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Lise Asimont is nerding out on soil. It’s late February and she’s sorting out various samples of surface soil for her makeshift soil lending library.

“I’m a viticulturist and farmer first, winemaker second, so I see wines as the product of the vineyard they are from. What better way to discuss this than start with the soil,” said Asimont, who is senior vice president at Foley Family Farms Vineyards and runs Dot Wine with her husband, both in Healdsburg, Calif.

A few years ago, Asimont’s harvest interns gathered bags of soil samples from Foley Family Farms Vineyards.

“Rather than spend a gazillion dollars sending them in to be sterilized, I purchased a large Instant Pot and sterilized each soil sample in small batches. I have about three to four sterilized samples of each soil to loan out to anyone who needs them for educational purposes, whether that is someone in sales, marketing or a winemaker heading to the market,” she said.

But it’s also little surprise that soil is a passion for Asimont. She comes with nearly 30 years of experience as a viticulturist, and a lot of her work involves walking through vineyards. She is closely connected with growers and holds a deep understanding of their challenges and value.

As senior vice president of Foley Family Farms, she manages the viticulture and winegrowing teams that are spread throughout California and Oregon.

Prior to that, she was the company’s vice president of grower relations. Among her career milestones, Asimont has served as the head of vineyard operations at Cakebread Cellars and Francis Coppola Winery, where she led grower relations for over a decade.

Asimont, 48, is also a successful entrepreneur. During the day, Foley is her focus, but in the evenings and on weekends (depending on harvest), she’s busy making wine. In 2016, she and her husband, Shawn Phillips, launched Dot Wine. Since then, it has been a 24/7 affair and a constant juggle of their individual full-time jobs, parenting their two children and growing the winery. Phillips, a veteran gardener, comes with over 30 years of running a gardening business and is a published gardener.

“From Monday through Saturday, it’s Foley time, and after 6:30 p.m. outside of harvest, I close one computer and open another,” said Asimont, noting she shifts into “Dot mode.”

A Love of Outdoors
Asimont is a pioneer when it comes to entrepreneurship and winemaking. She comes from a family of physicians. Her father, a native of France, and her mother, a native of the Philippines, were both lifelong physicians. She credits them for her love of nature and the outdoors. Born and raised in Southern California, the family moved to Lake Arrowhead near the San Bernardino Mountains when she was a child.

“That’s where I adopted my grizzly outdoors enthusiast attitude and this very outdoorsy lifestyle,” she said. She switched from pre-med to majoring in anthropology at St. Mary’s College in California after taking a historical archaeology course.

“I was supposed to be a doctor. That’s your fate as the child of highly successful physicians and you’re Asian American,” she said. It was her father who asked if she had considered winemaking and suggested a master’s degree in viticulture at UC Davis, which she pursued. She fell in love with viticulture and enology once at UC Davis.

“I loved the spirit of being out there in the wilderness. You are a victim to Mother Nature and figure it out,” she said. As a winemaker, Asimont loves the thrill of being in the vineyard.

“In the winery, we can control the variables, but in the vineyard it’s magnificent. You figure it out. Is it going to be a hot year or a cold year? I love that. You are eternally youthful. You are constantly on your knees learning something, and I love that,” she said.

“In the winery, we can control the variables, but in the vineyard
it’s magnificent… You are constantly
on your knees learning something,
and I love that.”
– Lise Asimont, Dot Wine

A Dare
In 2016, Dot started as a “dare,” according to their story. She was 20 years into the industry, and during the throes of harvest season, Phillips brought home a bottle of Pinot Noir in the $45 price range.

“Considering the price, and Shawn finally had it, he asked, ‘What would it take to make the perfect Pinot Noir?’ So we did it, and it was kind of a challenge,” she said.

The couple committed to naming the wine after a family member and decided on Dot after Phillips’ grandmother Dorothy. “She’s a very resilient, fiery Welsh woman. I loved the name Dot, and to me it made so much sense. I loved that we were naming it after a family member,” she said.

Since its launch, the winery has expanded into a tasting room at Bacchus Landing, a wine club, and produces between 600 and 800 cases annually. The wines are distributed through the wine club, at tasting rooms and have a retail presence. The labels have earned awards at the Pacific Rim Wine Competition and Sunset International Wine Competition.

“Sweat Equity” and Passion
While launching any business comes with its challenges, the upshot is that Asimont brought decades of winemaking experience, and Phillips had business experience and familial roots in food and farming. He grew up on a sheep ranch in Mendocino County.

The secret to making it work comes down to working smart and staying lean.

“It’s really expensive to have a wine label and to do it right, even for people who really know what they are doing. We do a lot of our own sweat equity,” she said.

“We are not super bougie and we make very smart decisions. We call it [Dot] our third kid going to college,” said Asimont. “The reality is that we don’t have deep pockets. We still have one kid in college, and we are Toyota Tacoma people.”

The couple’s do-it-yourself strategy includes everything from staying on top of regulations to keeping their social channels fresh. When Dot’s Instagram or Facebook receives accolades, “That’s my 58-year-old husband who is doing social media. We do it on our own,” Asimont said. “People always say, ‘You are so authentic.’ We say it’s because it’s just the two of us and that’s how we do it.”

The partnership has been magical. Asimont handles compliance and “computer stuff.” Phillips is the “muscle” and leads the tasting room. Asimont brings wine industry networks, while Phillips offers extensive plant knowledge.

“We’re a good team. Sundays we’re in vineyards together,” she said.

The winery specializes in ultra-premium Rosé, Chardonnay and Russian River Pinot Noir from Sonoma County. Flagship labels include Lolita Pinot Noir and MagPi Pinot Noir. From the start, the focus has been on creating wines that taste and smell as if they were straight out of the vineyard. Her hallmark is clean winemaking. Dot wines are produced with minimal intervention, using minimal additives and preservatives and a focus on natural, sustainable methods.

“This means I strive to make sure that you taste what I get to taste when I’m walking that vineyard during harvest in every glass of Dot Wine you have. It also means that I strive to produce wines that aren’t funky or hazy,” Asimont said.

She intentionally works with small growers in Sonoma County who share her vision for sustainable winemaking. The relationships are often longstanding.

Tyler Klick, a viticulturist who co-owns Redwood Empire Vineyard Management (REVM), the first certified sustainable vineyard management company in California, met Asimont when their children were small. Klick first worked with Asimont when his company sold Coppola fruit from the ranch REVM leased. The company currently sells Pinot Noir fruit to Dot from the Lolita Ranch. While it is rare for a viticulturist to start their own winery, Asimont has an advantage.

“She knows how to roll with the growing season and adjust accordingly. She is not just a winemaker, but also a viticulturist. Being a farmer, that is a big plus. She gets it,” Klick said. “Viticulturists have the benefit and ability to source excellent grapes and those grapes being farmed by excellent farmers. She’s been exposed to so much over the years and she understands the health of the vineyard. That part she has a huge advantage over the winemaker.”

Over the years, Dot has faced challenges, some significant enough to impact the bottom line. In 2020, the winery lost 80% of its grapes due to smoke exposure, and one grower did not have crop insurance. That autumn, a wildfire burned over 55,000 acres in the hills west of Healdsburg. Forced to pivot, the couple decided to use what grapes were available and developed a white Pinot Noir. In 2021, the product, made from Pinot Noir grapes, was released and earned awards, including from the Sunset International Wine Competition.

“I consider it a resiliency project of 2020. We had a horrible problem and had to decide what to do. Now the wine that people know us most for is the white Pinot Noir,” said Asimont. “Sometimes people think that I am a Pollyanna, but you have to change your perspective when you are faced with challenges.”

She credits this mindset to her mentor, Andy Walker, a professor in viticulture and enology at UC Davis, where she earned her master’s and worked in Walker’s lab. Asimont follows what she calls “Walkerisms,” most notably the practice of changing her perspective and applying science and sound planning to overcome roadblocks.

“It’s also a hallmark of resilience and being a farmer. This is a problem, you’ve got to face it and execute well against it. It’s also a good way to conduct business,” she said.

Going Forward
This past spring, Dot launched a Grenache, which has already earned awards, including double gold at the North Coast Wine Challenge, and is headed to the sweepstakes round. Dot is active with events, including sponsoring Healdsburg Pride and participating in Cloverdale Pride.

When not in the vineyards, Asimont enjoys surfing, skiing and cooking. The couple’s youngest child is almost out of college. At times, Asimont wishes Dot was a little smaller so they could take a day off during the week, but it remains more of a maybe than a plan. Her passion for winemaking and for Dot remains strong.

“I hope in two years we are still here. I hope we are still making beautiful wine,” Asimont said.