Over time our Pinot Noirs have fallen into a sort of a hierarchy. Saralee’s is usually the prettier, Trenton View is the lightest in color, Great Oak is the most masculine and backward. However the last few years Great Oak has started, probably due to vine age, to be less tannic and backward. Its place in the hierarchy seems to have been taken by Ritchie Vineyard!

Dark red fruit (as opposed to berry) with hints of graphite. Red, almost plum-like. Currently more structured than apparent. With air it shows deeper red fruit and richness emerges.

This wine comes from one of the older blocks of this vineyard. The original plantings were 100% Barrel fermented in French oak, aged sur lies with battonage (lees stirring) once a month. Full malolactic fermentation took place. The wine was aged 10 months in Barrel.

The vineyard is highly coveted with numerous winemakers sourcing from here. Everyone gets their own dedicated row (or half as the case may be). However, not all Ritchie Vineyard wines are created equal. Throw in personal preferences with at least one winery picking 2 weeks ahead of everyone else and a couple wineries on the other end of the spectrum. Leads to some very diverse wines. We fall somewhere in the middle.

Bright lemon yellow color. Ripe pear with lemon custard and a hint of mango. Classic Ritchie profile and aromatics are present. Very rich, very full opulence balanced by good acidity. Long, full fruit. A fine counterpart to its stablemate Kent the Younger.

Co-fermented with 5% Viognier. Aged for 18 months in neutral French oak barrels.

Racy, vibrant, violet laced fruit reminiscent of French plums and licorice with a bit of kid leather. Amazing brightness to the fruit. Mouthwatering acidity brings you back for just one more sip. The depth of tannins combined with the vibrant acidity argue for a long life.

Over the last decade we have made a number of orange wines. Not from oranges but from grapes! I made my first orange wine the second year I was a winemaker simply out of curiosity. I was dissatisfied with the answers academics gave me for white grapes weren’t turned into wine the same way red wines were in conventional winemaking despite the centuries-long tradition of doing so. I decided to find out for myself what would happen. That first orange wine was made from what were probably the most expensive grapes in the state at the time -- Chardonnay from Winery Lake Vineyard in Carneros. I labeled it Gonzo, after a dear friend’s obsession with the author Hunter S. Thompson and his style of journalism, known as Gonzo journalism.

Years passed and I started hearing about a “new, hip wine” that’s all the rage -- orange wine! It came from rather obscure but widespread winegrowing regions in Europe where white grapes were made with varying amounts of skin contact during fermentation. Some were treated like red wine, but lacking any red pigment they were more orange than light gold or red. Others were made using oxidative winemaking techniques resulting in nutty, dark wines that were more intellectually curious than delicious. Although these wines were long known in Europe, a few wine bars in Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities, eager to find something that appealed to new wine drinkers, embraced them. I have long enjoyed the non-oxidative style of making these wines. For this style, Grenache Blanc is my grape of choice.