Zepaltas Suacci Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012
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2013-
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Fast forward to summer 1998 in the Russian River Valley. Ryan had just moved to Sebastopol to live with his aunt and uncle. He made friends with Mike Mendenhall, the then cellar master at La Crema, who would later offer him a job.
He gradually found the winemaking process and the work more interesting. He stayed on for a couple of harvests but soon found out about harvest jobs in other countries. It was working harvest at Villa Maria under Michelle Richardson where Ryan truly discovered his passion for wine. When he returned back to the states, he worked all over Sonoma County doing whatever cellar work was available. Eventually, he would hear about a harvest opportunity at Siduri. He interviewed with Adam and Dianna Lee and has been at Siduri ever since.
Ryan has made a ton of great wines with Siduri and has had a blast the whole time (and still does to this day). He decided that one day he was going to make his own wines in the style that he envisioned and would start his own project on the side… thus, Zepaltas Wines was born.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.