Best Weekend

Best weekend in a long time

Down to SF for lunch with the Tess and Collin and to record a podcast segment for NOPA restaurant’s Nopalize tumblr site.

Drive from SF to the Sierra Foothills for an amazing meal with Chris and Sarah Pittenger of Gros Ventre Cellars and Skinner Vineyards.

10 different vineyard walks in El Dorado County on Mon + barrel tasting 5 different Mourvedre vineyards at Skinner.

The goodness of sunshine, food, people, and wines made with heart.

We never stopped smiling.

Quick Shots From A Day at Shake Ridge Ranch

One of those amazing days when what you think winemakers do for a living is actually what winemakers do for a living— 

Shake Ridge Ranch, Amador County, Sierra Foothills, CA.

Walking our blocks of Mourvèdre

Then hanging in the shade drinking beer and causing a ruckus w/ Matthew and David of Forlorn Hope Wines.

Damn this was fun.

2012 Dirty and Rowdy Semillon in Serious Eats

Yeeha! The great folks at Serious Eats: Drinks wrote  the following post on our 2012 Skin and Concrete Egg Fermented Yountville Semillon.

This wine will not be released until June.  For more info and to be able to purchase the next release, please sign up for our mailing list)

The Day After #Semegeddon

2010 Natural Selection Theory Quartz Semillon

2006 Pyramid Valley Semillon

On 5/5/13 #Semageddon happened in the backyard of a good friend in downtown Napa.

For about 1yr, it is something several of us talked about, joked about, and even fantasized about. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, it would happen.  A celebration of Semillon— a grape variety somewhat forgotten in the US (other than as a blender or dessert wine).  A grape so out, that it is just happy to find its way into a glass.  Thanks to the work of John Trinidad, Matthew Rorick,  and Elaine Brown, #Semageddon was given a date, a home, and a shining soul.

For a full day a backyard party of the greatest kind occurred.  Where in each moment you looked across the yard you saw nothing but smiling faces, glasses in hand, people hugging people, dogs, and babies, plates full of soulful food, and sharing in the joy that binds us together.

I have very few pictures, and a hard time with words.  The only thing I can really articulate is my gratitude for John, Elaine, and Matthew, for helping put this together. 

-On one note.  I am not sure that I have ever had such an emotional response to a wine as the 2010 Natural Selection Theory Semillon.  There is a lot of heart, soul, genius, tension, and sacrifice in that wine.  It was inspirational, heartbreaking, and supernatural.  I’m grateful to have had the chance to try it.

The best words and photos from the event are penned by Hawk Wakawaka and Tom Wark.    Please check them out below-

Hawk WakaWaka Wine Review’s Post and Photos

Tom Wark’s Post

Bottling Dirty and Rowdy

A few shots from our 5/1 bottling.

Mobile bottling Line

The bottling line in action

Juice In the hole!

40 Under 40: America’s Tastemakers

Yeeha.  Hardy Wallace, Dirty and Rowdy Family Winery Winemaker, is featured in Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40: America’s Tastemakers”

So many great people featured in this article.  We are happy to be included with a lot of personal friends and supporters. 

#SEMAGEDDON is Coming….

Empty stacks of wine bottles preparing for our 2012 Skin and Concrete Egg Fermented Yountville Semillon.

As we get ready to bottle we are certain that this is a different wine.

There may or may not be a grand slam of jubilation, a knock out punch of glee, an around the world high-five of chirpy inside each of the 5,400 bottles of our 2012 Semillon — each time we taste this wine there is great tension. A meeting of good vs. evil. A place where hope, love and wonder meet darkness and maleficence (SEMAGEDDON!!). When we sit, taste and wait we are reminded that we are not alone {sometimes this fills us with light and sometimes it scares the living piss out of us (who wants an alien abduction?)}

For a light to mid-weight wine this is some heavy sh**.

After months of waiting, pacing through the cellar, sleepless nights, coupled with moments of elation, we are still wondering — do we have a joyful Squatch-wine, or perhaps something deeper…?

We have tasted nothing like it.

The vineyard just before harvest.

The Semillon at the winery.

Open top, skin fermented Semillon like nobody’s business.

The egg.

Rowdy channeling the spirit of the Squatch? Or perhaps just strutting ….?