Jade Gross, Tempranillo Blanco "Chiguita" Rioja, Spain 2022

Still in her thirties, Jade Gross has tried her luck in various fields —some at a particularly high level— before settling in Rioja to launch her own wine project.

With an American father and Chinese mother, Jade was born and raised in Hong Kong. After studying politics and international relations in New York and then a master's degree in human rights in London, Jade felt she still hadn't found her professional path so she decided to apply for a place at a well-known cooking school in Paris after winning a scholarship from the prestigious James Beard Foundation.

Satisfied with the experience, she continued along this path and went on to work in restaurants such as Alain Ducasse, El Celler de Can Roca and Mugaritz, where she was head chef and a member of the R&D team. "When I arrived, I fell in love with the philosophy that permeates Andoni Luis Aduriz and the hierarchy in the restaurant, more linear than pyramidal, and in which everyone's contribution is valued," explains Jade, who explains, in perfect Spanish, that her mind really opened up to the wines of the world during her time creating dishes at Mugaritz.

In search of a new challenge after seven years in Aduriz's team and drawing on the strong connection between wine and food, Jade, who had become friends with Abel Mendoza and Maite Fernández a few years earlier, decided to leave a promising career in haute cuisine to start again from scratch and as an "outsider" in the world of wine.

She moved to San Vicente de la Sonsierra, where in 2019 she bought grapes from a local winegrower, an acquaintance of Abel's, and made her first wine, a 100% Tempranillo from a 34-year-old vineyard. Called Jade Gross (800 bottles, €35), this red is already sold out. "If you had told me four years earlier that I was going to do this, I wouldn't have believed it. I don't know how far I'll go, but I do know that I'm going to give it a go," confides Jade, who is one exam away from the WSET diploma.

Pleased with the result of her first wine, illustrated with a label featuring vines that are piano keys (an instrument she also masters), in 2020 she repeated with the grower from San Vicente, but changed the winemaking, going on to leave 100% stems after having destemmed all the grapes in 2019. Both vintages are aged in 225- and 500-litre barrels. "It's risky to experiment but it's my way of learning," says Jade, who has made 1,700 bottles of the 2020 vintage at the Solagüen winery in Labastida with the technical advice of winemaker and producer Carlos Sánchez.

In 2020, Jade also bought a vineyard in Labastida, at about 600m. elevation. It is in San Ginés, an area with deeper and more fertile soils than San Vicente and where the sun rises in the afternoon. Planted with Tempranillo 35 years ago, Jade does not yet know what wine she will make from this plot, although she does want to work it in a sustainable way. "I don't intend to make great wines, but to bring my own interpretation of the territory and with a lot of respect for the people who have welcomed me," says Jade, who sells her wines in Spain, through Unicorn Wines, as well as in Hong Kong and probably soon in Tokyo and Sweden.