Making A Name In The Wine World

Wednesday - January 02, 2009
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Mikael Sigouin (right) talks about his wines during a recent tasting at The Wine Stop with (from left) Dana Ware, Carl Varady, Jacky Westover and Liane Fu

One of the hottest young winemakers in California shows his love of the Islands in his wine’s names - Kaena, Hapa and Hale. He’ll be doing a tasting here Tuesday

Mikael Sigouin likes splashes, whether he’s swimming at Kaimana Beach or pouring a glass of his own wine.

Following a most unlikely career path for an Island boy, Sigouin, a former Kaiser High School varsity football player, is the head winemaker for 365-acre Beckmen Vineyards in Southern California’s Santa Ynez Valley while also making wines for his own label, Kaena Wine Company.

Back in the Islands for a series of wine tastings, Sigouin also is getting in some body surfing, a sport he inherited from his ocean-loving great-grandfather, J.J. Hollinger, a beachboy who was honored with a winged “O” at the Outrigger Canoe Club. His great-grandmother Lucille Hollinger also has been a big influence, teaching him to cook. A native speaker of Hawaiian, she named him Kaena-Ai. He shortened the name to Kaena for his wine.

“The name she bestowed on me means potential for greatness,” explains Sigouin. “She thought I might have the most potential. So it’s something I’ve been trying to live up to my entire life. And I just try to, out of respect for her. I owe everything to her, she’s my total inspiration.”

Mikael Sigouin, seen here in the vineyard, says his grenache is an ‘awesome pairing’ with kalua pig

His great-grandparents would certainly be proud that restaurants and shops in Hawaii carry his wine, including Foodland, Wine Stop, Tokyo Tokyo and HASR Wine Co. He’s currently in town on a family vacation and will have a wine tasting Jan. 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. at HASR Wine Co., located at 31 N. Pauahi St.

The local boy-turned-wine-maker has created several varieties, but specializes in granache. His Kaena Grenache Santa Ynez Valley is a combination of wines from Larner Vineyard and Tierra Alta Vineyard.

“The grenache was a smart step for me,” Sigouin says, “as it carved me my own little niche that’s allowed me to move out in stature, and other people seem to be recognizing that.”

Another of his wines, a blend of syrah and grenache, is called Hapa, which also applies to Sigouin himself, as he is a mix of Hawaiian, French Canadian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish.

“Hapa’s the most expensive, the most complex,” he reveals.

There’s a white wine he’s named Hapa Blanc - affectionately called hapa haole - made with grapes from the eastern edge of Santa Ynez Valley. The hapa blanc has a nose of passion fruit, lychee and pineapple. He also makes a small amount of grenache rose, and an everyday table wine, Hale (“house” in Hawaiian), a blend of grenache and syrah.

Wine publications have given him some good exposure.Wine Spectator Magazine senior editor James Laube scored Kaena quite high, and has blogged about the former Hawaii Kai resident. Kaena was named, with a few others, among the most promising new California Rhone producers, according the Wine Spectator members-only newsletter dated Nov. 19, 2008. And that’s not all. Senior editor Steve Heimoff of Wine Enthusiast magazine (Aug. 17, 2008) considers Sigouin one of a few “brilliant young winemakers who aren’t yet well-known to the public but ought to be.”

While the ratings help increase awareness, even more is created when the wine is paired with food.

“I try to taste my wines with the local foods,” says Sigouin. “Grenache and kalua pig is an awesome pairing. The white and rose go with the poke. Wines have to go with kal-bi and the Asian foods. Grab a bottle and a plate lunch - if my wine goes with that, then I’m happy.”

California-based Ballard Inn and Restaurant pairs grenache with roasted kurobuta pork belly.

Mikael Sigouin’s Hapa is a blend of grenache and syrah, which he calls his most complex wine

In California, Hapa is paired with steak or lamb, grenache goes well with duck breast, pork and ahi, while the white goes with salad and grenache rose is paired with appetizers.

The family, food, fun and wine career all came together shortly after the 1991 Kaiser High School graduate started working at Pacific Broiler in 1992. The oldest of four siblings, Sigouin’s career path also included gigs at Singha, Chai’s Island Bistro and California Pizza Kitchen. But it was at Pacific Broiler where he admits he had a crush on a coworker, Sally, from Santa Barbara.

More about the love story in a bit.

While on vacation in 1996, Sigouin met Academy Award-winning film director Francis Ford Coppola at a tasting at Coppola’s vineyards. It was the turning point for what would eventually be a winemaker’s life.

“We were on top of the hilltop overlooking the backside of his property, looking at a vineyard,” recalls Sigouin. “I just got chickenskin. I was like ‘This is just amazing!’ And I had deja vu the whole time I was on my vacation. I felt this draw. I went back home and told everyone I’m moving.”

He moved to San Francisco three months later, on Oct. 4, 1996, with a transfer to California Pizza Kitchen in Walnut Creek, where he took other jobs, including selling Perrier.

Going to wine tastings every couple of weeks, he romanticized about getting into the wine industry. He heard of Beckmen Vineyards, called up and asked about any opportunities. Steve Beckmen sized up the 6-foot-3-inch, 225-pound job applicant and said he’d call when it was time for harvest in Santa Ynez Valley. Sigouin got the call Oct. 4, 1999 - exactly three years to the day after he moved to California - to be a harvest grunt with Beckmen Vineyard. He worked his way up and in 2001 became an assistant wine-maker for Beckmen, which produces about 15,000 cases a year.

As a side business, Kaena Wine Company started up in 2001 with three barrels, or 75 cases, of wine. Sigouin says perhaps it was his ancestors who encouraged him to utilize his own creativity to design his label. He traced some syrah leaves to make a quilt pattern the way native Hawaiians used their natural surroundings to make quilt designs. He manufactured his wines at another facility, where he would do testing for them in exchange for use of the facility.

Back to Sigouin’s love life, while reminiscing with two of his friends with whom he had worked at Pacific Broiler, he wondered whatever happened to Sally. He searched online to touch base with her. No luck. But it must have been meant to be, because lo and behold, when he wasn’t looking, on St. Patrick’s Day 1997 he bumped into Sally at a concert in San Francisco.

“We’ve been together ever since,” says Sigouin, noting they’re now married with children.

Putting in full-time hours at Beckmen and then working until 2:30 a.m. on his own wines was a great arrangement until the couple’s daughter was born in 2004. He then wanted to spend more time with family, and in order to do so, in 2005 he took a job as an associate winemaker at Fess Parker Winery, where he was allowed to make his wine on site. At this 150,000-case facility he learned how to make larger quantities of wine. Two years later, he returned to Beckmen Vineyards as head winemaker, and started making his wine there.

Sigouin signs a bottle of his Kaena wine

Using lessons learned in the kitchen from his great-grandmother and his restaurant training, Sigouin cooks the family meals every day for the loves of his life, Sally and their two children, 4-year-old daughter Lulu Kaiulani and 22-month-old son Lincoln Kekoa. The Ballard, Calif., residents enjoy visits to the zoo, walks in Santa Ynez Valley and spending time with friends in the land of “cowboys, Indians, ranchers, movie stars and wine-makers.”

One of the reasons he created the wine is so he could come back to Hawaii two or three times a year, when they love to go to the beach every day, and always find time to go to the swap meet and visit Haleiwa town.

“I love showing the kids the turtles at Turtle Bay, picking up puka shells and eating as much poke as possible,” he says. “I always make a stop at Kahuku Superette for some poke. When the kids get older, we’ll go hiking, too.”

He acknowledges the support of his friends and family in all that he does. Sigouin’s best friend since kindergarten at Hahaione Elementary - each was best man at the other’s wedding - David Chong, is among the fans of Kaena Wine.

“I love his wines,” says Chong, a fellow Kaiser grad and now a police officer in California. “My little wine fridge at home is full of it.”

Chong sites determination as one of Sigouin’s keys to success.

“He was always driven to succeed,” notes Chong. “Among our friends, everyone’s really proud of Mikael. He had humble beginnings.”

For the past couple of years Sigouin’s visits to Hawaii include getting together with radio personality Lanai of Island Rhythm 98.5 FM. With Sigouin’s help, Lanai will introduce his own wine label in March, called “Look Me In The Eye.”

Sigouin continues his quest to honor his family and pursue his potential for greatness.

“You make wines that you like to drink,” says Sigouin.“You stick to your own passion, and you hope that people like what you do. Go to the beat of your own drum and hopefully it picks up.”