We believe in producing intensely flavored and yet balanced wines. Our definition of balance relates to beautiful and lush aromatics, a sensuous and saturating mid palate, and a lengthy captivating finish – a complete wine from start to finish. These are the wines we enjoy drinking and sharing with friends and family. The majority of our wines are offered to our mailing list friends. Please sign up and join the mailing list to acquire an allocation of our next release of Pinot Noirs & Chardonnays.
For the calendar year of 2024, we will offer five very limited and special pinot noirs and three limited production chardonnays to our mailing list friends from the 2022 vintage. We release our Russian River Valley wines in the spring release and Sonoma Coast wines in the fall release. True to our form, these wines are intense, yet elegant, and delicious. Our mailing list friends will receive full details and updates in the release newsletter (emailed with the Save the Date reminder & the Start of the Release email) and via email reminders during the release periods. Thank you for the interest in our wines. As a small family winery, your support means the world to us and we couldn’t do it without you!
2022 RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY PINOT NOIR
Release Date: March 2024
Cases Produced: 500
Cases Available to the Mailing List: 350
Alcohol: 14.2%
Time in Barrel: 17 months, 45% new, 35% once used, and 20% neutral
Recommended Drinking Time: Now to 10 years from release. Should you open a bottle early, please decant or allow to breathe for an hour for maximum enjoyment.
Tasting Notes: Explosive flavors of black cherry and raspberry. The layers of fresh fruit, baking spices, and sassafras is sensual and comforting. This wine settles in and caresses every aspect of the palate and rounds out to a very lengthy finish. It is everything you want from a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir – intense, complex, and yet elegant. Most of all, delicious.
2022 HEINTZ VINEYARD CHARDONNAY, RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY
Release Date: March 2024
Cases Produced: 72
Cases Available to the Mailing List: 58
Alcohol: 14%
Time in Barrel: 11 months, 75% new French oak & 25% once used French oak
Recommended Drinking Time: 6 months to 5 years from release. Should you wish to open a bottle early, please decant or allow to breathe for an hour for maximum enjoyment.
Tasting Notes: It’s hard to say this is a single vineyard. Yes, it is from one vineyard, but for us, it’s more specific - a single row in Charlie Heintz’ acclaimed vineyard. It’s wonderfully perfumed, with essence of lemon blossom, honeycomb, and nutmeg overtones that recede to a core of pear and baked apple cobbler. The midpalate is viscus and sultry. Hints of honeysuckle and tropical flavors intermingle with supportive acidity/minerality. This wine is nuanced and downright delicious. Due to some shatter during pollination/bloom, we only have 58 cases to allocate for the release.
2022 HALO PPROPRIETARY BLEND CHARDONNAY, RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY
Release Date: March 2024
Cases Produced: 180
Cases Available to the Mailing List: 90
Alcohol: 14%
Time in Barrel: 11 months, 75% new French oak & 25% once used French oak
Recommended Drinking Time: 6 months to 5 years from release. Should you wish to open a bottle early, please decant or allow to breathe for an hour for maximum enjoyment.
Tasting Notes: The aromas of white peach and subtle pineapple fill the glass. Your palate will awaken from the notes of orange zest and candied ginger...a hint of mango and lemon peel appear in the long finish. And yes, as you’ve guessed, it has a tropical direction with good acid and minerality. There is a viscosity/complexity, and texture with this wine that is very appealing. We haven’t produced this special blend since 2019 and hopefully we’ll have these incredible new chardonnay sources going forward.
2022 SAUVÉS LA VIE PINOT NOIR, RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY
Release Date: March 2024
Cases Produced: 250
Cases Available to the Mailing List: 215
Alcohol: 14.3%
Time in Barrel: 18 months, 55% new, 25% once used, and 20% neutral
Recommended Drinking Time: Now to 10 years from release. Should you open a bottle early, please decant or allow to breathe for an hour for maximum enjoyment.
Tasting Notes: Soulful, sexy, and full of love. Briary with lush aromatics of boysenberry & cherry compote. This wine is unfiltered, unfined, and has a velvety texture as it flows over the palate. Bright raspberry notes emerge and intensify. The finish is long and creamy. Truly delicious.
This is the sixth vintage of our Sauvés La Vie Proprietary Blend. For our Proprietary Blend series of wines, we wanted to create wines with names that have meaning and connection to us. The name of this wine is a tribute to the owner of the vineyard. To that end, Sauvés La Vie is the French term for “life saver.” We started using fruit from the Lauterbach Vineyard in 2017. Coincidentally, Stew Lauterbach was one of the emergency room doctors (as well as Dr. Lela Emad) that saved my wife Jen’s life after she delivered our daughter, Emma in 2007. As for the vineyard, it is farmed to a high level by our dear friend, the masterful, Lee Martinelli.
And you might wonder, why we chose to use a French term for life saver? While conjuring up the idea for this wine, one of my favorite barrel cooperage in France, Boutes, reached out and allowed us to take additional time to pay a large invoice due to the damage and issues we had from the fires in 2017. The name of this wine reflects many levels of savior. Everything about this wine is emotional, full of love, friendship, and perseverance. Talking about this wine and what it means, always brings a tear to my eyes.