Cruse Wine Co. Rorick Vineyard Chardonnay Sierra Foothills, USA 2019

Cruse Wine Company was founded in 2013 by former biochemist Michael Cruse. With his eponymous wine company, Michael has set out to craft uniquely California wines with a focus on experimenting with sparkling wine production. He garnered his first experience with sparklers when he co-founded Ultramarine in 2008 where he used sparkling wine to examine the impact of the soils and site of the Sonoma Coast. Michael was named the San Francisco Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year in 2016. At Cruse, he continues to produce wines with minimal technique and intervention using his resultant wines as a window to examine terroir.

This wine comes from a unique site high in the Sierra Foothills just outside of the town of Murphys. The vines are own-rooted and planted in 1974 in schist soils over a limestone bedrock and was recently purchased by Matthew Rorick and his family. The vine age, elevation, and rocky soils create incredibly low yielding vines with the tiniest of clusters.