If this was full of whiskey instead of car fuel, I’d be a lot happier.” We had done homebrewing. I’d made wine, and he’d made sake, just for fun. We both got hooked on distilling whiskey — it was more mysterious to us and to the general public than wine and beer making at that point.
And your science classes helped?
[At Rice] I did lab distillations. It really informs the science of fermentation. Whiskey is distilled beer — you have to make good beer before you make good whiskey. Distillation is generally making things you shouldn’t consume. To make something safe for drinking, there is a lot of technical know-how.
Most distillers wouldn’t say that their work is inspired by anthropology, but you do.
Anthropology and archaeology is the study of where we have been, and a lot of culture is informed by alcohol. The earliest written recipes are about how to make beer. Beer probably came by accident by making gruel or mash and leaving it out behind the tent for a couple of days. Distilling goes back 1,500 years. People’s interactions with spirits and beer and wine is a significant part of culture and history.
Are your recipes culled from history?
One of your big sellers is quinoa whiskey. What does that taste like?
We like to fool around with different grains. [Quinoa] produces the cleanest and most approachable light whiskey. It’s got a white pepper bite, but it’s nutty like a bowl of quinoa. 42
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P H OTO BY A B I G A I L B O B O
We do two different tracks: ancient grains that haven’t been used [for alcohol] in modern times and historic recipes. We dug up recipes for our gin, and our absinthe comes from recipes we discovered from the 17th and 18th centuries.
RECIPE
The Rice Rose
Whiskey Business
P H OTO BY TO M M Y L AV E R G N E
How Rice’s MBA program helped create Houston’s first whiskey maker I T TA K E S A V I L L AGE TO R A ISE a child, but it takes an MBA class to fund a distillery. That’s what Ryan Baird ’12 and Randy Whitaker ’12 learned when they began collaborating on a company called Yellow Rose Distilling while completing their MBAs at Rice. “Rice brought Randy and I together for better or worse,” jokes Baird. Whitaker and Baird, previously a CPA and an engineer, respectively, were looking into an area that no one else had before in Houston: whiskey. Though Yellow Rose was the first local company to make distilled beverages, others quickly followed suit “behind the curve of craft beer,” as Whitaker puts it. “I don’t think we would want to get into it now,” he adds. “The field is very crowded.” Choosing whiskey was natural, the pair says. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and according to Baird, there’s more whiskey sold in Texas than in the rest of the country combined. No other
city in the U.S. drinks as much Crown Royal as Houston does, he adds. “Being such a large city, we consume a significant portion of the United States’ whiskey,” Whitaker explains. Why not be the first homegrown option for whiskey lovers? And when it came time to pass the hat to help make Yellow Rose a reality, classmates rose to the occasion, contributing much of the necessary funding. “They did very well, and when we paid them back, they were excited about the interest rates,” recalls Baird. “There’s no other way we could have done it so easily.” Baird and Whitaker also credit the program itself with their success. Professors visited the distillery and provided guidance in raising funds and running the business. “They weren’t so much invested in the idea as they were invested in us,” Baird says. And that investment paid off, not just for Baird and Whitaker, but for a whole class of business students and a city of whiskey lovers. — ALICE LEVITT
Though Chelsea Hylton, Yellow Rose’s bar manager, admits that blue drinks aren’t easy to create since there are no naturally occurring mix-ins to color it, Rice alumni are worthy of something a bit out of the ordinary. Sip your school colors with this simple but idiosyncratic tipple. 1 1/2 ounces Yellow Rose Distilling blended whiskey 1/2 ounce Blue Curaçao Squeeze of lemon Sprite, to taste Combine the first three ingredients, then top with Sprite. Serve in a glass of your choosing — a highball glass would be perfect — over ice.
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LEAVES Gabriella Buba ’16 wildcrafts plants and herbs (and family tradition) for a tasty tea business. Graduates of Rice’s popular studentrun East-West Tea business brew boba tea in D.C. Every Tuesday, 3rd Coast Kombucha serves up its fermented flavors at the Rice Farmers Market.
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How to
Make Your Own Tea Blend W H I L E AT R IC E, GA BR I E L L A BU BA ’16 turned her Baker College room into a tea lab. “My Rice roommates could tell you stories,” Buba jokes, referencing her experiments making kombucha and wildcrafting edible plants for teas. Two years after graduation, the experiments are paying off. A chemical engineering major with a day job in the oil and gas industry, Buba has turned a lifelong passion for teas and herbs into a small business. Buba was first introduced to using local edible flora by her grandparents, who shared their knowledge of plants and old country traditional remedies, including how to make delicious teas from common plants like sweet violet, strawberry and red clover. Today, she creates handcrafted loose leaf tea blends as Buba’s Botanicals and currently sells them at a farmers market in Midland, Texas. 1. CHOOSE YOUR BASE.
Unless you include Camellia sinensis, the plant from which black, white and green teas come, you’re really making a tisane, or herbal, tea. Besides flavor, the primary advantage to including tea is adding a jolt of caffeine. If you’re not drinking tea to wake up, what is your goal? Ginger has traditionally been used to settle the stomach. Keyed up or restless? Try chamomile. Whichever base you choose, add 1 tablespoon to your blending bowl. 2. SELECT YOUR COMPLEMENTARY HERB.
If you started with spicy ginger, why not cool it down with mint, bee balm or lemon balm? Mild, floral chamomile pairs well with naturally sweet ingredients like mallow root, licorice or fennel. Add 2 teaspoons to your blending bowl.
3. PICK HIGH AND LOW FLAVOR NOTES.
Smell the blend. You’ll want to add something that contributes a pop of flavor next. Citrus peels, hibiscus, rose hips, and Turk’s cap flowers or fruits are all great for lending a bit of acidity. Culinary herbs like thyme, oregano, dill or sage can contribute great highlights, too. Select one or two of these and add 1 tablespoon each, blending all ingredients well. 4. PREPARE A POT.
Now you’re ready to taste your tea! Add roughly 1/2–1 teaspoon of your herbal blend to 8 ounces of water, based on your preferences for tea strength and the freshness of the herbs. For purely herbal teas, steep 10 minutes. Steep white, black and green teas for a shorter time to avoid extracting bitter tannins. — ALICE LEVITT m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 45
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Capital Brew
P H OTO S BY STACY Z A R I N G O L D B E R G
David Cooper and Joanna Weedlun brew up a boba business.
AS A SENIOR, DAVID COOPER ’16 WOULD RUSH to the Jones College Commons kitchen in between classes carrying servery to-go cups, black tea bags, sugar and creamer. There, he would experiment with making bubble (or boba) tea by testing steeping times and tastes. It wasn’t too long before Cooper and fellow students Drew Sutherland ’16 and Glenn Baginski ’16 perfected their recipe and launched East-West Tea, a student-owned and operated business. Its first week in business, East-West delivered dozens of its drinks to The Thresher’s Student Association presidential debate. “When we dropped them off, it was like a mob scene; people were climbing over each other to get them,” Cooper said. Joanna Weedlun ’16, who met Cooper when they were freshmen at Hanszen College, was another boba tea enthusiast at Rice. The friends often got together off campus to enjoy boba tea. At The Hoot, where Weedlun worked as general manager, students lined up for East-West tea. Two years later, the friends — both from Maryland — have taken the business lessons learned at Rice and teamed up to run Spot of Tea (formerly Cassava Boba) in Washington, D.C. They’re riding the wave of the growing popularity of boba — Taiwanese slang for the drink’s distinctive tapioca balls — tea. Boba is essentially tea fused with milk or fruit juice, and tapioca balls. Cooper and Weedlun have set themselves apart from competitors by using fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Right now, they prepare their teas in a shared commercial kitchen and sell their core and seasonal flavors at five D.C.-area farmers markets. “Our larger vision is to make tea more approachable,” said Weedlun. “Bubble tea has done that really well; people who aren’t normally tea drinkers can get into it.” Milk tea is their most popular flavor, with coconut chai tea (made with coconut milk) a close second. Other flavors include grapefruit mint, peach ginger, strawberry matcha and watermelon oolong. They use fresh produce and milk sourced from a Pennsylvania farm. “Local just tastes better,” said Cooper. Boba tea was born in Taiwan in the 1980s, so the story goes, when a teahouse manager decided to pour tapioca pearls into a glass of sweet iced tea. Asian communities in the U.S. have been drinking the concoction for years. More recently, boba tea has reached a wider audience, with shops popping up in communities across the country. Experiencing growing demand, the U.S. tea market in general has more than quadrupled in the past 20-plus years, to over $10 billion, according to the U.S. Tea Association. Four in 5 consumers — and 87 percent of millennials — drink tea. “I see it as a social activity and a dessert food,” said Weedlun. “At Rice, there was a strong culture of people wanting bubble tea. It became a fad.” And it’s still going strong — students continue to flock to Sammy’s for bubble tea.
Soon after Weedlun and Cooper returned home to Maryland after graduation, they wanted to catch up over their favorite drink, but couldn’t find any shops they liked. They were underwhelmed by processed ingredients like flavored powder and fructose syrups. Most tea shops were also located in the suburbs and difficult for city dwellers to reach. “Our idea was to make it ourselves and sell it on the weekends,” Cooper said. It started as a hobby, but rapidly became much more. Cooper left his job as a business analyst in fall 2016 to work full time on the new venture; Weedlun quit her job as a communications writer the following spring. They launched the business in January 2017, and by May they were both working on the business full time, working 12-hour days.
They’ve since hired part-time staff and are focused on their long-term goals. They’ve tapped the Rice alumni network for business advice and bounced ideas off fellow entrepreneurs they’ve met in the commercial kitchen and at farmers markets. “Retail is challenging,” Weedlun said, “but we’re going into this market season much better prepared.” They’ve also catered events, including weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and corporate events. Weedlun and Cooper are working on a natural way to make Thai tea, traditionally a powder made with yellow food dye. Ultimately, their dream is to open a shop with a small, specialized tea menu and local snacks — a spot that feels like a community. “Tea is on the rise,” said Cooper, “and we want to help people learn how to enjoy it.” — DEBORAH LYNN BLUMBERG m a g a z i n e . r i c e . e d u 47
Kombucha
MAKE YOUR OWN Homemade kombucha is not difficult to make, says Camella Clements ’02, an avid fermenter and teacher, but it takes time and careful attention. See Clements’ recipe for homemade kombucha online at magazine.rice.edu.
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P H OTO S BY J E F F F I T LO W
KOM BUC H A, A F E R M E N T E D T EA, is made by introducing a culture to sweet tea and allowing it to ferment. For the Rice community and nearby Houston neighbors, fresh-made kombucha is available every Tuesday at the Rice Farmers Market from vendor 3rd Coast Kombucha. The Galveston-based company sources ingredients from local farmers to create unique flavors like blueberry ginger (a best-seller), Asian pear and cayenne lemon ginger honey. Regular customers line up with refillable glass containers for sales director Tony Provenzano to pour their favorite blend. Pro tip: Ask for Tony’s favorite flavor mix.
UNCHARTED Transfixed by the electric colors and alien life-forms of the sea, Elaine Shen ’18 snorkeled Glover’s Reef Atoll in Belize, where she nurtured a growing fascination with the Caribbean. “The first time I went snorkeling on a coral reef, I had this moment when I thought, ‘This is actually something I could see myself doing.’” Elaine’s eye-opening research experience was part of a tropical field biology course in which students from various academic backgrounds study two of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems: coral reefs and tropical rain forests. Expanding access to travel, field research and other forms of experiential education is a core component of Rice’s Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade (V2C2). The Cullinan Access and Opportunity Fund, which provides need-based financial assistance for experiential learning, is a meaningful step toward achieving that goal.
Read Elaine’s full story and learn more about the Cullinan Fund at envision.rice.edu.
unconventional. unlimited. uncharted. unmatched.
envision.rice.edu
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Rice University, Creative Services–MS 95 P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892
Young Alumni in Focus Photo by Jeff Fitlow
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Permit #7549 Houston, Texas
IN OUR DEBUT “20 UNDER 30” FEATURE , we’ll introduce you to young alumni who are pursuing
their postgraduate lives with creativity and purpose in an astonishing variety of ways. Audra Herrera ’12 (pictured), a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, is now working for a Houston law firm. Heeding the advice of career mentors, Herrera took time off between Rice and law school to spearhead an after-school program, volunteer for the Ronald McDonald House and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) and help high school students prepare for the ACT. “It was a good break from school,” Herrera said. “The time off made me feel more in charge of my career path.” Read more about Herrera and other accomplished young alumni in the Fall 2018 issue.