Excited to get a shout-out in Food & Wine’s April 2020 edition where Betsy Andrews explores the new generation of California producers with a look at the role of identity, as well as uncommon grape varieties. Full article here, and our favorite bits below. Enjoy!
The state's next-gen vintners have more ingenuity than money, and they're changing California wine for the better.
With little money but loads of ingenuity and an understanding of their impact both on wine drinkers and the earth, they’re diversifying California wine.
Identity also matters for Sonoma’s Corinne Rich, 29, and Katie Rouse, 32, who refer to themselves as “partners in life and winemaking” when pouring their Birdhorse Wines. “Queerness has to be a part of the conversation,” says Rich. “It’s empowering for young people to see there’s a seat at the table if they’re from a minority.”
Birdhorse makes wine for its generation: quaffable, minimalist, and gently priced. That’s led the winemakers to “fringe” grapes and vineyards. Sourced from the Suisun Valley east of Napa, their plummy Valdiguié smells of flowers and finishes bone-dry. Their Verdelho, from Contra Costa County, has a chalky minerality and pineapple-y zing.In 2019, two years in, Birdhorse made just 350 cases of wine.
Eventually, says Rich, “I’d love for us to go full-time with it.” For now, the two work day jobs at lauded Napa wineries—gigs that, a generation ago, would’ve set their career paths. Not today. “Napa Valley Cabernet isn’t going away. But newer winemakers are saying, ‘What else works well in California?’ We are challenging the norms.”
