Thanks to the Berserkers who showed up for Unfiltered last week. I’m moving forward with a change in format for our weekly winemaker tastings to bring the event back in line with its original concept. Instead of an open tasting event for 3 hours, we’re shifting to a sit-down, focussed tasting where the winemaker will discuss all aspects behind the making of each wine, the particularities of the vintage and how they responded, and how we might taste elements of each stage in the glass. We’ll have a general arrival time of 6-6:30 where you get your glass and the option for a full pour. Then we’ll gather in the barrel room from 6:30-7:30 for a very focussed talk and tasting, and end with a half hour of open pour and follow-up questions. Our fist winemaker is Cary Quintana, and she’ll be followed by Sonoe Hirabayashi (and fellow Berserker!) of Six Cloves, Matt Niess and many others. Cary has already delivered a three page outline of what she hopes to address in the tasting, so this is NOT going to be another splash in your glass with a few sentences about the vineyard, fermentation and aging process–it’s a deep dive into what the winemaker is trying to express and how they went about it. I hope to see some of you at the Donkey and Goat winery this Thursday. And I’d love any feedback attendees have on the format.
Next up: Sonoe Hirabayashi. Here’s the description:
AUGUST 14: SONOE SIX CLOVES WINE
Join us for an intimate tasting with one of our most intentional and unique local winemakers, Sonoe Hirabayashi of Six Cloves Wine.
Sonoe was raised in the Nagano Prefecture, which is one of Japan’s most culturally rich and quietly respected food regions, known for its deep-rooted fermentation traditions, mountain cuisine, and emerging wine culture. The pristine mountain waters and porous soils concentrate flavors in unique ways. There, her family has been innovating and leading agricultural and fermentation practices for centuries - including her father, who specialized in apples. Japan’s Buddhist and Shintoist spiritual framework, which emphasizes cultural sensibility and respect for nature, also guides her approach to winemaking: she is not outside of nature, but integrated as an equal member: mountain, river, sky, tree, human - all parts of the same whole. Balance, flow and deep respect for natural forces inform her efforts to listen and tell the story of each vintage.
So what do you do with a hyper-sensitive palate as a winemaker in a hyper-insensitive culture like ours?
Sonoe follows her nose. And that is what you’ll taste in her wines: whispers of delicate nuance, the trickling of water over rocks, a suggestion of spring in the wind, a hint of tradition and precision that leaves you wanting more…or maybe not. It depends on whether you’re listening and attuned to someone with a very delicate, but very intentional tap on your shoulder: Turn around. Can you taste that?
Sonoe has crossed geographic, cultural and gender barriers to be here and create wine that tells her story to us. Let’s be thankful we have a chance to hear and taste that story, directly from and with her.
In this unique opportunity, Sonoe will share the stories and details behind the making of four of her wines, covering how everything in a vintage - from harvest conditions to pick strategies, press, fermentation and aging practices influenced the outcome. As a group, Sonoe will not only tell us the story behind each wine, but she’ll help us identify and taste elements of each stage in her winemaking process.
Doors open at 5:00 PM, Sonoe will pour and discuss each wine in detail from 6:00-7:00 PM and hold an open pour and Q&A from 7:00-8:00 PM. Drop-ins welcome.
Sonoe will be pouring and discussing the following wines:
2020 Linda Vista Vineyard Chardonnay, Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley-Library
2021 Alder Springs Vineyard Pinot Noir, Mendocino County-Library
2022 Zinfandel, Castanon Vineyards, Redwood Valley, Mendocino County
2023 Chardonnay, Linda Vista Vineyard Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley
Jared Brandt will be pulling from the library this Thursday to revisit a few wines that he considers examples of both the rewards and risks of low-intervention winemaking.
A 16 Perli Syrah and a 16 Perli Chard (picked just up the hill from the Syrah), 16 Linda Vista, and 14 Linda VIsta. He’ll go into detail about what went right and what went wrong with each of these vintages. Doors open at 5, talk and tasting from 6-7, open conversation to 8p. Please come join us for an intimate evening of good conversation and community around wine. Donkey and Goat Winery on 5th.
This week we feature the incredible Matt Niess of North American Press:
Can Matt Niess Save Local Viticulture From Itself?
As climate change brings increased temperature variability and shifting rain patterns, local viticulture faces mounting challenges. Vineyards are seeking higher elevations, implementing increasingly complex technology, and relying more heavily on irrigation systems, vineyard canopies, and spray programs to coax European grape varieties through our evolving climate. While these approaches may provide short-term solutions, they raise important questions about the long-term sustainability of our wine region.
Matt Niess, a local champion of native varietals, believes the answer has been growing here all along. After nearly a decade at Radio-Coteau and recognition as one of Wine Enthusiast’s “Future 40” tastemakers, Matt has spent six years proving that native and hybrid grapes like Lenoir, Catawba, Vidal Blanc, and Baco Noir can deliver exceptional quality and environmental resilience.
These varieties require minimal intervention—no chemical sprays, reduced water usage, and the ability to thrive naturally. Rather than fighting against our environment, Matt’s approach works with it, creating wines that express a true sense of place while addressing agricultural challenges.
Having crossed the quality threshold with wines that rival traditional varietals, Matt’s work poses a compelling question: if we’re truly committed to sustainable viticulture, shouldn’t we embrace grapes naturally suited to thrive here?
Join us for an intimate evening with Matt as he shares his mission and pours the wines that are reshaping our understanding of what California wine can be. This is an opportunity to engage in conversation about the choices that will define our wine region for generations to come.
Don’t miss this chance to taste the future of sustainable viticulture and discover why Matt’s approach may hold the key to a more resilient local wine industry.”
Donkey & Goat Winery
Doors open at 5pm, lecture and pouring at 6pm, open conversation 7-8p.
Join us for a special evening on October 9th with Chris Renfro as he unpacks his 280 Project, Introduces us to some of the recent graduates of the program and their wines and pours one of his incredibly rare wines from his SF vineyard.
Radical Vines: Chris Renfro’s Mission to Re-Humanize the World Through Wine
In the natural wine movement, where it’s common practice to advocate for regenerative farming, sustainable food systems, low-intervention winemaking and a culture of inclusivity rather than pretense, there’s one person who stands apart in the scope and purpose of their work: Chris Renfro, through his 280 Project, aims not only to transform the culture of wine but, through his urban vineyard and horticulture and viticulture program in the heart of San Francisco, he aims to change the dynamics of race in America. More than anything else, Chris wants everyone to feel valued and supported, and he feels that wine, and the traditional walls of white privilege and power that surround it, is the perfect platform to expose, unpack and redefine how we see and treat each other. Through farming, making wine, and sharing the profound communal experience that wine enables, Renfro believes we shed the veil of race and connect fundamentally as people. And he’s not just talking about it, he’s doing it. By mentoring one BIPOC and LGTBQ winemaker at a time.
Chris spent many of his formative years in Germany, where a teacher took him under her wing and taught him the magic of horticulture. The world of plants, full of majesty and wonder, but free of hate and racism, was also a world of hope for Chris. The black boy visiting farms in Germany grew into a young horticulturist in the USA, who saw how explicit forms of oppression were more subtly embedded into the culture and systems of America. Including the culture and systems of viticulture.
Control of food, land, wealth and education were interwoven threads of power and health—none of which Black Americans enjoyed. So when Chris got a chance to farm land in San Francisco, he planted vines. And not your standard European varietals, but native hybrids. Varietals you’ve never heard of. Marginalized vines.
The 280 Project is an incubator for racial equity by empowering BIPOC and other marginalized communities through horticulture, viticulture and winemaking. By coupling a common agricultural and culinary experience with a shared vocabulary of taste, Renfro is leveling the racial playing field. And by ushering cohorts of apprentices through in groups of 6-8, he’s creating skilled teams that can support each other through and beyond their work at Alemany. Chris’ strong relationships with Steve Mathieson, Matt Niess and UC Davis allow Renfro’s 280 Project to punch way above its weight.
Join us on Thursday October 9th at Donkey & Goat for an evening with Chris, as he pours wine from his San Francisco vineyard, introduces us to some of the winemakers (and their wines) he trained at Alemany and explains why they just might be making the most important wine in America.
Donkey & Goat Winery
1340 5th Street
Berkeley CA 94710
(510) 868 - 9174