Yan Cellars. Founder of Yan Cellars, Eugene Bayani was born in Japan, but grew up in Manilla, Philippines raised by multi-cultural parents; his father is Korean and his mother is half Spanish and half Filipino. His father was in the military so the family often moved. An appreciation for travel was instilled early in his life.
He worked as a ramp supervisor based at SFO for China airlines from early 2011 to 2017. As an employee of an airline he was able to take advantage of employee benefits including being able to fly standby to destinations around the globe. It was during these trips he began tasting a diversity of wines served on board from various airlines. He noticed certain airlines such as Singapore airlines offered the best selection of wines in their business class. But so did some of the middle eastern airlines including Emirates.
Through his job, he also worked with the airline’s catering company to help pair wines with meals. And he also assisted with helping source wines for airline lounges. But one of his earliest ‘aha’ moments was at a friend’s house who was hosting a party. His friend opened a 1991 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon – to celebrate his birth year. Eugene had heard that Napa Valley wines don’t age particularly well. Editors note: that is a total myth in many cases. After trying this particular bottling, Eugene was pleasantly surprised by how well it had aged approximately two decades post vintage.
Another seminal wine moment came in 2016 when he visited Lokoya Winery on Spring Mountain accompanying some of his friends from Asia who were visiting. He especially enjoyed their bottlings from Howell Mountain and Spring Mountain and recalled the ‘impact’ these two wines had on his palate. He began to explore wines from other producers in the valley, citing some of his favorites as anything produced by MacDonald and DANA Estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon from their Lotus Vineyard.
No longer working for China Airlines, since 2018 Eugene has worked for a Fortune 500 company focused on logistics and helping broker a significant amount of goods shipped into SFO and the Port of Oakland as well as by plane and truck. His customers are from the tech industry including a number of well-known companies. Transportation does not stop; his business is both exciting yet also challenging. While running a small wine brand also has its challenges, in comparison to his logistics work, Yan Cellars offers a different kind of reward – creating something tangible that brings people together rather than products to people.
Yan Cellars is the surname of his wife’s family; it also has a dual meaning. In Tagalog it simply means “that” as in referring to ‘that one’. And Chinese calligraphy for ‘Yan’ roughly means a swallow (type of bird); it was also a short lived dynasty in China. The artist who created the brushstroke on the label is Tokyo based Youna Matsushita. Eugene reached out to her through the great connector, Instagram. Her design is simple, elegant and contemporary.
Part of Eugene’s label philosophy is to promote his winemaker. Patrick Saboe, the talented and under the radar winemaker at the Wine Foundry has crafted every bottle of Yan Cellars. His name is listed on the back of every bottle.
When Eugene started thinking about starting his own wine brand, he began looking for grapes from Lodi. But then he focused on finding distinctive sites in Napa Valley and simultaneously began looking for custom crush wineries to produce his wines. He discovered the Wine Foundry, a custom crush winery that has established relationships with top growers in Napa Valley and beyond. Eugene also spoke to those living in Napa Valley for advice about starting a wine brand. Part of those conversations included the possibility of purchasing a vineyard; timing wasn’t yet ideal for such a purchase, but may happen in the future.
Eugene started Yan Cellars with a business plan sketched out on a napkin while waiting for his order at Hog Island Oyster in Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa. The inaugural vintage of Yan Cellars was in 2017.
Select Wines
The 2019 Yan Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Blush is 98.5% Sauvignon Blanc from Morgaen Lee Vineyard in Yountville and 1.5% Beckstoffer Georges III Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford. We are fairly certain that this is the first and probably the last time that Beckstoffer Georges III Cabernet Sauvignon was blended into a Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is pale copper/light amber in color although it has become darker as expected 5 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. The highly distinctive bouquet offers a sweet and sour aromatic profile with scents of honey, dried apricots, roasted pineapple, an orange glaze sauce, lemon drop candy, vanilla and hazelnut. In a blind tasting, we would like to think we could easily pick this bouquet out of a lineup of other ‘rose’ wines. The mouth feel is creamy and supple with a ‘cashmere’ like texture. Brightly lit, there are flavors of citrus including lemon, mandarin orange and baked pineapple. Offers a light perception of sweetness across the palate, but finishes dry. Eugene recommends to serve this wine ‘mid chilled’ and not over chilled or under chilled. He discovered it pairs very well with spicy spare ribs and Sichuan chicken. Or perhaps pair with a spicy honey citrus glazed salmon.
This was a two-barrel experimental production; the Sauvignon Blanc was whole cluster fermented with 85% of its primary fermentation in stainless steel and 15% in concrete egg. It went through partial malolactic fermentation in barrel. And it was aged in one new 100% French oak barrel and one stainless steel barrel. This blend was Eugene’s idea; he dedicated this wine to his wife, Yan Yan and his daughter Chloe who was born in 2019. Each bottle was hand-numbered on the back label.
The 2017 Yan Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District Napa Valley was made with grapes from a vineyard owned at the time by the Castelluci family (Castelluci wines). This wine is 94.75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc and 1.25% Merlot with the balance of the varieties from Melrose Vineyard, Stagecoach Vineyard and Broken Rock Vineyard. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet is simultaneously fresh and fruity, 7 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. It offers scents of raspberry, cherry, Persian mulberry and boysenberry accompanied by dried rose petals, a light note of clove and cocoa powder. The oak is clearly a complementary character here with the fruit the star of the show both on the bouquet and the palate. Fresh, bright and mouth watering, on the palate there are flavors of red cherry, currant, dark raspberry and cranberry and some darker spice characteristics including pepper and smoked sage. The broadly coating tannins are dusty, gravelly and persist with a light and pleasant grip, eventually outpacing the fruit on the finish. Savory. Only 600 bottles were produced with each label being hand-numbered. This wine has plenty of life ahead of it with the proper cellaring.
And Eugene remembers he and Patrick spent significant time and effort in particular during the blending trials of this wine. He recalls Patrick saying, “this is going to be at least a 95 point wine”. Eugene’s son Kenzo was born in 2017 – this wine is dedicated to him.
The 2021 Yan Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford is 94.62% Cabernet Sauvignon (from Beckstoffer’s Georges III Vineyard in Rutherford) 3.75% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec and 0.625% Cabernet Franc. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet is both fruit driven and accompanied by layers of baking spices. These scents include mulberry, blackberry, boysenberry preserves, with notes of dark chocolate, caramel, Graham cracker, cinnamon stick and clove. The baking spice components become more dominate as the wine evolves in the glass. The sweetly fruited palate offers flavors of raspberry, ripe strawberries, cherry, and red plum. This wine is surprisingly approachable for a 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. For reference we tasted this wine 3 years post vintage. The tannins are rounded, lightly dusty and very well integrated into the seamless finish. Lingers earthy along with a note of clove and a light toasted oak character. Already balanced in its youth, it will certainly remain so for years to come. Only 300 bottles were produced. We would pair this with a cut of well-marbled Wagyu steak – perhaps a tenderloin.
And Yan Cellars continues to produce Cabernet Sauvignon from Beckstoffer’s Georges III Vineyard each year including in 2022 and 2023.
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Total production varies each year but is usually only a barrel or two of wine. Yan Cellars focuses on selling direct to consumer letting sales take an organic word of mouth approach while scaling up production very slowly. As Eugene admits, patience and persistence are the keys to building the brand. And he is open to placement at select restaurants in New York City. For more information, to acquire wines or to join the mailing list, please visit: www.yancellars.com
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