Once upon a time there was a wine…
This is the fantastic story of a Colombian wine lover.
Bibiana González Rave’s story could be the script of a movie. She was born in Medellín, in a country where no one dreamed of making wine and where saying “enology” provoked laughter or confusion. “When I said the word enology, everyone would ask me: ‘Do you want to study ethnology, insects?’ And I would reply: ‘No, enology without the T,'” she recalls. She was a teenager with a strange obsession, without any close role models, but with an almost mystical certainty that her destiny lay among vineyards.
At 17, she tried to make her first wine and failed. She studied Chemical Engineering, convinced that this would bring her closer to the process, but she soon realized that she needed to learn from the ground up. So, without speaking French and without knowing anyone, she wrote to eleven viticulture schools in France. They all rejected her. “I told my mother: ‘I don’t have time to waste, I’m going to those schools and I’m going to ask them to accept me.'” She arrived in Cognac with a suitcase slung over her shoulder and sat from eight in the morning until four-thirty in the afternoon in the reception area of a high school, without eating, waiting for the principal to see her. And he did.
“After a month and a half, I was writing all my exams in French. They never saw me cry in class, but I would go to my room and let it all out alone,” she recalls. The teacher who doubted her the most ended up adoring her: on her first exam, she got the highest grade in the class. Years later, she was accepted to the University of Bordeaux, something that had never happened before to a student from that high school. “I felt like the vineyard was my life. I understood the vines, the pruning, how to care for them… it was a visceral connection, as if I had always known.”
After France, she worked in South Africa and California. There, on the Sonoma coast, she found not only the perfect place to further her career but also Jeff Pisoni, who would become her husband and business partner. “Before Jeff and I worked together, I saw the relationship he had with his brother Mark. There were no egos, just respect and family. That gave me the confidence to think we could do it too.”
In 2011, after many years of perfecting her craft, Bibiana decided to embark on her own adventure: Cattleya Wines. “I named it Cattleya to honor my native country, my family, and the experiences that shaped me,” she explains on the brand’s website. “I grew up in Medellín, a city a city marked by violence and the billboards. But I decided to build on the family principles of hard work, tenacity, honesty, and the pursuit of excellence that quiet dream I’d always had: to make wine.” Each bottle of Cattleya is a reflection of that blend of worlds. “My childhood in Colombia shaped who I am. My training in France defined the winemaker I became. And California gave me the land and the opportunity to make exceptional wines.” There, she works alongside Jeff, with whom she also created a revolutionary Sauvignon Blanc for California: dry, elegant, with vibrant acidity and a French-inspired technique. “The first year, everyone was saying, ‘What are Bibiana and Jeff doing?’ And then a critic wrote, ‘This is the best Sauvignon Blanc California has ever made.'”
Red wine, pleasure and health
Beyond sensory and cultural enjoyment, red wine has been the subject
Numerous studies have explored its potential positive impact on health when consumed in moderation. One of the most studied molecules is resveratrol, a polyphenol found primarily in the skin of red grapes, which acts as a natural antioxidant. Science has associated resveratrol with anti-inflammatory effects and with the protection of the cardiovascular system, by helping to reduce oxidative stress and promoting healthy blood vessels.
Several studies suggest that moderate consumption of red wine can contribute to increasing HDL cholesterol (the so-called ‘good cholesterol’) and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, always within the context of a balanced lifestyle. In cultures where wine is part of the meal and not an indulgence—as in southern France or Italy—this mindful consumption has been linked to what for decades was known as the “French paradox.”
Bibiana, raised in this European tradition, sees wine not as an excess, but as a cultural staple: something to be shared, to accompany food, and to connect people. In that balance between pleasure, respect for the raw material, and moderation, wine finds its natural place.
Today, with almost three decades dedicated to wine, Bibiana continues to combine discipline and emotion, science and art, reason and passion. “I love my husband completely. I feel incredibly fortunate to be with a generous, fair person who has been my greatest supporter. He was the one who told me: start your own brand.”
Wine, in her life, cannot be separated from family. Her children remind her of what is essential. “Children keep us grounded; family always comes first.” And although she knows the path hasn’t been easy, she recognizes that this blend of French rigor and Colombian passion is what defines her voice in the world of wine. “I’m obsessive about aromas, purity, and elegance. But I’m also Latina, from Medellín; I hug my children 80 times a day, I dance with them, I transmit to them that intensity of flavors and of life. All of that is in my wines.” them that intensity of flavors and…”
Text: AMIRA SAIM.
By: Vogue Mexico