With their new Heleje brand, the Des Voignes family turns culinary dreams into dreamy contemporary wines

Chefs Jake and Shauna Des Voignes in their kitchen with their newly released Heleje wines.

Once upon the time there were two career chefs who met in a super-fine big city restaurant, got married, worked their fingers to the bone. 

Some would say it was a perfect combination since she was a pastry chef and he an executive chef, so it was match made in culinary heaven. Dishes and dessert, right?

But it really wasn’t. So they packed up and retreated (as Eva Gabor used to sing, goodbye city lights!), three kids and all, to her original home in Lodi. He continued to labor, as Executive Chef and later as Food & Beverage Director of the tony Wine & Roses Hotel. Once settled into life back in the country, however, they connected one of the family occupations—grape farming—with a passion that had been simmering, just waiting to ignite, all along during their restaurant careers: Wine. What could be more natural?

Hartwick Vineyard Orange Muscat at bud break.

This is the story of Shauna and Jake Des Voignes, who have just released the very first five wines under their own wine label, from grapes farmed in their family farms. The brand and burgeoning business is called Heleje Wine Co., conceived from the first two letters of each of their kids’ names, Henry, Leo and Jemma.

This is also natural because, as Jake and Shauna say in unison, while siting at their kitchen table: “Our business is all about family.” Indeed. The front labels of all five of their wines are festooned with old family photographs of their families—a mother, grandmother, two grandfathers and a great grandfather—illustrating the multi-generational heritage resonating throughout the Lodi wine and grape growing industries. 

Jake Des Voignes harvesting his family's Fernow Ranch Fiano.

Generations now tied together by excellent wines. Not only that, all the energy and resourcefulness now channeled into the innovative farming, among the boldest in all of Lodi, going on as we speak at the two Heleje Wine Co. farms; called Fernow Ranch (the property where Shauna Des Voignes grew up) and Hartwick Vineyard (planted by Shauna’s grandfather, now the home of the Des Voignes family).

So before diving deeper into the De Voignes story, let’s talk about their wines, which are all native yeast fermented and vinified with a minimal intervention approach, more than worth the attention of any lover of sleek and original contemporary style wines.

2024 Heleje, Lodi White Blend ($36)—Time was, “white wine blends” in California were made to be as bland and boring as possible, as if this is what consumers who deign to buy generic wines deserve. New fashioned brands such a Heleje aspire to much more. First, it is entirely estate grown—Piquepoul (a.k.a., Picpoul blanc, 70%) and Clairette blanche (30%) farmed in Fernow Ranch by Chef Jake and his father-in-law Frank Hartwick—by LODI RULES sustainable standards, but increasingly regenerative in practice (herbicides and pesticides completely eliminated, with conscious usage of composting, cover crops and fauna such as goats, chickens, owls and beneficial insects). Second, it is native yeast fermented and vinified with minimal input (low sulfur, unfined, unfiltered, strictly neutral French oak, etc.) which allows the pure, natural, mineral and fresh qualities of the grape to shine through: In particular, honeyed and wildflower fragrances, an ultra-light (just 11.8% alcohol) silkiness punctuated by a fresh lemon tartness, flowing and practically floating across the palate. A vivid snapshot of the region’s Mediterranean terroir, ideally suited to these Mediterranean grapes.

2024 Heleje, Lodi Orange Muscat ($36)—Forget any assumptions you may have about “Muscat.” This is not a sweet and simpering wine. It is for all intents and purposes a dry pale gold tinted white (finished with just 1 gram of residual sugar, technically dryer than most commercial whites such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay), with a bracingly light tartness that seems to simultaneously restrain and perk up the powerfully floral, citrusy fragrance of the cultivar (according to UC Davis’ Foundation Plant Services, a cross of Chasselas and Muscat blanc à Petits Grains) while underlining the wine’s cloud-like delicacy (12.9% alcohol). From 16.5-acre block originally planted in 1993 by Shauna’s grandfather Wilton Hartwick for Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi. No longer used by Woodbridge, the Orange Muscat grapes now go to a number of small, handcraft wineries interested in unusual exotic grapes.

2024 Heleje, Lodi Orange Muscat Blend ($36)—A bone dry blending of Fernow Ranch grown Clairette blanche (30%) and Piquepoul (10%) adds a scinitillatingly fresh, natural acid balance and touch of non-fruit minerality to the intrinsically flowery, orange skin zest nuanced Orange Muscat (60%). Light as a feather (12.5% ABV), silky and lemony crisp, this straw-gold white is very contemporary in exactly the crisp, perky, airy yet alluring style of white wine consumers are loving today.

2024 Heleje, Lodi Nero d’Avola Rosé ($40)—Grown in the family’s Fernow Ranch, this black skinned grape which typically produces densely colored and sturdy red wines is utilized to produce a wild and compelling dry orangy pink wine. The nose comes across like earth toned, leather soaked sweet berries, suggesting a fleeting sweetness to the senses while finishing with a robust, meaty dryness (13.8% ABV), given a svelte, viscous feel by natural barrel fermentation. Ergo, while not made in the delicate style of dry rosé most popular today, one that is equally satisfying in its grippy yet balanced, flavorful feel.

2024 Heleje, Lodi Counoise ($42)—The two things going for this wine is that 1) it is made from a grape that resists the “fruit-first” profile that has long characterized the characteristics of mainstream varietal reds popular in this country, and 2) it is plenty zesty and sturdy yet lighter in feel or body (this bottling, finished at 12.2% ABV). Grown in Fernow Ranch, the nose is more flower petal than fruity, with a scent Chef Jake likens to “Jolly Rancher Strawberry in a barrel.” The grape’s natural acidity gives the wine a zesty quality, while restrained tannin and alcohol underlines a mildly earthy yet easy feel and flavor.

While the wines speak for themselves, Chef Jake is just as excited about what the future holds for the Des Voignes family. For him, it’s in the blood; explaining, “My grandfather and I are both former chefs, with an ambition to create and explore new flavors and experiences, which is why Shauna and I felt that making wine was always our destiny. We have now been farming for the past 9 years and really want to see what we could make from our fruit.”

Fernow Ranch Counoise during harvest.

Besides the Orange Muscat, Clairette blanche, Piquepoul, Nero d’Avola and Counoise going into their initial stable of wines, the De Voignes also farm Fiano, Greco and Mourvèdre in Fernow Ranch—the latter grapes currently sold to other handcraft wineries (among them, Donkey & Goat, Les Lunes/Populis, Broc Cellars, and Lodi’s Perlegos Family), but potentially plenty of ammunition for future Heleje brand wines.

Very much cognizant of the enormous potential of the terroir, in Hartwick Vineyard the Des Voignes are cultivating an additional 9 acres newly planted grapes, largely head trained and own-rooted, that include Tempranillo, Grenache noir, Graciano, Verdejo, more Greco, plus Italian varieties never before seen in Lodi or anywhere else in California: Morenillo, Centesimino, Uva Longanesi, Famoso and Albana. “Exciting” is a mild way of describing the future of this family farm.

It is all about family, according to Jake: “Shauna grew up in Lodi, the Hartwicks have their roots in farming. First in Camino as apple farmers, then in Lodi as grape growers. We want to continue this legacy and add to it with the winemaking. We hope to create something that one day our children might want to be part of and carry it forward for generations to come. 

Mixed block of newly planted grapes—some never seen before in California—in the Des Voignes family's Hartwick Vineyard.

“After 20 years of restaurant work, we moved into the farmhouse on the 20-acre farm planted to Orange Muscat and fruit orchards. For us as chefs, it was exciting to live among this abundance, finding ways to use everything in our daily meals.”

The vineyard expansion was a natural extension of this culinary outlook. Adds Jake, “Questions started as a curiosity but budded into a massive change of practice. Why not transform the land around us into something that would create more biodiversity and help our family to grow strong?

“We began to think of the farm and vineyard as part of a larger ecosystem and make decisions that reflecting that. We began talking to friends in the wine industry, the farming industry and more. The weeds that once were thought of as mess began to serve a purpose, holding moisture in the soil, creating homes for helpful bugs, bring back butterflies and dragonflies. 

Fernow Ranch Nero d'Avola, going into Lodi bottlings such as Perlegos Family and the Heleje Rosé.

“The Orange Muscat which, at first, no one seemed to want, was suddenly at the top of many winemakers’ hot list, and we began plotting a new block, transformed into custom crops for winemakers looking to make a change in the industry. 

“Grapes like Nero d’Avalo, Fiano, Greco and Mourvèdre were just a few of the new vines that we planted. Watching the grapes grown led to our picking a few for ourselves, something we can do with all the kids, which led to a tasty bottle of rosé, then a red blend then whites. Next, it was time to put ourselves to the test and jump into officially making wine...

Pink lady apple blossoms in the Des Voignes family's Hartwick Vineyard.

Wines that started with curiosity, was driven by nature, and landed with inspiration.”

Truly. For starters, you can now find Heleje wines at the Lodi Wine Visitor Center. Judging from what we can already taste, the sky is the limit for these multi-generational Lodi family grown wines!

Jake Des Voignes walking through rows of Hartwick Vineyard Orange Muscat.