Profiles in wine: Coral Wang, Maison des Plaisances

Coral Wang admits there are some winemaking terms she only knows in French.

While the New Jersey native grew up speaking English and Chinese, her formative winemaking years took place at Domaine Mamaruta, a winery in southern France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region.

“Earlier today I was teaching some friends how to prune a vineyard, and I kept switching between French and English,” said Wang, founder of Maison des Plaisances wines in Sonoma. “I had to apologize and explain I learned most of the words in French!”

A petite, organic winery at the edge of the Mediterranean sea may seem like an unlikely place for a former fashion designer to plant her feet.

But after leaving fashion and landing in the Bay Area restaurant industry in 2015, Wang unexpectedly found herself managing the wine program at a restaurant in Burlingame.

“In the restaurant industry, sometimes you move up quickly because of a particular need,” said Wang. “I’d only been there a month before they asked me to be a manager, then take over the wine program. Basically I had to learn about wine while teaching it to the staff at the same time. It was really tough.”

Over the next two years, however, Wang’s interest in wine steadily grew. She developed a wine training and education program for the company and became increasingly interested in expanding her wine knowledge beyond the bottle.

“I’d become so passionate about wine that I wanted to stand in the vineyards I’d learned so much about,” said Wang. “Eventually I landed an apprenticeship at Domaine Mamaruta in the south of France. It was like living in a painting — a beautiful dream.”

Living in a small, remote village, Wang spent her days tending the vineyard, working in the cellar and caring for the property’s farm animals. What struck her was the deep sense of camaraderie she felt with her fellow workers, which was fostered by their shared daily experiences.

“We did everything together—we farmed together, worked in the cellar together and stopped every day at noon to each lunch together,” said Wang. “We drank wine and coffee together and didn’t talk about work. It was just a sincere, authentic way of living that’s a lot different in the U.S.”

Changing course

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Wang was forced to leave France, eventually returning to California. That’s where landed a harvest gig at Magnolia Wine Services, a custom crush facility in Sonoma.

While she never planned on starting a wine label of her own, that soon changed shortly after arriving at Magnolia.

“I thought I would find the same situation in terms of work, life and culture that I did in France, but California is not like that,” said Wang. “Things are very compartmentalized here. You either work in the cellar or in the vineyard. And most people here don’t farm their own fruit. They buy grapes that come from a vineyard maybe three or four hours away from the winery. In France, our vineyards were just up the road. I knew if I wanted to continue living, farming and winemaking like I had in France, I’d have to start my own label.”

House of Pleasures

In 2021, Wang launched Maison des Plaisances (House of Pleasures), a wine brand focused on her love of farming, community and supporting diversity and inclusion in the wine industry.

While she’s not dogmatic about the use of sulfur, yeast or other winemaking techniques, her goal is to make “clean, delicious wines with fruit grown on healthy soils.”

“Every year is a different experiment so I haven’t made the same wine twice,” said Wang. “This year, I made a skin-contact sauvignon blanc aged in amphora that I’m really proud of.”

For Wang, whose parents emigrated from Taiwan to the United States, finding people who share her Chinese heritage in the Napa and Sonoma wine industries has been a challenge. So supporting diverse populations who share her passion for wine, farming and community has become a priority.

“There’s nobody here that looks like me, so I want to be a point of representation for people,” said Wang. “Whether you’re from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) or LGBTQ communities or even just a single female who wants to start a business, I want to help people believe they can do what I do. Wine can really give you a platform for the social causes that matter, including diversity representation.”

You can reach Staff Writer Sarah Doyle at 707-521-5478 or sarah.doyle@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) and Instagram @whiskymuse.