I first met Gina and Mikey Giugni in London in June 2023, as soon as they acquired right here to point their wines and discuss their farming. Later (July 2024) I visited them in California, at their Mountain Meadow Vineyard after which at their new property, the Bassi Vineyard. They’ve a mannequin each. Scar of the Sea is Mikey’s, and Lady of the Sunshine is Gina’s. ‘Gina and I started our wineries at separate events,’ says Mikey, ‘and later we married and blended our wineries beneath one roof. We share many an ethos as for tips about the way to develop grapes and tips about the way to make wines, nevertheless we had been educated in one other approach, masses like cooks educated in quite a few kitchens. Farming could also be very so much a commerce that you just select up as you go, and it is imprinted by the oldsters that you just work with. Although we now have now very associated ideas, and even wines that we like, we make alternatives very in one other approach. This allows us to stay thankfully married. We are going to honour each other’s alternatives.’ They have been collectively seven years, and married for five, they normally say that they love what they do.
‘We is likely to be each other’s soundboard because of we now have now this understanding of what we price. Nonetheless then it’s vitally so much an expression of our personalities,’ says Gina. Mikey says that Gina’s wines are further pristine, linear and chiselled, and he or she takes longer to make alternatives. ‘I’m a lot much less classically educated,’ says Mikey. ‘I was self taught. Gina is clearer.’
Until very not too way back they’d two leased vineyards. Chene vineyard is a 6.5 acre vineyard throughout the Edna Valley that they’ve been farming since 2018, and Mountain Meadow is 4 acres of Pinot Noir throughout the San Luis Obispo Coast. Nonetheless in 2024 they’d an enormous change. They are not farming Chene, nevertheless had the prospect to purchase the Bassi vineyard, which is a prestigious 29 acre web page that many people have been purchasing for grapes from. This will change points for them: whereas sooner than 80% of their grapes had been purchased, going forwards 80% of their grapes shall be from their own-farmed vineyards. They’ll nonetheless promote grapes from 4 acres, merely Syrah, nevertheless the worth of farming is extreme in order that they need to make the wines and promote them at an important price for the economics to work. On the time of my go to that they had been nonetheless attending to grips with the idea they now private a substantial vineyard. Mikey is 36 and Gina is 32. ‘It’s very good to have the flexibility to make an imprint on what we’re doing at this age,’ says Mikey. ‘We didn’t get this when had been 55 and we had been able to do this on our private.’
Their farming consists of biodynamic and regenerative approaches.
We began at Mountain Meadow, which sits at 1600 toes on a ridge above Cambria. It has 4 acres of Pinot Noir at 12 x 6 foot spacing. The vines are dry farmed and head educated. Sooner than they took it over this was farmed conventionally with strip spraying and tilling, so Gina has been making an attempt to revive ground cowl to the understorey. In 2024 she planted cowl in every totally different row and allowed the rows in between to develop once more naturally. ‘There’s so much moisture her,’ she says. ‘It is a bowl with a extreme water desk, and on the end of July it nonetheless needs to push.’ The problems listed below are thistle and mustard. She says they are going to coexist, it’s merely getting stability. Soils are alluvial.
She has three kune kune pigs that she is going to have the ability to protect throughout the vineyard from January to the tip of May. This web page is 2 weeks later than Bassi, and has an enormous diurnal shift.
These are just a few of their views on farming, taken from the presentation they made in London once more in June 2023, a 12 months sooner than my go to.
Gina: The soil is the stomach of the farm. How can we assemble immunity throughout the farm, by the use of biodiversity and soil nicely being? We are going to assemble resiliency: that is the target. We’re farming in a dramatic native climate in California. We’re a bit of bit bit further insulated on the coast, because of we’re nearer to the ocean. The whole stage in making clear wines to duplicate our farming technique is to assemble resiliency within the course of native climate change.
Mike: Gina grew up on a biodynamic ranch throughout the Sierra Foothills. Frank [Hildebrand, Narrow Gate Vineyards] has been farming with biodynamics since 2008. He has been an enormous coach for us: he has been a mentor for us in getting started. We’re lucky because of there mustn’t that many farmers in California with this mindset. Farming like this isn’t like farming with a textbook. It is all relying on the place you is likely to be at. How we make compost teas, how we make compost and the best way we deal with our land is barely fully totally different from just a few of our best associates, who’ve the similar philosophy nevertheless they do it barely in one other approach, because of they’ve a barely fully totally different native climate.
Gina: Our greatest drawback working with biodynamics is that we now have now such extreme mildew pressure. On account of we’re beneath fog we now have now extreme humidity, and our coastal daytime temperature is throughout the 70s F. It is each half that mildew likes to be spherical. We have got found an unbelievable product that has been advisable by my father, which is a cinnamon oil base. To struggle powdery mildew, there are two major types of sprays. There are these which will be topical, one factor that sticks to the leaves. Cinnamon oil is an outstanding medium. Much like you is likely to be cooking and have olive oil in your palms after which go to rinse it throughout the sink, it takes only a few washes to get the oil off. Coating the quilt and clusters which will be forming in an oil base retains the mould spores from with the flexibility to stay. Then you possibly can have the fog that begins to dilute it daily it passes, so you will need to reapply it fairly often. The alternative magnificence about cinnamon oil is that this may be very delicate for useful bugs. You might spray it and re-enter the vineyard, and it smells good! The opposite facet of the spectrum is spraying the vineyard with a systemic. In its place of getting a topical technique, the systemic will get absorbed by the vine and fights the mould from the inside out. So you can have an prolonged time interval between sprays. Nonetheless it could be pretty harsh on the ambiance. It’s synthetically made, so there are penalties with that choice. The powdery mildew is our best drawback.
Mikey: A pure farmer watches the local weather very critically, because of the local weather is each half. Understanding what temperatures mildew thrives in, what the wind is doing, moreover have you ever ever opened your cowl, so the quilt won’t be congested. An important jobs for us throughout the early farming season are pruning, deciding on what cowl we’ll have, after which shoot thinning, deciding on from our alternative which inexperienced tissues we have to develop. This allows us to deal with our crop, deal with subsequent 12 months’s pruning, and deal with the airflow and the daylight. These are our pure deterrents to mildew. These are key. Then it is managing how they develop, so we now have now varied sorts of trellising throughout the two vineyards we farm.
Gina: After I start shopping for and promoting farming tales with my father and our fully totally different experiences, there’s one thing that truly stands out. My father will get snow because of he is in a continental native climate. He has a harsh winter, and that supresses his weed pressure. Each half will get suppressed throughout the wintertime because of they’ve a troublesome frost. Nonetheless we’re on the coast, and weeds develop year-round. There is no off season for weeds. It’s a drawback. We have got loads of truly tall grasses which will be non-native to California. Cowl cropping has been massive, making an attempt to assemble up the seed monetary establishment with useful crops, lower lying crops like varied sorts of clovers.
Mikey: One different issue is altering your perspective. It is laborious for individuals to not administration each half, and understand what nature seems to be like like. Our vineyard is messy. Do you have to had been to walk by the use of our vineyard, there are many weeds. It isn’t chaos, because of we want some form of group. There’s a stability, and this 12 months has been terribly laborious for farming because of we had so much rain. Attributable to this, the underside took loads of water. Then it stopped raining and we thought a month later we should all the time be succesful to get the tractors in to start to handle our chaos, nevertheless the ground was nonetheless seeping water – it was nonetheless moist. We weren’t able to get the tractors in to mow and deal with under-vine weeds for a really very long time.
Gina: I had cowl crop as tall as me!
Mikey: That’s advantageous, aside from timing. Then it’s frost hazard and budbreak, and we want the air to have the flexibility to maneuver. We had a weed known as vetch, which is an outstanding weed, and it fixes nitrogen, nevertheless this 12 months it was rising over the vines. It’s a crawler. And the vines had been starting to stand up. We had been truly pulling the vetch off the vines by hand.
Gina: Each half is about stability. It isn’t about eliminating one thing: we would just like the checks and balances. It’s OK for there to be invasive weeds, and it’s OK for us to plant our cowl crops. It is OK to have pests, nevertheless you moreover need the useful bugs. When you create a system that has biodiversity, the good and harmful can survive collectively, they normally protect each other in study. We’re merely answerable for locating the place that stability lies.
Mikey: The Chene vineyard seems to be like like Gina has loads of flowers and it is messy and pleasant. We’re excited to return to see what it seems to be like like after 10 days away. The alternative vineyard we farm is named Mountain Meadow, and it is throughout the mountains above Cambria and Cayucos. It sits at about 1600 toes, and it is also Pinot Noir. One very important stage is that we haven’t planted the vineyards that we’re working with. We lease the lands. I can’t say we wouldn’t favor to non-public vineyards; it’s merely not the signifies that we now have now. These are every vineyards that we now have now sort of inherited. Would we plant Pinot in these spots? Most probably not. Nonetheless are we blissful to farm them and make it? 100%.
Gina: The true testimony of our sort of farming has been the yields. On the end of the day, you farming should be sustainable not just for the land, nevertheless financially. We’re negociants too: we farm a proportion of our fruit and we moreover buy from associates who share the similar farming philosophy as us. In loads of totally different vineyards we’re working with in 2022 we seen a 50% low cost of yields. We had been on the end of some years of drought and the vineyards merely weren’t producing to the yields they’d been before now. This shocked the system. At Chene, we seen a reduction from 3 tons/acre to 2.5 tons/acre, and it wasn’t 50%. It was a small shift; there was this resiliency in yields.
Mikey: In California there are methods we’re using that we aren’t seeing in France. We’re not making an attempt to strip the leaves in our fruit zone. We’re looking for shade. There shall be crop loss in July when the first heat wave comes and you’ll word raisining. In our vineyard when we now have now seen it, it is on the morning facet at 10 or 11 am, and it merely obtained truly scorching. In 2020 we seen a 20% loss from a July heatwave. We’re afraid of the September heatwaves in California because of they define our vintages. 2020 was outlined by a Labor Day heatwave (the first trip in September). Moreover, 2022 was outlined by that exact same heatwave. This basic shall be fascinating: because of we’re so much later, we acquired’t be getting the selection to resolve on to pick out sooner than or after this heatwave. The grapes acquired’t be ready by Labor Day, so everyone will placed on that heatwave. Beforehand ones, that they had been early vintages. Attributable to our sort and the best way we don’t fertilize and over-irrigate these vineyards, that they had been ready sooner than the heatwave. We had been able to make our similar sort wine. This 12 months shall be fully totally different. Moreover, fires – we’re capable of’t say we’re proof towards fires. Smoke taint is an precise concern. That’s moreover why as a California farmer I like choosing early. I’ve nothing in the direction of choosing in early September or August. My odds of setting up a sound wine are so much bigger: I am not dealing with the numerous heatwaves and fires. As viticulture progresses in California I would take into consideration more and more individuals are going to be wanting to plant points that ripen on the early facet. It is less complicated and safer. A really highly effective decision that we make is when to pick out the grapes. For us, notably, because of we aren’t ready to fluctuate the chemistry of the grape ought to, that decision is important. It affords us loads of nervousness. For us it is chemistry (sampling the vineyard and having a look at pH, TA and Brix) and it is also type. And it is seen. Is the quilt ready? Are the vines going by the use of senescence? Does it seem like fall is starting to happen proper right here? That’s telling you quite a few about what’s going on to the grapes.
Gina: Do we now have now lignification of shoots and the stems of the clusters? Are the vines dropping their basal leaves?
Mikey: For Chardonnay notably, it is what the grapes seem like. How see by the use of are they? It’s the type and texture: how does the pulp launch from the seeds and what is the shade of the seeds? Every choice is totally totally different, and even every vineyard differs in what you depend on from it. You start to be taught web sites. And it is a combination of these elements and the local weather. We sample masses; we do it ourselves. Early on we would have of us sample for us to determine a baseline, nevertheless when you get to a certain spot I have to see with my eyes and magnificence.
Gina: We moreover be taught from the earlier.
Mikey: There are moreover the logistical challenges of winemaking. It is all about logistics. An outstanding wine producer is a powerful logistics supervisor. In California many individuals depend upon labour contractors to help us. This suggests there is a prolonged guidelines, when points are ready. The earlier you is likely to be in your projections, and should you know how to work with of us and pay of us, all this makes an unlimited distinction. By being an important affiliate you is likely to be further seemingly to have the flexibility to get the make it simpler to need when you need it. By planning and sampling completely we now have now been fortunate to not be left hanging after we actually wish to choose grapes.
What about composting?
Gina: We’re very so much farming the soils and by no means the vines. We’re not inserting compost beneath the vines. Most of our consideration is farming the soil, throughout the vine row.
Mikey: As soon as we put compost down we aren’t feeding a vine. We’re very lofi. We make spherical 30 tons of compost a 12 months, fabricated from our pomace, cow manure and wood chip waste. This shall be manually shovelled out of choosing bins as we drive a tractor. Our vineyard is facet sloped and steep we’re capable of’t tow a trailer behind us.
Gina: The farm is one physique. We have got 12 000 vines throughout the soil and we view these as 12 000 dots that each one be part of into one big physique. That’s the reason we aren’t feeding the vines. They’re held throughout the unity of the farm. We’re believers throughout the microbial terroir. It is the nicely being and the heartbeat of the farm.
Mikey: It is also the vitality throughout the wine. We have got seen vineyards that improve their biodiversity and their soil nicely being, and there could also be further vitality throughout the wine as a result of the vineyard turns into further alive.
Gina: We make compost year-round. The beginning of the strategy is at harvest time. We take all our pressings from the winery and transport it to the vineyard, and that turns into the premise of the compost. The cow manure comes from the farm all through the highway the place there is a 30 acre pasture, with a head of cows. We go over with a bucket and a shovel. We’re looking for the compost pile to be 30-40% cow manure, after which 60% pomace, and regardless of else we’re capable of accumulate from the property relating to inexperienced waste.
Mikey: We accumulate our lees on the winery because of they’re harmful for waste water. They’re extreme in nitrogen. We put them in barrels, settle them as soon as extra, use the wine for topping, then we’ll use the lees throughout the compost.
Gina: We insulate it with hay clippings, to entice in as so much moisture and heat as we’re capable of.
Mikey: Compost making is way more sophisticated than winemaking. There are many fully totally different methods. We monitor the temperature: loads of it is how big you make the pile and the best way so much rain you possibly can have.
Gina: if it goes above 140 or 150 F, you open it up and aerate it, and put it once more collectively.
Mikey: In 2018 after we started we made a small amount of compost. It is loads of work. We made about 5 tons as a enterprise, and we purchased 20 tons of pure compost. As soon as we had been spreading it the purchased compost was clearly not good. It was very dry, with loads of microplastics. We did our load and it was like black gold. Rich, darkish and fluffy: all the textures you want. That’s after we realised we would have liked to make our private, and maybe we don’t should put out the levels that people inform you.
Gina: We moreover do a set of varied compost teas, microdosing the vineyard with an inoculum of fantastic micro organism and microbes that you just have to infuse the soil with. The compost isn’t so much about making an attempt to restore the nitrogen ranges in our soils, because of they’re very unfertile, nevertheless it is this repairs technique.
Mikey: We made a mistake at first of not checking our pure matter and having a baseline. It is laborious to know the progress we now have now made, nevertheless I can inform you the seen progress. As soon as we inherited this vineyard it was crammed with mustard and all these lame weeds that weren’t doing what we wished. Now when you stroll by the use of the vineyard it’s full of loads of forms of grasses, legumes and flowers.
Gina: We wait until the winter rains, and we unfold the compost every totally different row. Then we come by the use of and have a light-weight disc. We attempt to embrace the compost into the humus layer throughout the prime soil.
Mikey: It’s kind of a 3 inch/4 inch disc. We have got trialled no discing versus every totally different row: primarily essentially the most discing we do is every totally different row. This switches yearly. One thing we disc we then observe up with a seed drill of cover crops. There’s not at all bare earth for very prolonged.
THE WINES
Lady of the Sunshine Chene Vineyard Chardonnay 2023 Edna Valley, California
It’s a 6.5 acre vineyard with a bedrock of diatomaceous earth, and a chief soil which may be very sandy. This is able to be the ultimate basic of Chene. Barrel-fermented with wild yeasts, and a warmth ferment, with the barrels uncared for throughout the photo voltaic, and full malolactic. It stays on its lees for 10 months and the first racking is sooner than bottling. Vigorous and good with keen lemony acidity. Very good and linear with such a crystalline lemony character. 94/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Chardonnay 2022 SLO Coast, California
Mikey likes to play with the stress of oxidation, and one in all many 9 barrels is a solera with 2019, 2020 and 2021 wine in it. This offers depth and weight with out new oak. Full yellow shade. Concentrated and daring with a core of sweet saline crystalline citrus fruit with a powerful mineral streak. Refined with very good precision. 95/100
Lady of the Sunshine Chevey 2023 Santa Maria Valley, California
That’s from the Presqu’ile vineyard, which is inland nevertheless continues to be uncovered to the ocean. Very humid, moist and chilly. Half each Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Beautiful fusion of inexperienced grassy notes with rounded pear and apple fruit, with a contact of dairy throughout the background. Taut, linear citrus fruit however moreover some depth and an attractive mineral finish that merely retains on going. Salty and spicy. 95/100
Lady of the Sunshine Goldie 2023 SLO Coast, California
This comes from the Stolo vineyard in Cambria. 40% Sauvignon Blanc, 35% Gewurztraminer (5 days on skins) and 25% Chardonnay. Aromatic with elderflower, citrus, lychee and rose petal. Delicate and advantageous with a current palate displaying fairly fruit and good acidity. Pure, supple and up to date with good character. 93/100
Scar of the Sea Palomino 2023 Cucamonga, California
That’s from the Lopez vineyard in southern California and it was planted in 1918. Fermented on skins for 8 days after which pressed in a basket press, after which aged in a barrel with so added sulfites until bottling. Orange/gold in shade, this has a saline edge to the pear and citrus fruit with a bit of little bit of development and good bitter amaro notes and a contact of ginger. Solely 10.5% alcohol and it’s pretty light and expressive, whereas having loads of character. 94/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Pinot Gris Pinot Noir 2023 SLO Coast, California
That’s two-thirds Pinot Gris, one-third Pinot Noir, co-fermented. Pale cherry purple in shade that’s supple and aromatic with purple cherries and a contact of untamed herbs, and it’s pretty floral. Stunning purple cherry and redcurrant fruit on the palate which is pure, light and floral with an ethereal character. 95/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023 SLO Coast, California
Floral black cherry and purple cherry fruit with some dusty notes and a contact of sappy greenness. Good good cherry fruit palate with an important focus of fruit, displaying a silky core however moreover some spicy savouriness and a stony, peppery, dusty edge. 96/100
Lady of the Sunshine Nero 2023 Sierra Foothills/Edna Valley, California
That’s 60% Nero d’Avola and 40% Chene Chardonnay. Raspberry and cherry with good crunch, displaying current fruit and a bit of little bit of grip. It’s correctly structured and as well as has good acidity, with vivid fruit to the fore. 93/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Syrah 2023 SLO Coast, California
100% whole cluster in an open-top purple wood tank. Nice peppery nostril with black cherry and blackberry fruit, with good depth. Up to date and expressive with good focus, frequently staying current and supple. A beautiful wine. 96/100
Notes from June 2023
Lady of the Sunshine Chene Vineyard Chardonnay 2020 Edna Valley, California
It’s a 6.5 acre vineyard with a bedrock of diatomaceous earth, and a chief soil which may be very sandy. There are steep slopes proper right here. Delicate, refined aromatics of pear, white peach and chamomile, with some stony notes. The palate is linear and focused with further of these stony notes along with advantageous citrus fruit, fantastically layered with focus and refinement. Good grained with some refined mealy notes. 95/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Chardonnay 2020 SLO Coast, California
It’s a 30 acre vineyard planted throughout the late Nineteen Nineties, pure from the start. There are not any wind gaps regardless that that’s merely 1 mile from the seashore, so it’s a warmer web page than Chene. 5-10% of that’s from a solera. Distinctive aromatics: mealy and toasty with some popcorn and a contact of apple. The palate is extremely efficient and intense, focused and mineral with fairly spicy factor. Intense citrus fruit with good acidity. Spicy and vigorous with immense development and acidity. Electrical. The nostril is kind of fully totally different to the palate. 95/100
Lady of the Sunshine Chene Vineyard Pinot Noir 2020 Edna Valley, California
100% whole cluster. Dijon clones yielding 3 tons/acre, harvested at 21.5/22 Brix. Sweet aromatics: delicate and advantageous with purple cherries and a contact of tea. The palate is elegant, advantageous, sappy and detailed with very good finesse and direct raspberry and cherry fruit, with fine-grained development. Truly advantageous. 96/100
Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Pinot Noir 2020 SLO Coast, California
40% whole bunch. Stunning depth and focus proper right here with some inexperienced notes alongside raspberry and cherry fruit. Daring and intense with good development and acidity. Rich with good focus and extremely efficient fruity flavours. Tons occurring proper right here: has very good vitality. 95/100
UK agent: Indigo Wine
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