2026 Fall Release

The things that take us home…

The first meal Bertus ever cooked for me was curry.

It was 2011 and he was in Napa working as a harvest intern. I was living in a third-story apartment and ended up working late that night. By the time I got home, I could smell dinner from the bottom floor, before I'd even started climbing the stairs.

This past Saturday, it happened again.

I was working at The River Club and Bertus was home making curry. When I got back that evening, I could smell it before I'd even reached our front porch.

Different house. Two little girls inside this time. A lot has happened between those two pots of curry. But the smell was exactly the same.

A smell or a flavor can take you back to a kitchen you haven't thought about in years. A table you used to sit around. A place you haven't been in a long time.

The older we get, the less we think of home as one particular place.

Bertus left South Africa 14 years ago, first chasing harvests and eventually building a life here in California. But leaving a place doesn't mean leaving it all behind.

You carry pieces with you. The food you cook. The flavors you crave. The people and places that made you who you are.

Which brings us to Pinotage.

Right before harvest, Bertus got a call about a small amount of Pinotage fruit. It was a one-time opportunity and we made one barrel.

A grape native to South Africa, grown here in California. It connects the two places we love the most. And it feels especially fitting to be releasing our first Pinotage just a few months before we take both of our girls to South Africa together.

Pinotage isn't the only wine in this release with a story about home.

Our third vintage of Krutsinger Farms Charbono comes from a vineyard we helped plant on the land the family has turned into their forever home and regenerative farm, while the Fenaughty Vineyard Syrah comes from a property high in the Sierra Foothills where our grower grew up.

That's part of why we love making wine. Wine remembers where it came from. And then it gets to find a new home. A backyard with friends. A birthday dinner. An ordinary Tuesday night.

Thank you for opening our wines, sharing them with people you love, and making them part of your own traditions and memories. We’re so grateful to find a home at your table. 

With love and gratitude,

Alli, Bertus, Margo, Maddie, and Peaches