California winemakers are not resting on their laurels, but are now re-imagining the future of wine. We are pleased that many of the winemakers using our grapes are leading this innovation. Rather than the older Napa style of big fruit, high alcohol, tannic wines, the future points toward more nuanced, elegant, lower alcohol, food-friendly wines. These wines are made from grapes grown more naturally and with less intervention, more closely connecting vineyard and winemaking.
Many of the winemakers using our grapes can be found in the pages of Jon Bonné’s book, The New California Wine (Ten Speed Press; November 5, 2013). The list includes Steve Matthiasson (Matthiasson Wines), Dan Petroski (Massican Winery), and Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts (Arnot-Roberts). Other winemakers using our Ribolla Gialla grapes include Matt Nagy (Benevolent Neglect), Austin Peterson (Ovid Napa Valley), Ted Glennon (Asilomar Fine Wine), Phineas Fittipaldi (Wiley Wines), and Abe Schoener (the Scholium Project). Among winemakers using our Cabernet Sauvignon we count Steve Matthiasson (Matthiasson Wines), Jeff Morgan (Covenant Wines), Vincent Fritzsche (Vincent Wines), and Yasu Hayashi (Paulownia Wine).
Below are brief profiles of some of these celebrated winemakers, with links to websites where you may find their wines.
In addition to using our grapes in his blends, Steve manages our vineyard. In 1999 he co-authored the California manual on sustainable vineyard practices. In 2002 he began consulting on vineyard practices in Napa, and has become one of the valley’s top viticultural consultants. Steve has been assisting or overseeing our vineyard since 2002. We love his approach, blending solid science and a natural, organic farming mentality. As Warren Winiarski (the famous Napa Valley winemaker) put it: “His science does not blind his holistic perception of what the plant is normally doing.”
Steve Matthiasson was named Winemaker of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and Food and Wine Magazine, and he is a James Beard Award 6-time nominee (in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019). Read more about Steve here.
And here, find the long article by Karen Ulrich on the New Wave of California Wines, featuring Steve. Steve and Jill are maybe the coolest winemaking couple in Napa today.
The former winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Calistoga, Dan now focuses on his own label, Massican, where he makes Friulian-style white blends. In 2014 Dan was named among the triad of innovative winemakers at the Meadowood Young Winemaker’s Dinner. Jon Bonné lists Dan among the “small posse of New California partisans.”
Dan was named named Winemaker of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017. You can read about his success here. And Next Wave awarded Dan Winemaker of the Year in 2024.
Learn more about Dan’s winemaking approach here.
Their focus is on is on small lot, single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, as well as other uncommon varietals including our Ribolla Gialla.
We appreciate how connected they feel to the vineyards they use. “For every vineyard that we put our name on,” Meyers says, “we looked at 10 vineyards that didn’t make the cut.”
Duncan and Nathan are featured prominently in The New California Wine and as “modest revolutionaries.” More recently, Arnot-Roberts were winners in the 2021 Global Vegan Awards.
More recently, their wine and our vineyard were rated one of Napa's most underrated - "“There is, for me, no greater plot of land in Napa than [Bengier Family] Vineyard in the Oak Knoll district. Duncan Arnot Meyers and Jason Lee Roberts, a brilliant duo of best friends, produce a 100 percent Ribolla Gialla wine from this plot with subtle skin contact, excellent texture, and seemingly endless layers. These excellent wines are still among the most underrated wines in the Napa Valley.” —Cyrus Nelson, wine director, BATA, Tucson, Ariz.
The former West Coast editor of Wine Spectator magazine (where he worked from 1992 to 1999), Jeff partnered with Leslie Rudd in 2003 to found Covenant Wines. Covenant has an urban winery located in Berkeley, California, and Covenant Israel makes wines in northern Galilee. Morgan's wines have received praise from Robert Parker, who dubbed the 2005 Covenant Cabernet one of the “finest kosher wines on Planet Earth.” And in March 2013, the wine critic Jancis Robinson said that Morgan has made "the best kosher wine I have ever tasted."
Jeff continues to garner acclaim, as evidenced by five more QPR (quality to price ratio) winners in 2023, including for his 2021 Napa Cab.
Winemakers Matt Nagy and Ben Brenner are Matthiasson protégées spreading their wings on their first solo project. With Steve as a mentor and friend they have connections to some of California’s most iconic vineyards making it a cinch for cellar practices to be thoughtful and hands-off, hence the name: Benevolent Neglect. Minimal intervention is the best way to describe their winemaking style.
Owner/winemaker Vincent Fritzsche launched his winery in 2009 in the Willamette Valley, Vincent Wine Company. He's all about low-input wine making, working with sustainably-farmed vineyards. Vincent has branched out to use our grapes to make his Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
Austin Peterson, the winemaker for Ovid began his career in 2006 as assistant winemaker to Andy Erickson, of Screaming Eagle fame. UC Davis trained, Austin worked with Michel Rollandat at Chateau Le Bon Pasteur in Pomerol, and he travels the world to explore all facets of grape growing and winemaking. He now makes the collectors' favorite experiments at Ovid. We are delighted to have Austin using our Ribolla Gialla grapes.
Ted Glennon is a 6th generation Californian, who left his career as a top sommelier to pursue winemaking and champion his home state. He led award-winning wine programs as a sommelier, including Restaurant 910, The Hotel del Coronado, Restaurant 1833, Quince, Rose Rabbit Lie and Post Ranch Inn. For 11 years, he has followed his vision of producing exceptional California wine, and now using our Ribolla Gialla grapes.
Yasu Hayashi fell in love with Napa Valley during a visit in 1996, and started working in the tasting room at Inglenook in 2000 (formerly Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery and Rubicon Estate). He worked at Inglenook for 14 years, part of the time with Philippe Bascaules of Chateau Margaux. Yasu pursues his dream of being a winemaker and is now active in Napa and the owner of Paulownia Wine.
A winemaker who is part of the new wave of California winemakers, known for his focus on natural and small-batch wines, Phineas hails from Minnesota. His Wiley Wines wines are single vineyard, single varietal, and made with minimal intervention. Phineas says, "To achieve our certain style, our vintages are unfined, unfiltered, and blessed by the Greek god of wine, Dionysus."
Abe Schoener
Scholium Project
Abe Schoener has been experimenting with California white wines for decades. Risk-loving, he's been willing to coax out the flavors from 60-year old Sauvignon Blanc vines, He called that the Scholium Project, saying, “Scholium” derives from the Greek word “scholion,” as in “school” — which according to the Web site “signifies a modest project, not a pre-eminent one, undertaken for the sake of learning.” Abe continues his journey of culinary adventurism, using our Ribolla Gialla grapes.