Where Does Wine Come From? (Part 2)

First, some housekeeping:  the video link failed to embed in our last e-mail.  If you want to see the video of our production facility at CrushPad, please click here.

Now, on with the story:

Passion comes from within, and that enthusiasm is contagious.  Extrapolating our wine tasting gusto, we knew we needed to emulate and pay homage to the wines we routinely and happily imbibe.  While it would be fun to create “special occasion” wines, the sort that ignite marriage proposals, accompany 50 year anniversaries, or toast the safe return of a child from an overseas tour, we truly aspire to craft a great wine that you can drink right now (unless you can wait until dinner). 

So what makes our mouths water?  On one hand we really dig juicy, ripe California-style pinots.  A scrumptious mix of bright berry mingled with sweet cigar smoke, leather and exotic spice can elevate the humblest takeout food to something stellar.  In this vein, we recounted some (but by no means all of the) great California pinot producers we love: Loring, Siduri, and Miner Family wines with fruit from Garys’ and Rosella’s vineyards.  These are the masters and wine icons driving half our pinot equation, leading us to the Santa Lucia Highlands for our first vineyard selection. 

On the other hand, sometimes we crave something in a “Burgundian” vein, with funky earth (fondly misclassified as “barnyard” and “manure”) or mushroom aromatics, maybe something lighter and more subtle.  Imagine a wine alluring and complex enough to seduce you with a whisper instead of a shout.  For this, we needed a growing region that showcased different pinot styles, so we could foist our wine ideal (”da bomb“) onto some awesome fruit.  True to form, Anderson Valley pinots run the gamut from bold and well-oaked to distinctly earthier sensibilities.  Thus the GGS led us to two very distinct and different California growing regions: the Anderson Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands.  And so we begin.