Ben Cane

Ben Cane

The Margaret River region of Western Australia is a stunning combination of forests, beaches and vineyards.

Benjamin Cane is an Australian winemaker currently based in Western Australia. He has made award-winning wines of different varietals across three continents, with pinot noir standing out as a true source of passion and inspiration.

Biography[]

Ben earned a B.S. in Organic Chemistry and Psychology at the University of Adelaide, South Australia and later received his postgraduate diploma in oenology in 1998.^[1] While at university, he worked in several wine-related jobs including in a vineyard and in a cellar and managing a bottle shop. After completing university, he took a job with Simon Gilbert Wine Services in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. His love for pinot noir began while working as an assistant winemaker at Arcadian Winery in Santa Barbara County, California. Once his tenure at Acadian was completed, he travelled through South America, Africa, Asia and Europe before returning to Australia where he became a vineyard manager in the Barossa Valley. Over the next five years, he held numerous jobs: working in the Languedoc; in New South Wales; at Domaine Dujac in Morey-St.-Denis, France; at De Bortoli Wines in the Yarra Valley region of Victoria, Australia; at Poderi Colla in Piedmont, Italy; and at Yalumba Wines in the Barossa Valley. These experiences gave him an insight into wine production in France and Italy.

Ben returned to the United States in 2006 and became a contract winemaker at Freestone Vineyards. In 2007 the Duncan Family of Silver Oak Cellars hired Ben as an assistant winemaker to Daniel Baron to develop the pinot noir program for Twomey Cellars, the sister winery to Silver Oak. The following year he began overseeing production of sauvignon blanc. Ben initially began producing wine from Twomey's Russian River Valley WestPin vineyard. He went on to expand the label's vineyard program to include fruit sourced from the Anderson Valley and Sonoma Coast Appellations, as well as the famed Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria Valley. His vision for Twomey was "to craft a wine that expresses the uniqueness and terroir of each vineyard site with finesse and balance, by blending old world techniques with new world innovation and technology."^[2] By 2013 he produced seven pinot noir vintages for Twomey. In October 2013 Ben left Twomey and took a Head Winemaker job at Westwood Wines, a boutique winery also within the Russian River Valley AVA of Sonoma County.

At Westwood Ben was hired to completely redesign the brand, winery and reputation of the small boutique winery that produced 4,000 cases. He oversaw the 23 acre estate vineyard planted to several pinot noir clones, chardonnay and Rhône varietals and worked alongside the biodynamic expert, Philippe Coderey, to achieve biodynamic certification for the estate in 2017. The wines were consistently given high points and accolades^[3] from several critics, including a triple crown^[4] at the Sonoma Coast Wine Challenge 2016.

In late 2018 Ben accepted a position as Winemaker at Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned^[5] Cape Mentelle Winery in Margaret River, Western Australia and moved back to his home country with a strong desire to reconnect with the premium Australian wine industry. At Cape Mentelle, Ben is an instrumental member of the winemaking team overseeing the production of 60,000-100,000 cases, assists with the viticulture of 130ha of vines across Margaret River, and is the designated technical voice to represent the brand in market to trade, media and consumers, and in-house staff across LVMH.

Ben Cane

Press[]

Cape Mentelle: Part of Ben's role at Cape Mentelle is as the face of the label in the international and domestic markets. He hosts wine dinners, pours at wine shows, visits wine retail outlets,^[6] hosts virtual tastings, and conducts tours, talking to customers and press^[7] along the way. In 2020 the brand celebrated its 50th anniversary, a significant milestone that was marked by several high level events^[8][9] and a marketing video collaboration with leading Australian lifestyle photographer Eugene Tan of Aquabumps.

Westwood: The wines were consistently given high points and accolades from several critics including a triple crown^[4] at the Sonoma Coast Wine Challenge 2016. As a result, Ben was tapped as a "Winemaker to Watch"^[10] in 2016 by Sonoma Magazine. Many others were excited by the prospect of Ben's contribution at Westwood such as The Terroirist^[11] and The Wine Write.^[12]

Twomey: Ben Cane's and Daniel Baron's wines for Twomey received considerable critical acclaim. The Napa Valley Register praised Ben's methods of winemaking and stated that the Twomey 2009 Bien Nacido Vineyard pinot noir contained fruit which "explodes in the mouth." They described the Twomey 2009 Russian River pinot noir as the most full-bodied of the four wines being produced, "with aromas and flavors of red berries and brown sugar, [and] just loads and loads of ripe fruit." The publication also said that the Twomey 2009 Sonoma Coast pinot noir was a "well-balanced wine, full-bodied and shows both ripe fruit and mineral notes on mid-palate. Layers of berry flavor, with a raspberry finish – even a hint of blueberry."

Sonoma Wine said Twomey's wines are a "marriage of classical French technique and an extraordinary California vineyard, [which] results in Twomey's distinctive, complex, and rich expression of luscious fruit." Twomey's 2009 Russian River Valley pinot noir was awarded first place in the American Wine Society's National Tasting Project in 2012. It was also awarded the runner-up prize out of a group of 60 pinots in the Pinot Cup competition at Chef Charlie Palmer's annual Pigs & Pinot event in Healdsburg, California. Eric Asimov of The New York Times wrote that Twomey's 2009 Anderson Valley pinot noir was "one of our favorites, bigger and softer but with both finesse and intensity." North Bay Biz wrote that in making appropriate vintages, "Cane adds whole clusters to the open-top fermentors and performs a cold soak lasting several days to extract the grapes' delicate flavors. During fermentation, the cap is gently pushed down every six hours to obtain color and aroma."

References[]