Napa Carneros, AVA
A new vineyard source for me in 2021, I give you my first foray into Napa Carneros with this showing from the Cottonwood Vineyard. Situated in southern Napa Valley, a stones throw away from the San Francisco Bay. This vineyard should have Chardonnay planted on it but Mark English decided to plant some Grenache Noir here in 2018 just because he’s crazy. The first crop came off in 2020 but was sold to a large winery that used it in a blend, which Mark wasn’t thrilled about. So a mutual friend connected us in the spring of 2021. This site is cool, probably a little to cold for Grenache, but that makes for an extraordinary expression of the varietal. Savory and dark, with loads of blackberry and bay leaf and the most amazing mid-palette. It’s almost reminds me of a Mourvedre from Bandol in that aspect.
For winemaking, I picked on September 14th 2021 in the morning. The grapes were at 23.8 degrees brix. The fruit was fermented 100% whole cluster with indigenous yeast with a daily pump over until the juice was dry. I then pressed into 500L neutral puncheons to age for 18 months before it was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
$46
92 Points – Wine Spectator 7/1/24 “Delicate and pretty, with rich and floral notes of raspberry, fresh violets and savory pepper that glide toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2031. 125 cases made.”
Our third
Grenache Blanc from our new estate vineyard, hence forth known as Kitty Face Vineyard, located in the eastern Sonoma Valley. This wine provokes aromatics of fresh lemon and green apples, tropical melon, sea salt, blood orange and fall pears with a hint of grated nutmeg, fennel and dill seed. It then expands to a broad palate filled with apricots, lemon curd and brioche. Maintaining our signature synthesis of honeyed stone fruits polarized by lively acidity and piercing minerality gaining momentum of richness and depth on the finish. Whole cluster pressed, native primary fermentation with no malolactic fermentation, aged sur lie in a concrete egg for one year. Never fined and only lightly filtered.
$34
Alder Springs
Our third vintage from this legend of a vineyard in the far northern reaches of Mendocino County. Just 12 miles from the Pacific at at 2400 feet in elevation, this is a cooler site. And it shows in the wine. Cranberry mixed with forest floor and bramble burst from the glass. Followed by hard cherry candy and ripe red raspberry. This is just a picture perfect showing of a cold climate Grenache Noir. Fermented 100% whole cluster and aged for two years in once used French oak barrels which give it just a touch of oak. And bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve freshness and laser like focus.
$46
91 Points – Wine Enthusiast 8-1-24
Our 8th vintage from the Dry Creek Valley vineyard owned and farmed by the Mounts family for the last 70 years. Sourced from a single row of Albon clone, suit-cased from the famed Chateau Rayas by none other than John Albon himself, this clone is perfumed and luscious and perfect for showcasing the wonders of Grenache Noir. Fermented 100% wholecluster with very light punchdowns and pigeage (foot treading) with native yeast this wine is alive and bright. After pressing, the wine is put to rest in neutral French oak barrels for 23 months and then bottled unfined and unfiltered. If you love Pinot Noir, then you’re going to love this wine. Bright red and blue fruit leap from the nose followed by bramble and nutmeg. Velvety on the palette with soft tannin and plenty of acid. Our best wine from this site yet!
$38
Gold Medal: San Francisco Wine Competition 2024
2024 Press Democrat Wine Challenge, Double Gold. 95 Points. “Dried rose petals, fresh cranberry and clove.”
93 Points “Hidden Gem” Wine Enthusiast 8-1-24
Sonoma Valley, Carbonic Grenache Blanc
The Grenache Blanc grapes for this wine were picked on the morning of October 4th, 2023 from our estate vineyard, Kitty Face Vineyard, here in the idyllic Sonoma Valley. I brought them into the winery and placed them into a small closed top tank without destemming. With the idea of doing a full carbonic fermentation, inert gas was then used to fill the headspace of the tank and the tank was sealed. I added nothing and walked away from the lot. Leaving it completely unmolested for 10 days. Very unusual for a white wine but something I’ve been thinking about trying for a few years now. At a, I drained and pressed the grapes directly into neutral French oak barrels. The juice was still quite sweet at that point but the aroma’s and flavor profile were absolutely amazing! The wine finished it’s primary fermentation in barrels within a few weeks and the wine was then placed in the barrel room and allowed to rest on it’s lees for three months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered on December 2nd 2023.
Wonderful notes of sweet desert pears and granny smith with notes of honey and blood orange rind. Full in the mouth with beautiful tannin and acid that make this unique wine really pop. Not until the very end do you get notes of the carbonic fermentation, banana and bubblegum finally express themselves.
$28
2023 Dry Creek Valley Grenache Noir Pet Nat
Pet Nat Or Pétillant Naturel, is produced in the method ancestral. Long story short, the wine is bottled prior to fully completing its first fermentation, allowing carbon dioxide to be produced by the fermentation of the natural sugars found in the grapes. Winemaking monks originally used the méthode ancestrale in Limoux in the south of France in the early 16th century. This production method is contrary to the method champenoise the way in which Champagne is produced, where the base wine is fully fermented, then undergoes a secondary fermentation in bottle with the addition of yeast and sugar. Our Pét-Nat and may contain solids and tartrates in the bottle.
Tasting Notes: A light carbonation that instantly brings strawberry and oyster shells to the nose, this 100% Grenache Noir is perfect for sipping on a warm, spring day. The secondary hints of raspberries, candied ginger, and dried cranberries play perfectly off of the austere acid that gives this wine a great backbone. We’re really pleased with this wine and can’t wait for you to try it.
Vineyard: The fruit for this wine comes from our friends, the Mounts Family and their meticulously farmed 130 acres in the heart of the Dry Creek Valley, northern Sonoma County. The Grenache Noir that was planted in 2010 comes from a block that is grown on an old creek bed, where the soil has been stripped away and replaced by stone and sand. The perfect spot for this Southern Rhone varietal
Winemaking: The fruit was picked the night of September 6th and arrived at the winery bright and early where it was desteemed and allowed to sit on it’s skins for 24 hours and then pressed into a stainless steel tank, allowing it to be cold settled for two days. After the grape solids had fallen out and settled out of solution, we moved the juice to a small tank and the must was allowed to ferment with native yeast down to 12 grams per liter of sugar. This is the tricky part as you have to bottle the juice at exactly the right time to achieve the perfect amount of pressure in the bottle. So hourly brix checks and sleepless nights are all part of making good Pét-Nats. We then chilled the tank to 40° to arrest fermentation and moved it into bottles with crown caps to finish fermentation under pressure. After three months we cracked our first bottle and we had bubbles! This wine is unfined and unfiltered as well as not being cold stable. So, there is both yeast sediment and wine tartrates in the bottle. It is a natural product and so is the sediment. No need to worry, it’s part of the goodness!
$35
Pet Nat Or Pétillant Naturel, is produced in the method ancestral. Long story short, the wine is bottled prior to fully completing its first fermentation, allowing carbon dioxide to be produced by the metabolization of the sugars found in the grapes by yeast cells and carbonating the wine. The méthode ancestrale was originally used in Limoux in the south of France in the early 16th century by winemaking monks. This production method is contrary to the method champenoise, the way in which Champagne is produced, where the base wine is fully fermented, then undergoes a secondary fermentation in bottle with the addition of yeast and sugar. And unlike Champagne, Pét-Nats contain solids and tartrates in the bottle.
Tasting Notes: With a light carbonation that instantly brings cantaloupe and oyster shells to the nose, this 100% Grenache Blanc is perfect for sipping on a warm, spring day. The secondary hints of green apple, candied ginger, and dried apricot play perfectly off of the austere acid that gives this wine a great backbone. We’re really pleased with this wine and can’t wait for you to try it.
Vineyard: The fruit for this wine comes from out friends, the Mounts Family and their meticulously farmed 130 acres in the heart of the Dry Creek Valley, northern Sonoma County. The Grenache Blanc, that was planted in 2010, comes from a block that is planted on an old creek bed, where the soil has been stripped away and replaced by stone and sand. The perfect spot for this Southern Rhone varietal.
Winemaking: The fruit was picked the night of September 22nd and arrived at the winery early where it was whole cluster pressed into a stainless steel tank, allowing it to be cold settled for two days. After the grape solids had fallen out and settled out of solution, we moved a small portion to a tank and the juice was allowed to ferment down to 12 grams per liter of sugar. We then chilled the tank to 40° to arrest fermentation and moved it into bottles with crown caps to finish fermentation under pressure. For this vintage, 2023, we did not disgorge. This wine is unfined and unfiltered as well as not being cold stable. So, there is both yeast sediment and wine tartrates in the bottle. It is a natural product and so is the sediment. No need to worry, it’s part of the goodness!
$35
North Coast Grenache Noir
This Grenache is sourced from cooler-climate vineyards in the North Coast region to showcase the various aspects of our abundant micro-climates here in the northern reaches of the San Francisco Bay Area. As I specialize in single vineyard Grenache Noir this started out a few years ago as a curiosity. Working in the barrel room one day, I wondered what it would taste like if I mixed up a little blend of wine from each vineyard that we keep separate and bottle individually. The sum was greater than the parts. But at that time, I didn’t make enough wine to actually do it. Fast forward to 2021, where I was able to purchase a little fruit from a vineyard here in the Sonoma Valley that was originally going to end up as a single vineyard bottling. But upon more reflection and since I already have a single vineyard from the Sonoma Valley, I decided that this would be the base for my first North Coast Grenache Noir. I added a dash of this and a dash of that from my other Grenaches and as I first discovered in the barrel room that day, that sometimes the sum is better than the parts.
The wine opens with a nose of strawberries and a sour rhubarb that fades into red fruit and raspberries. Second notes on the nose give aspects of a Perfumey lavender and cracked white peppercorns. The palette flows with the peppercorns and sweet, jammy fruit that are held up by the bright acid and soft, supple tannins. Easy to drink, and even easier to enjoy.
$28 a bottle
Tasting Notes Pale salmon in hue, classy and vibrant with aromatics of pink grapefruit, fresh strawberry, watermelon rind, rose petal, candied orange peel concentrated with a refreshing line of minerality and zippy citrus finish. The Grenache grapes for this wine were picked with the intention to make a Rosé and its expression showcases this.. This Rosé is made from 100% Grenache.
Vineyard This Rose is made from Grenache harvested from the Algerfield Vineyard in the Sonoma Valley . A stoney bit of ground on the west side of the Sonoma Valley, planted to Grenache and Cannonau, which is a Grenache clone from Sardinia. It was farmed specifically for our Rosé production and I couldn’t be happier with the results. 2023 was a very cool growing season and the fruit for this Rosé hung on the vine for an additional 32 days longer than the previous year. Which created wonderful fruit notes with prefect, balanced acidity.
Winemaking The fruit was picked the night of October 8th and arrived at the winery bright and early were it was whole cluster pressed into a various stainless steel tanks, allowing it to be cold settled for two days. After the grape solids had fallen out and settled out of solution, I racked this wine to stainless steal drums, neutral French barrels, and tanks to ferment with native yeast. After the long, slow, cold fermentations were complete, the drums and various vessels where combined and the wine was settled and aged in tank to be filtered and bottled January 24th, 2024.
$28
2024 Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge, Best of Class. 96 Points. “I could sit on the porch and sip this rosé. Cool calm and
collected. Slightly green banana.
Mathis Vineyard
Concentrated presence of fresh strawberries and foraged wild berries, bing cherries, pomegranate, cinnamon, coriander, dried rose petal, exuberant yet disciplined, with a core of red currants, heady black cherry and minerality closing with piercing finesse. Sourced from the Peter Mathis’s vineyard, high above the east side of the Sonoma Valley above the small town of Boyes Hot Springs. This is one of our favorite spots. Small berry clones plus very tight vine spacing gives this vineyard some of the best concentration of Grenache around. We are incredibly honored to receive fruit from this 7 acre gem and this wine won’t disappoint.
$38
Gold Medal: San Francisco Wine Competition 2024
Sonoma Valley, Carbonic Grenache Noir
The Grenache Noir grapes for this wine were picked on the morning of September 15th, 2022. I brought them into the winery and placed them into a small closed top tank without destemming. With the idea of doing a full carbonic fermentation, inert gas was then used to fill the headspace of the tank and the tank was sealed. I added nothing and walked away from the lot. Leaving it completely unmolested for 17 days. At which point, I drained and pressed the grapes directly into neutral French oak barrels. The must was still quite sweet at that point but the aroma’s and flavor profile were absolutely amazing! The wine finished it’s primary fermentation in barrels within a few weeks and the wine was then placed in the barrel room and allowed to go through malolatic fermentation spontaneously. After several months, once ML was complete, I racked the wine once, off its gross lees and then back into clean, neutral French oak barrels. The wine was then bottled in June of 2023, unfined and unfiltered.
$32
Previous Vintages:
92 Points. “Really fresh with a vibrant array of ripe raspberries and a wildflower edge. The palate has a succulent and supple feel with layered tannins that carry intense pink fruit, adding blood oranges at the finish.” -James Suckling
Best of Class. Grenache Noir under $35.00, San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. 2022.
Gold Medal, Santa Rosa Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge. 2021
Piquette
Derived from the French word for “prick” or “prickle,” which describes the drink’s slight fizz, piquette dates to ancient Greek and Roman times. Considered a meager, cheap-to-produce drink made from the scraps of winemaking, it was given to slaves and field workers. In France, piquette is said to have been the preferred drink of vineyard workers at the lunch table, as its low alcohol encouraged post-lunch productivity rather than an alcohol-fueled stupor. While the style is tied closely with France, nearly all European winemaking countries have their own version of piquette, usually made and consumed by field workers and their families.
In the winery, during harvest, the smells and tastes of fermenting juice and the “what could be’s” of this year’s crop are such a special thing. As juice progresses through the initial fermentations, the juice becomes wine, the bright fruit, peaches, apples, melon, and grapefruit start to fade into the background. They’re still there in the finished wine. But not nearly as intense and fresh. So I’m trying to capture that. Lightning in a bottle. With this first of many piquettes to come during harvest, I’m hoping to share those things with you. In a way, to allow you taste harvest with me. Piquette has the unique ability to do that as here we are, talking about a wine that is a few weeks old but ready to consume.
This Piquette is a 50/50 blend of Grenache Noir and Grenache Blanc made from the pomace of Grenache Noir from our Rosé and Grenache Noir Pet-Nat and the pomace of my Grenache Blanc that consist of pressed berries and stems and added water to allow the berries to soak back up. In doing so, some sugar is steeped from the pomice and fermentation begins. Daily foot treadings for five days and then I pressed the pomice again to get this light, sprtizy, low alcohol, thirst quencher.
$6 375mL can
Piquette
Derived from the French word for “prick” or “prickle,” which describes the drink’s slight fizz, piquette dates to ancient Greek and Roman times. Considered a meager, cheap-to-produce drink made from the scraps of winemaking, it was given to slaves and field workers. In France, piquette is said to have been the preferred drink of vineyard workers at the lunch table, as its low alcohol encouraged post-lunch productivity rather than an alcohol-fueled stupor. While the style is tied closely with France, nearly all European winemaking countries have their own version of piquette, usually made and consumed by field workers and their families.
In the winery, during harvest, the smells and tastes of fermenting juice and the “what could be’s” of this year’s crop are such a special thing. As juice progresses through the initial fermentations, the juice becomes wine, the bright fruit, peaches, apples, melon, and grapefruit start to fade into the background. They’re still there in the finished wine. But not nearly as intense and fresh. So I’m trying to capture that. Lightning in a bottle. With this first of many piquettes to come during harvest, I’m hoping to share those things with you. In a way, to allow you taste harvest with me. Piquette has the unique ability to do that as here we are, talking about a wine that is a few weeks old but ready to consume.
This Piquette “Numero Dos” is made from the pomice of Grenache Noir from our Rosé and Grenache Noir Pet-Nat. I saved the left-overs that consist of pressed berries and stems and added water to allow the berries to soak back up. In doing so, some sugar is steeped from the pomice and fermentation begins. Daily foot treadings for five days and then I pressed the pomice again to get this light, sprtizy, low alcohol, thirst quencher. Before being bottled September 1st, 2021, right in the middle of harvest. Nothing was added but water. Nothing taken away. It simply is. It simply is the essence of harvest.
$12 500ML bottle
$18 750ML bottle
Sierra Foothills, AVA
A new vineyard source for me in 2019, I give you my first foray into the Sierra Foothils with this showing from the Naggiar Vineyard. Nestled in rolling hills north west of Placerville in Nevada County, this vineyard is at almost 3000 feet in elevation and covered in red, iron rich soils and decomposed granite. Making for a structured wine that is tight upon opening but slowly opens to intriguing aromas of black raspberries, orange blossom, cassis and nutmeg with a subtle earthy character and hints of herbes de Provence. On the palate, flavors of black cherries, ripe raspberries and blackberries and a hint of chocolate lead to a creamy, sensuous mouthfeel and genuinely long finish. Only 65 cases made.
$28
This wine has aged beautify and thanks or in part to a warehouse inventory sanfu, we recently discovered some extra cases we didn’t know where still here. So we have re-released it to the public. Get it before we drink it all!
Tasting Notes The 2016 Grenache Blanc shows bright fresh lemon, honeyed apple and a creamy apricot nose that then turn more savory with hints of tarragon, cider, and sage. In the mouth its initial impression of fruit (spiced apple sauce, quince and green melon) is followed by vibrant acids, then turning sweeter again on the finish, suggesting preserved lemon and anise and leaving a lingering impression of saline minerality. Drink now and for the next two to three years.
Vineyard The Mounts Family is located directly west of Mount St. Helena in the northern reaches of the beautiful Dry Creek Valley. Meticulously farmed for the last 60 years by this father and son team, they truly have a firm grasp on the site and it’s place. The block of Grenache Blanc sits in a low spot in the vineyard where an old creek use to run. This old creek has stripped the soil, leaving only cobbles and sand. This limits the inherent vigor of the Grenache Blanc vine and allows fantastic concentration of flavors . The orientation of the vineyard allow for plantings of a southern Rhone selection of Grenache Blanc. The fruit is loosely clustered with thick skins that collaborate to create wine with monumental structure and vivid acid.
Winemaking The fruit was picked the night of September 14th and arrived at the winery bright and early were it was treaded in bins and allowed to soak on it’s skins for several hours. It was then whole cluster pressed into stainless steel tanks where it was cold settled for two days. After the grape solids had fallen out, I racked this wine to used, neutral French oak barrels to barrel ferment with a native yeast. When Fermentation was complete, the barrels where topped up and the wine was aged for 8 months with a bi-monthly stirring of the lee’s to add mouth feel and complexity.
“Candied apples, apricots and spices. Light to medium body, slightly tart acidity and a fresh finish. Drink now.” – James Suckling
Gold Medal- SF Chronicle Wine Competition 2017 & 2018
$32