Alouette for the Masses
In a world where many traditional wine categories are seeing declining sales, chillable reds is growing sharply. How exciting that this trend coincides with us having our most plentiful Grenache vintage ever!
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The Long and Winding Rhône
The Van Gogh Lounge was abuzz with conversation, laughter, and the tinkling of glasses. It was our last night aboard the S.S. Catherine, the Uniworld riverboat we had called home for the last week. What had begun with a ship full of strangers was ending with a room full of friends.
Flowering 2026: early, but not quite as much as we'd feared
On April 1st, 2026, we were 34 days ahead of 2025's heat accumulation. But by May 15th we were "just" 20 days ahead. The last six weeks has seen ideal conditions for flowering.
2025 Red Blending: A Magical Year for Mourvedre
I asked the blending team to sum up 2025. Chelsea said, “It was powerfully structured and chewy, even on varieties you wouldn’t expect.” Austin commented, “They’ve all got liveliness. Nothing feels weighed down by its depth.” And Craig summed it up: “It’s the year of Mourvedre and Roussanne.”
Why the Six Regenerative Organic Certified® Wineries in Paso Robles went Grass Roots for our first Media Tour
Last week, the six Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™) wineries in Paso Robles banded together to host the first Paso Wine ROCs Media Tour. Paso Robles has the highest concentration of ROC wineries in the world. That achievement felt like something worth celebrating.
Blending the 2025 white wines: a vintage of lushness and lift produces a full lineup of varietal whites for the first time since 2021
We welcomed Francois and Matthieu Perrin last week for three days spent around our blending table, working to turn the 43 different estate lots we made from our white grapes in 2025 into the blends and varietal bottlings we'll be releasing to you in coming months.
Plenty of the choices facing the wine world are hard. Making wines with "American" on the label 100% from US grapes shouldn't be one of them.
California AB 1585 would require that any wine that says "American" on its label and is produced, bottled, labeled, or sold in California be sourced 100% from American grapes. It might not be a game-changer for struggling growers or for consumer transparency, but it seems like a good start.
It's not just your imagination. The heat in March was unprecedented.
The photos we're sharing look more like May than they do like the beginning of April. And no wonder. March 2026 would have been the warmest April in our history, and all sorts of unprecedented outcomes are on the table.
Understanding for whom wholesale wine sales works, and for whom it doesn't
In 26 markets, we're with one of the "Big 3" distributors. In 2025 those states sold 39% less than the size of the markets would predict. In the 25 markets where we're with an independent, we saw an overperformance of 22%. Thanks to Alfonso Cevola, I finally understand why.
Budbreak 2026 arrives two weeks early... and this week's potential record heat means it will spread fast
Every day of the last three weeks has seen highs at least in the upper 60°s F, without a low dropping below the upper 30°s. We've topped 70°F every day for the last week, and 80°F two of the last three days. So it's no surprise that the vines have woken up.