2024 Wineries

Giornata

470 Marquita Ave #A, Paso Robles CA 93446
giornatawines.com

Region: Paso Robles

Owners/Winemakers: Brian and Stephy Terrizzi

About: We make authentic, complex and balanced wines in Paso Robles, CA featuring Italian grape varieties.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Teraldego and Frappato

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? I wasn’t sure what to make of Nebbiolo, but I knew I wanted another sip.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? Learning their history

Guthrie Family Wines

574 Este Madera Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476
www.guthriefamilywines.com

Region: Sonoma, California

Owner: Blair & Caroline Guthrie

Winemaker: Blair Guthrie

About: Crafting low-intervention wines from responsibly farmed grapes.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Grenache Blanc

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? In Australia, I came across Arneis and was lucky enough to get my hands on it and make it!

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? It’s like walking the forgotten path. I love their history but also their originality in today’s wine world.

J. Brix Wines

298 Enterprise St., Suite D, Escondido CA 92029
www.jbrix.com

Region: San Diego County

Owners/Winemakers: Emily Towe & Jody Brix Towe

About: Emily and Jody Brix Towe started J. Brix Wines in 2009 with three barrels in their two-car garage. Since then, as a two-person winemaking team, they have grown the winery into a small but mighty standard-bearer for the minimal-intervention California wine movement. Working out of a warehouse facility in Escondido since 2013, they make as many as 16 different wines per year. They source impeccable fruit from incredible vineyards all over the Golden State, focusing on Santa Barbara (where they learned to make wine) and San Diego (where they live). Their motto, in winemaking and life: ONLY LOVE.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? It’s impossible to pick a favorite grape, but we can say our favorite *fermentation* is always the Counoise – it’s like a strawberry-scented pink-and-purple-tie-dye foam party!

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? We worked with Grenache for our first vintage in 2009.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? For many of the forgotten grapes, it might be the first time someone has ever experienced what that varietal wine might taste like. It’s so exciting to see people expand their horizons, and learn how much more is out there in the world of wine.

L.A. Lepiane Wines

1480 Count Fleet St., Santa Barbara, CA
www.lepianewines.com

Region: Santa Barbara County

Owner/Winemaker: Alison Thomson

About: Founded in 1935 by Luigi A. Lepiane, and re-established by his great-granddaughter in 2013, L.A. Lepiane Wines focuses on small lots of unexpected Italian varieties. Alison Thomson crafts unique wines, using traditional techniques, natural fermentations and lots of time. Her wines reflect true character of the varieties translated in California’s soil and sun.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Nebbiolo

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? I worked my first harvest for Ettore Germano in Barolo, Italy.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? I love variety and a good story. Introducing consumers to less known grape varieties expands their wine drinking horizons to new regions, flavors, and aromas. Variety is the spice of life.

Lindquist Family Wines

4665 Santa Maria Mesa Rd, Santa Maria, CA 93454
verdadandlindquistfamilywines.com

Region: Santa Maria Valley

Owners/Winemakers: Bob Lindquist and Louisa Sawyer Lindquist

About: We make a number of forgotten grapes from cool climate vineyards on the Central Coast.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Marsanne

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? Probably my first experience would have been when I was in college with Wente Grey Riesling, which is Trousseau Gris.  As a winemaker, the first forgotten grape that I made was a 1987 Marsanne, which I still make today.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? There is so much diversity in flavors, aromas and character…and they can often be better values.

Lindquist-2021-Marsanne

Lodi Wine

2545 West Turner Road, Lodi, CA, 95242
www.lodiwine.com

Region: Lodi, CA

About: Perfectly situated 90 miles east of San Francisco, Lodi’s Mediterranean climate and unique soils allow its growers to cultivate more than 125 winegrape varieties, cementing the historic winegrowing region as the unrivaled producer of “forgotten grapes.”

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? The forgotten grapes add a point of difference between Lodi and other American winegrowing regions and diversify the region’s portfolio of high quality wines.

Marchelle Wines

4950 Ross Rd, Sebastopol CA 95472
marchellewines.com

Region: Russian River Valley, Sonoma County

Owners: Kevin Lee and Greg La Follette

Winemaker: Greg La Follette

About: Marchelle employs traditional winemaking techniques combined with modern innovations to create wines that harmonize balance, finesse, and complexity. The resulting wines display a purity of fruit, precise acidity, and a seamless integration of flavors—a testament to Greg La Follette’s artistry and the exceptional vineyards from which the grapes are sourced.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Colombard

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? Going to the 122 year old Betty Ann Vineyard in Russian River Valley where we source our Colombard to pick during harvest with Greg La Follette.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? It’s unique and interesting and something most people have not tried. Discovering something special and creating an exceptional wine from it.

No Love Lost Wine Co.

960 Clinton St, Napa CA 94559
www.nolovelost.wine

Region: Napa Valley

Owner/Winemaker: Jay Nunez

About: Napa Valley based natural winery focused on family owned vineyards that are systemic herbicide and pesticide free with sustainable practices.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Counoise

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? It was tasting through the wines of Sicily and The Canaray Islands.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? Chasing new experiences and preserving history.

PasoSecco

1244 Pine Street, Suite 101B, Paso Robles
www.pasosecco.com

Region: Paso Robles/Central Coast

Owner: Chris Kern

Winemaker: Elizabeth Kuhlemann

About: PasoSecco is the first and only Prosecco-style sparkling wine produced in Paso Robles made exclusively from Paso Robles grapes. Crafted by vintner Chris Kern and winemaker Elizabeth Kuhlemann, PasoSecco is 100% Grenache Blanc harvested in the El Pomar District on Paso Robles’s East Side that undergoes the Charmat, or secondary tank fermentation, method used by the top Prosecco producers in Italy. The Charmat method ensures bright, citrusy aromatics; crisp, refreshing, mouth-watering flavors; and a cavalcade of rich, elegant bubbles that dance across your tongue and leave you wanting more.

With our signature Mediterranean blue label and double ribbon design, PasoSecco combines Portofino chic with Palm Springs cool, while always being exclusively Paso Robles. Savor PasoSecco ice-cold with friends, loved ones, or on any regular weeknight when you need a little sparkle. Pair PasoSecco with hand-cut potato chips, oysters on the half-shell, or even fried chicken. And enjoy PasoSecco in a spritz, Kir Royale, French 75, or your favorite sparkling wine cocktail; it was built to be mixed into libations! PasoSecco is not just your

Everyday Bubbles, PasoSecco is the Best Bubbles in Paso!

What is your favorite forgotten grape?  Cinsault

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? My second favorite wine ever when I started drinking wine was a Grenache and Mourvedre heavy E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? I love how passionate those who produce them are about seeing them survive, and showcasing them to wine drinkers who are not familiar with them and watching their eyes light up and dispositions change.

Presqu’ile Winery

3591 Presquile Drive, Santa Maria, CA 93455
www.presquilewine.com

Region: Santa Barbara County

Owner: The Murphy Family

Winemaker: Dieter Cronje

About: Presqu’ile (‘press-keel’) is a family-owned winery in the Santa Maria Valley dedicated to crafting exceptional, cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah from Santa Barbara County.

What is your favorite forgotten grape? Aligoté

What was your first experience with a forgotten grape? Trying a beautifully fresh Aligoté while visiting Burgundy, France. I was surprised to learn about the grape, in general, and even more shocked to find such a unique white wine coming out of the area.

What do you love most about the forgotten grapes? The opportunity to stumble upon something unique and fun while wine buying in the wild.