A new winemaker tries to make his mark at the historic Chalone Vineyard in Soledad.

Greg Freeman may be an eccentric creative at heart (you might, for example, find him in a kilt playing bagpipes at Carmel Beach), but he knows taking over as winemaker at a winery as historic as Chalone Vineyard in Soledad will be, in many ways, selfless work.

“It all starts with the grapes and the grapes here are immaculate so I’m certainly not trying to change anything in the vineyard,” he says. “I just want to be here for the grapes, guide them into the bottle and inject my decision-making process when appropriate. It’s already a great show. It’s not going to be the Greg Freeman show.”

Freeman is a bagpiper, guitarist and winemaker with degrees in microbiology and chemistry who has spent time as a chef, in laboratories as a scientist and on the Rocky Mountains as a snowmobile guide.

As winemaker at Chalone, which has a 100-year history, he plans to make his mark in building the culture, team and workflow. And, of course, consistently producing high-quality wine.

“Mine is the final palate that says, ‘This wine is perfect, bottle it.’ And at that point it belongs to the world and I cannot change it,” Freeman says. “I’m not making wines for me to drink. I’m not making obscure, cult wines. I’m not making weird wines that I have to convince people to like. I want to make wines that people love and are universally adored and consumed.”

With the vineyard’s growing schedule, Freeman says his debut wines are still about a year-and-a-half away.

CHALONE VINEYARD is at 32020 Stonewall Canyon Road, Soledad. Open 11am-5pm Fri-Sun. (707) 933-3235, chalonevineyard.com