My name is Jake Bilbro and I am the owner of Limerick Lane Cellars. While I have been a Wine Berserker member for a few years, this is our first time participating in Berserker Day.
(Yes Tom Hill, that means that if you partake in our offering this year, you can say you’ve bought from us on Berserker Day from the very start)
Limerick Lane is a 30 acre estate in the far north east corner of the Russian River Appellation. So far north and east, in fact, we are technically dual appellation with Chalk Hill. In a region traditionally known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, we are maybe a slight click off the norm in that we grow, produce, and bottle Zinfandel and Rhone varietals.
The vineyard was first planted to grapes in 1910 and five acres of the original field blended Zinfandel vines are still in production today. When we purchased the estate, it was in pretty profound disrepair but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of bringing some life back into both the vineyard as well as the brand.
Regarding the brand and our reputation, I think we’ve garnered our fair share of critical acclaim over the last few years. For those interested, the accolades section on our website is pretty current regarding our accomplishments, but I think its fair to say we’re making some pretty decent wine.
https://www.limericklanewines.com/Accolades
I’m going to forgo sharing specific scores and acclaim here however because I think that what best summarizes the caliber of fruit this estate produces is the wineries we work with. The achievement that makes my chest swell with pride more than any score is seeing Limerick Lane on the bottles of the following producers as a designated wine. (In addition to each of these guys being blue chip winemakers, I am proud to call them great friends.)
Limerick Lane currently sells fruit to the following extraordinary producers:
Mike Officer of Carlisle
Morwan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock
Adam Lee of Siduri/Novy
Bob Biale of Robert Biale
Steve Matthiasson of Matthiasson
Dan Kosta of AldenAlli/Kosta Browne
Only about 10% of the fruit we grow is sold, however, as we keep the majority of the fruit we grow for our own program where we produce about 4500 cases of wine annually. We farm organically, fermentations occur in open top fermenters, and we age the wine in neutral oak for an average of about 18 months. The calling card of this estate is acid acid acid. It is normal to see grapes hit the tank here at 24.5-25 brix with a 3.1-3.2 pH. As big, round, and full bodied as these wines are, they are fresh, linear, and have extraordinary focus. I attribute the success that we’ve seen in recent years to this incredible combination.
Outside of what we grow and put in the bottle, I take great pride in the employees we have and the culture we’ve developed here. We are a family first business and we all have lunch together on a regular basis. My children help in the vineyard and winery and they think of our employees are part of our family. We aren’t the biggest, the best, nor the most talked about winery out there but I think we make the best product we can, in as authentic a manner as possible, and that is something that has been of greater importance to me “from the very start.”
Thanks for reading our Newbie Intro and since I’ve already quoted the venerable Tom Hill twice, I may as well close in classic Berserker fashion as well:
Jake Bilbro
Limerick Lane Cellars