Originally from Visalia, Villard grew up with parents who were very much into good wine. During his sixth year of winemaking, he found some excellent petite sirah, and launched his label in 2011, focused primarily on inky wines of power and circumstance.
Did you have a wine epiphany moment? In college, I was pre-med, but I took Intro to Winemaking and it clicked that people could actually make wine for a living. It was a downward spiral from there. I was immediately hooked. It just spoke to me that I could actually create wine.
What’s the focus of MCV? I started MCV in 2011. I was working in Napa at the start of the harvest and ended up hurting my knee. The company replaced me, so I came back down to the Central Coast, where I was living when not away on harvest, and started making phone calls looking for work or grapes. I ended up finding a production facility and four tons of petite sirah, and I started MCV. I found another three tons of petite sirah, two tons of syrah, and a ton of grenache, and that was my first vintage. My focus is making ultra-premium wine that is unique and interesting. My style is all about balance, structure, and elegance, even with the heavily tannic, inky varietals I work with.