Traditionally approached and whole-cluster pressed, this delicious Rosé of Pinot Noir is from Sanford's beautiful La Rinconada Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills near Lompoc, California. Inspired by the great dry Rosé from Domaine Vacheron in Sancerre, this wine has mouth-watering citrus acidity, watermelon crunch and delicious summer fruits. The Candyfloss name comes from the wine's intense sweet aromas and refers to what the United Kingdom calls Cottom Candy. 100% grape juice. Native yeast. Zero additives. Aged in neutral wood.

The Holi Festival series of labels celebrates the annual festival of colors on the Indian subcontinent signifying thanks for a good harvest, the victory of good over evil, and a festive day to play and laugh and to forget and forgive.

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Nithya is a Sanskrit word that means ‘eternal’. This wine is pure Cabernet Franc, sourced from the Massa Vineyard in Carmel Valley. Massa is a certified organic farm and a very unique place. The vineyard seems like it has been there forever. There is an Alpine feel to it, and yet, you are firmly in sunny California. The Carmel Valley’s limestone soils imbue the wine with an energy I find really intriguing.

The wine was raised in neutral barrel and bottled without filtration or the addition of sulfur. There is a very energetic, coniferous green note that hums along, just below the surface of the aromatics, but the wine is incredibly generous with flavors of black cherry and plum. -40 cases produced

Years ago in a Paris bistro, I enjoyed a completely new and inspiring glass of wine. l'Autrement was the name and it was an amazing blend of Mondeuse, Gamay, and Pinot Noir. The intriguing aromas and its unique deliciousness captured my imagination and made me SMILE!

After several visits with the winemakers, Marie and Florian Curtet - in the foothills of the French Alps, I felt confident enough to try something similar here in California. The fruit from all 3 varieties was de-stemmed and fermented separately in small tanks, then blended and aged in 2 used puncheons (500L barrels). I love how the distinction of each grape variety shines through. Pinot Noir offers fruit, Gamay brings acidity, and Mondeuse contributes a rich, dark color. 

The wine is playful, juicy, crunchy, and super-super good!

OK, so the name is a bit irreverent. Tres Chingones refers to the 3 major pests (a$$h@!es) in our vineyard: wild boar, coyote, and starling. It also represents the fantastic combination of these three bad-ass varieties together.

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MOURVÈDRE produces soulful wines that develop very slowly, revealing their structure and texture very incrementally. Defined by their structure, the best Mourvèdre combine black and blue fruits with a faint red pepper note. The 2019 ANIKA Mourvèdre comes from a remarkable and somewhat hidden site called the Enz vineyard. Here we work with 100+ year old vines in loam soils in a valley some 1,000 feet below the famed Calera Vineyards. The eroded and sandy soils offer a pliant texture and more rounded, pleasing tannins.

We ferment the grapes whole-cluster in large concrete vats. As with all our wines, we vinify ANIKA with no additions of any kind. After a natural fermentation, the wine is racked to old barrels where it ages for 10 month before going to bottle with no filtration or sulfur additions.

 

Years ago, when asked if I would ever make Cabernet Sauvignon, I immediately said “never”. My winemaking partner Sashi Moorman wisely replied “Never say never Raj”. Lo and behold the 2016 vintage and the birth of this wonderful adventure called the Raj Parr Wine Club gave me an opportunity to work with an incredible farmer and a beautiful vineyard to make my very first Cabernet Sauvignon. The Dead Fred Vineyard in Napa Valley’s Coombsville appellation is farmed by my good friend Steve Matthiasson. Like me, Steve is curious and probing, never content and always looking to improve and grow and learn more. We bring this Cabernet winemaking adventure to a close on a classic vintage. 2019 offers a dense and compact expression of Cabernet. Bright blue and red fruits and hints of graphite bring a pure and concentrated wine to the palate. The finish is already lengthy and pronounced and the wine is fresh and ready to be enjoyed now.

1,116 bottles produced
 

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Raahi means ‘traveler’ in Hindi and I have traveled a long way, both literally and figuratively to make this Zinfandel. To visit the Esola Vineyard in Lodi, California’s Shenandoah Valley requires me to drive farther than any other vineyard. The journey is absolutely worth it. In firm, granite soils and from old, own-rooted vines, I am able to work with small clusters of intensely perfumed Zinfandel. There is a wildness, a savage quality to Zinfandel that I enjoy so much. Like Syrah, there are savory qualities of pepper and spice that mingle so well with the brighter, wilder fruit profile inherent in Zinfandel. 

I fermented the 2019 Raahi Zinfandel in an old wooden tank, leaving the grape clusters intact and striving for an incredibly gentle and natural fermentation. The small berries offered up plenty of texture, structure, and color on their own, without having to coax any more out of them. The resulting wine is wonderfully spiced and peppery while still retaining lifted fruit notes that make the wine drink really well right now. 

Because of the savory elements in the 2019 Raahi Zinfandel, the wine sings with anything well-seasoned and cooked over an open flame. From slow cooked ribs to a quickly grilled tri-tip, I hope Raahi will be right by your side as you grill away this summer. 

Years ago in a Paris bistro, I enjoyed a completely new and inspiring glass of wine. l'Autrement was the name and it was an amazing blend of Mondeuse, Gamay, and Pinot Noir. The intriguing aromas and its unique deliciousness captured my imagination and made me SMILE!

This marks the third vintage of Tres Chingones. The fruit from all 3 varieties was de-stemmed and fermented separately in small tanks, then blended and aged in 2 used puncheons (500L barrels). I love how the distinction of each grape variety shines through. Pinot Noir offers fruit, Gamay brings acidity, and Mondeuse contributes a rich, dark color. 

The wine is playful, juicy, crunchy, and super-super good!

OK, so the name is a bit irreverent. Tres Chingones refers to the 3 major pests (a$$h@!es) in our vineyard: wild boar, coyote, and starling. It also represents the fantastic combination of these three bad-ass varieties together.

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Planted in 1854, the fruit from the Deaver Ranch in Amador County is one of the oldest vineyards in California and one of the last vestiges of the Mission grape in the California. Originally from Spain, it was brought to California in the 1700s by Franciscan missionaries. The Mission grape, also known as País, or Listán Prieto in the Canary Islands, was successfully planted in California and used for table, sacramental, and fortified wines. Mission is hardy, resistant to drought, and prefers hot and dry climates.

Wild and almost savage-like berry aromas spring from the glass along with baking spices and pepper. Super crunchy, fresh, and delicious on the palate, my País is super drinkable. -390 bottles produced.

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If there is a theme to the white wines that I make and drink it might be called textural and non-aromatic white wines. Chardonnay falls under this category as does the Jura variety Savagnin. In Bordeaux, Sémillon is another white grape that falls in this category. It offers a wonderful richness and a waxy texture. The most compelling thing about this category of wines is how they develop so many interesting layers and flavors with time.

I began this wine club with a new challenge of crafting Cabernet Sauvignon in a classic, old-school California style. I had never before tried my hand with any Bordeaux varieties and the warm reception of the first two vintages of Never Say Never Cabernet Sauvignon led me down the rabbit hole a bit further. While Cabernet is the noble red grape of Bordeaux, the noble white grape is Sémillon. I was lucky to procure some beautiful Sémillon from the last head-trained, dry farmed Sémillon vines in the Napa Valley. Farmed organically since the mid-80s, this relatively cool pocket of the valley ripens early, at low potential alcohol, and with lots of flavor and texture. We harvested the Sémillon from the Yount Mill Vineyard on August 26th, 2019 and pressed the juice into neutral barrels. The wine fermented naturally and we raised it for one year in barrel before bottling. Never Say Never Sémillon was bottled without any fining or filtering.

It is time to drink like a SCYTHIAN! This is my first vintage of our newest Glug Glug wine - Scythians, a dry white wine made from the Palomino grape. With the help of dear friends Christina Rasmussen and Abe Schoener, I sourced Palomino grapes from a Demeter certified, biodynamic farm near Fresno, CA.

Palomino is a non-aromatic white grape variety that is indigenous to Spain. If you've had dry Sherry (not the sweet stuff), you've had the Palomino grape. The inspiration for this wine comes from Ramiro Ibañez. I was introduced to his wines through my friend, Jose Pastor, the wine importer. Though Ibañez lives and works in the Sherry triangle of Spain's southwestern Atlantic coast, he makes several unfortified, single-vineyard bottlings of Palomino. Ramiro's 'UBE Miraflores' inspired this wine, the 2019 Scythians Palomino. Both are dry table wines, made from Palomino, and crafted in such a way that they are intended to drink young.

For those of you who know me and know my penchant for high acid wines, Palomino is a famously low acid grape. This wine is all about texture and juiciness. The wine is salty and a bit unctuous with notes of almond skin and yellow apple. Scythians is the perfect accompaniment to almonds, olives, sardines, and all the other salty and briny things we munch on while waiting for Sashi to finish cooking dinner.

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When I found out there was half an acre of organically farmed Grüner Veltliner here in the Sta. Rita Hills, I thought 'we've GOT to make some Grüner!' I love the grape variety because it has so much diversity. Grown on a sunny south-facing slope it can be made in a rich and opulent style. It can also be made in a racy and vibrant style. For our 2019 FREUND (which is German for 'Friend') we left the grapes on the skins for 24 hours, allowing a bit of texture to develop before pressing the grapes into neutral barrels for a native fermentation. The wine has a bit of a creamy, smoky note to it with mandarin orange and lemon rind. It is both fresh AND refreshing, with a nice weight to it. That one day on the skins gave the wine some tension and some texture. The wine was bottled without fining, filtration, or the addition of any sulfur.

The 2019 Freund Grüner Veltliner is ready to drink now. In fact, I hope it will be your go-to white wine all spring and summer long. This wine will pair well with ceviche and corn chips, some shellfish, a little pad thai, or a cold soup.

460 bottles produced

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