Spring 2024: Filomena Wine Co. Spring Release

Hello Everyone,

Welcome friends, family, and fans to the Filomena Wine Co. Spring Release. We have both exciting news and exciting new wines to share with you all! But first, let us quickly get some nitty gritty release details out of the way:

All wines are sold on a first come, first served basis, there are no allocations or restrictions. For local Napa and Sonoma County residents, there is a "Pickup or Local Delivery" option, which we will coordinate with you after the order is placed. For shipping customers, please note that we will hold the wine until temperatures are safe along the entire route as to ensure the safety and quality of the wine. For any questions about pickup or shipping logistics, feel free to reach out to Kat.  It is worth noting that this is our first release where we have a distribution partner, so wines are likely to sell out faster than previous releases (in case that sways any decisions when adding to cart).

On to the excitement! We are so thrilled to share the news of an additional member to the Filomena Board of Directors! Our new CCO, Chief Cuteness Officer, Charlotte “Lolly” Nio! She’ll be reporting for duty for her first harvest, stomping (and probably snacking on) grapes, and raising cellar vibes! It has been awesome to see our little family grow and Kuma has certainly been taking big brother duties seriously--especially now that she's started eating solids!

And now, the wines! We have three new wines to share, 2023 Siletto Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer Rosé, 2021 Ricci Vineyard St. Laurent, and 2014 Bedrock Vineyard Petite Sirah. That last wine is a bit special, as it was the first wine we ever made for Filomena and we are releasing it to you as a 10 year celebration of Filomena!

2023 Siletto Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer Rosé

The triumphant return of our Cab Pfeffer Rosé has us tickled pink and it is downright delicious. Siletto Vineyard, located just south of Hollister in San Benito County, stands as a shining example of organic farming on the central coast. Vineyard Manager, Nat Wong, brings a keen eye, dedicated work ethic, and well-experienced hands to the ranch. The care and intention the Siletto Family puts forth in their farming has us very excited to continue working with them and their fruit for many years to come.

The 2023 Rosé is pure fun in a bottle; bright grapefruit, slight apple notes, white flowers, a faint whisper of tannin, and an almost crystalline finish. I foot trod the Pfeffer grapes right in the vineyard as they were picked to maximize color extraction time on my 3-hour drive home. The grapes saw a few more hours of soaking on the skins at the winery before we tossed them into the press. The juice fermented indigenously in stainless steel and sat in tank sur lie for 4 months before being cold stabilized and bottled at the end of January. It is clean, bright, and beautiful, the perfect wine for warm days ahead.

120 cases produced - $25

2021 Ricci Vineyard St. Laurent

Experimentation is my one main “rule” for Filomena and our wines. Keep trying new things, change one or two variables during fermentation each year, try different barrels, anything to build upon the previous year’s result; keep sharpening the focus year after year.

This rings especially true for our St. Laurent from Ricci Vineyard, now our longest tenured vineyard partner (2024 will be our 7th year). The St. Laurent from Ricci lends itself to experimentation, as it is a very malleable grape. I have tweaked slight things year after year on this wine and, with the 2021 vintage, I feel like we have zeroed in on a stunning result.

St. Laurent is an incredibly aromatic and juicy wine. The main problem winemakers encounter with said juicy and aromatically driven wines is they can lack mid-palate weight, or center. If you’ve ever heard someone refer to a wine as being “hollow”, this is what they mean.

To build depth in 2021, we decided to extend elevage (barrel aging) by a considerable amount. In previous years, we let the St. Laurent rest in barrel for about 9 months, before bottling in the summer. If I was going to make a change to elevage, I wanted it to be stark, I wanted there to be substantial change in the wine, what else is the point of experimentation? So we decided to leave the 2021 in barrel (neutral French and American oak) for 30 months.

The result of this elevage extension is eye-opening. A subtle richness not found in the  St. Laurent’s of previous vintages had begun to show itself in barrel around the 2-year mark. When it came time for bottling, this wine had all of the gorgeous botanical aromatics I hadn’t seen since 2018, but with an added depth and concentration of flavor along the mid-palate that truly brought this wine into balance. The 2021 is definitely the best St. Laurent we have made from Ricci. Lesson of the day, experiment as much as possible!

120 cases produced - $25

2014 Bedrock Vineyard Petite Sirah

Like I mentioned up above, this wine is very special. During my first year as Master of the Cellar at Bedrock, just as harvest was kicking into gear, Morgan and Chris, the head honchos of Bedrock, walked up to me, listed 5 vineyards and 5 grape varieties, and simply said, “Just pick one,” (with no context). As soon as I heard “Bedrock Petite Sirah,” that was all I needed to hear. It didn’t matter what the ultimate question was, that was my answer. Imagine my shock when they both replied, “Awesome, you have one ton of Bedrock Petite Sirah, make it however you’d like.”

I certainly didn’t know it yet, but this was the foundation of Filomena and my career as a Winemaker. It was this early stage of experimentation that brought a smile to my face and spring to my step in the cellar. I was no longer just a harvest intern or a Cellar Master, I was a Winemaker.

I decided to go off-the-wall from the jump and fermented indigenously with 50% whole cluster. I know that seems like Filomena’s SOP nowadays, but adding stem tannin to a Petite Sirah ferment that already had plenty of tannin was a little crazy at first. To balance this decision, I let the ferment sit on the skins for over a month before pressing. This mellows and rounds the wine, allowing the tannins to link up, forming long polymer chains. This is the same process that tannins go through during bottle aging and is the main reason we have been waiting 10 years to release this wine!

Once pressed after its extended maceration, the wine aged in the very same puncheon it fermented in for three years. It was finally bottled in 2017 and I had begun to make other wines for what would eventually become Filomena Wine Co. We dropped this pallet of precious Petite Sirah in the darkest corner of the warehouse and did our best to just forget about it. Having tried several Petites from the 70s made at Freemark Abbey, I already knew the magic of old Petite Sirah and I had decided to let this wine slumber for as long as possible.

And here we are, at the 10 year anniversary of this wine and Filomena Wine Co. It is an exquisite wine, showing no visible signs in the glass of its already decade-long life. Deep garnet in color, spiced and sanguine on the nose, dark fruited and dynamic on the palate. While one might expect a Petite Sirah to have a finish that continues to deepen, this wine pulls a 180 and finishes with verve and vibrant red fruit.

I am so damn proud of this wine and I can’t wait to see how it continues to evolve. I hope you all enjoy drinking it as much as we enjoyed making it!

65 cases produced - $50

Huge thanks to all of our industry friends who have continued to help us on this vinous journey. Special shout-out to the main homie, Seph (the current Master of the Cellar at Bedrock…full circle connection!) for always being there at the drop of a hat to help in any way (usually in many ways!). “Never let the cellar master you!“

A big thank you to Morgan and Chris at Bedrock for the Petite Sirah and for helping lay the foundation of Filomena. And thank YOU for reading this release letter and supporting Filomena, you rock!

Cheers & Love,
Luke, Kat, Lolly & Kuma

Summer 2023: Filomena Wine Co. Summer Release

Hello Everyone,

Sunny days call for chilled bottles and warm nights call for firing up the grill. Luckily, we have new Filomena wines to pop for both occasions! We are thrilled to be offering three wines: a classic Filomena favorite in 2018 Griffin’s Lair Syrah, the beautifully honeyed citrus of our 2022 Unti Vineyard Vermentino, and an entirely new wine in our lineup, the juicy and crushable 2022 High Camp Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer.  All three wines are delicious and all three wines scratch different itches. Just a few logistical things to mention before some info on each of our new releases.

All wines are sold on a first come, first served basis, there are no allocations or restrictions. For local Napa and Sonoma County residents, there is a "Pickup or Local Delivery" option, which we will coordinate with you after the order is placed. For shipping customers, please note that we will hold the wine until temperatures are safe along the entire route as to ensure the safety and quality of the wine. For any questions about pickup or shipping logistics, feel free to reach out to Kat.

2022 Unti Vineyard Vermentino

The heat of the 2022 vintage was certainly a test of both patience and one’s palate; not just for fermenting wine, but (arguably more importantly) for the juice samples out in the field. The growing sweetness contrasted with bright acids can play tricks on your mind (and your pick calendar). My anxious need to get up to Unti for sampling as early as I can each harvest has become a ritual the last few years since we’ve been lucky enough to work with this vineyard. What has also become a ritual is every year I remember just how much Vermentino loves the warm Dry Creek days and simply laughs at my refractometer. The 2022 vintage proved to be much more anxiety-inducing, but Vermentino was my calming spirit. I sampled this vineyard on the first day of the heat wave that would give Labor Day a giant hug and was happy to see that I wouldn’t have to clean the press for at least another week as the Verm was checking in at a racy 19.8 brix. Knowing that I had at least 10 more days of warm hangtime matched with an equivalent amount of citrus flavor evolution was a welcome feeling at the beginning of a rapid-fire harvest.

The grapes were foot trod prior to pressing to help release juice and break up the thick Vermentino skins. The juice fermented natively in barrel (stainless steel and neutral French oak) for about a month before being sulfured to arrest malolactic fermentation. I transferred the wine to all neutral oak barrels, including an adorable Taransaud half barrel, and it rested 9 months before being bottled at the beginning of June. The resulting wine showcases a beautiful bouquet of citrus flowers and bright Asian pear with refreshing acidity quenching your thirst on each sip.

50 cases produced - $28

2022 High Camp Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer

A truly unexpected addition to the Filomena lineup and a most welcomed one at that! We stumbled upon the lovely folks from High Camp through a WineBusiness classified ad on a frantic harvest Friday evening in mid-August. We were looking for something that could potentially take the St. Laurent’s place in 2022 as late frosts and low yields were threatening to deprive us of our beloved esoteric Carneros grape (Never fear, we ended up getting a couple tons!). I had exhausted all the interesting looking ads when I noticed “Red Blend” and gave it a click for curiosity’s sake. To my pleasant surprise, I saw the words “Cabernet Pfeffer” pop up on the screen. I had been wanting to work with the grape again ever since making our beautiful Rose from Enz Vineyard in 2020 and now I was a short email away from getting that chance again (spoiler warning, we’re making two Cab Pfeffers in 2023!).

We were standing in High Camp Vineyard in the Estrella District of Paso Robles two days later to drop off bins and taste the fruit. The heat wave had begun early in Paso, as it does, so I called the pick for as soon as they could get a crew in three days later, wanting to retain as much of the pretty red fruit and spice I could. I trucked the fruit back up to Napa on what would be one of the longest harvest days I’ve ever experienced. It was certainly all worth it to be able to make this delicious, aromatic Cab Pfeffer.

We fermented this wine indigenously with 20% carbonic maceration to promote a bit of aromatic complexity and bright red fruit. We pressed the fruit at dryness and barreled down to 4 neutral oak barrels. It aged for 9 months before being bottled at the beginning of June. Raspberry and cranberry aromas hit the nose first, with bright strawberry and stem spice rounding out the juicy palate. Throw a chill on this bottle and bring it to the next summer BBQ.

100 cases produced - $24

2018 Griffin’s Lair Syrah

The trouble with getting older is trying to remember harvests as they stack upon each other year after year. The much more enjoyable benefit of getting older is revisiting old bottled friends and tasting all of those memories in your glass. Our Griffin’s Lair Syrah from 2018 certainly fits that bill, reminding me of new lifelong friends coming into our lives, new steps in Kat and I’s relationship (the long overdue move-in together), and new stewards of Griffin’s Lair taking the reins from Joan and Jim Griffin; the Colb and Flynn families, experienced winegrowers with literal roots in the Casablanca Valley of Chile. Serendipitously enough, the same two industry pros, viticulturist and owner of Shake Ridge Ranch, Ann Kraemer, and winemaker, Byron Kosuge, were brought on to consult for the planting of both Griffin’s Lair AND the Colb’s family ranch in Chile. While we were sad to see Joan and Jim pass along Griffin’s Lair, we couldn’t be more excited to see where the Flynn’s and Colb’s take this Petaluma Gap benchmark.

This wine fermented indigenously 100% whole cluster. It was pressed after 30 days on skins and aged 16 months in neutral French oak puncheons. The 2018 is showing a bit of subdued dark fruit surrounded by all the savory and briney notes lovers of Griffin’s Lair have long known. Sweet blackberry and green olive aromas jump out of the glass and morph into sanguine, black cherry, and ferric notes on the palate. Decant for at least an hour to reveal more hidden fruit. I am drinking this while finishing the release letter and munching on the Porchetta from Valley on the Sonoma Square…My, oh my!

45 cases produced - $42

To wrap things up, a bit of exciting news to share with our Filomena friends and family; I recently accepted an offer to become the Winemaker for Kivelstadt Cellars in Sonoma! I have learned so much from my time as Assistant Winemaker at Green & Red (making some damn good wines in the process) and am very grateful to Tobin and Ray for entrusting me with all things G&R, allowing me to grow as a winemaker, and supporting our Filomena project every step of the way. And an Assistant Winemaker can’t assist without a Winemaker; an immeasurable thank you to the Mayor of NoYo (North Yountville, get with it), the purveyor of The Porch, a true Renaissance man, and one of the most genuine humans I have the luck to call a friend, Aaron Whitlatch. You are the man and I wouldn’t be taking this next step without you. Also, do yourself a favor and go check out his awesome new Pinot project, Syntropy Wines!

Finally, we would like to share even MORE exciting news with all of you. Kat and I are expecting our very own little cluster of grapes (well, just one grape, not twins *phew*) this November! I just felt the first big kicks and tumbles through Kat’s adorable tummy and I swear I can still feel them on my hands as I type this to all of you. Gah! We couldn’t be more thrilled (and a bit scared) for the journey ahead, incredibly happy to have you all along for the ride!

Cheers & Love,
Luke, Kat, & Kuma

Fall 2022: Filomena Wine Co. Release Letter

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since we’ve had some new wines for all of your Zaltos, Zwiesels, Riedels, or dollar store stemless tumblers (no discrimination here!). We are so happy to be bringing new vintages of our three main wines to you and to share news of exciting liquid treasures forthcoming! Just a few nitty gritty details to run through before some info on our new releases:

The release window will run from 9am PST on Monday, September 19th through 10pm PST on Sunday, October 2nd.

For local friends we will be hosting two pickup days at Jefferies General in downtown Napa. If you plan on attending one of those pickup events, please select one of the pickup dates from the dropdown during the “Shipping” portion of the checkout process.  If you are unable to attend the pickup days but wish to pick up your wine at another time, please reach out to Kat to coordinate.
 

Pickup dates at Jefferies General
1416 2nd St, Napa, CA 94559
Saturday, October 8th from 1-5pm
Saturday, October 15th from 1-5pm

For shipping customers, wines will begin shipping on Monday, September 26th (temperatures permitting) and will continue to ship as orders flow through. You will receive tracking information once wine is shipped--please remember someone over 21 years of age must be present to sign for the wine upon delivery.  For any special requests, please fill out the "Notes" section during checkout

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2021 Unti Vineyards Vermentino

Our second year working with these 4 precious rows of Vermentino nestled at the bottom of a tiny, east-facing slope on the Healdsburg side of Dry Creek Road proved to be another delicious entry into the Filomena lineup. The fruit was picked the first week of September and was whole cluster pressed to two neutral French oak barrels and one stainless steel drum. It slowly bubbled away through fermentation with minimal batonnage (lees stirring), before aging for 9 months in those same neutral barrels.

The resulting wine is bursting with apricots and honeydew melon. Bright Asian pear and grilled peaches flow across the palate while welcomed acidity, slightly saline macadamia, and honeyed citrus wrap around the tongue. A surprisingly lengthened finish simultaneously quenches your thirst while beckoning another sip as soon as you put the glass down. A perfect wine for your tables as we move into fall. 

$28 per bottle (50 cases produced)

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2020 Ricci Vineyards St. Laurent

The Filomena-Ricci connection continues with our 3rd version of this delicate Carneros beauty. What also continues with this wine is just how damn drinkable it remains, year after year. Once again, we fermented this wine with partial carbonic maceration (about 33% this year) and once again, the wine is chock-full of herbal and botanical aromas with beautiful dark fruit flavors. Aged for 9 months in 50% stainless steel and 50% once-used 400L Boutes puncheon.

Raspberry compote, bergamot, Vietnamese cinnamon, and Mission fig on the nose. Bright pop of acid and cherry lift up front only to slowly trickle through the midpalate to the finish like the most satisfying game of Plinko. Delicate tannins and salinity wash over the palate, receding like waves on the beach, leaving an imprint where they once were. Violets and pink peppercorn walk you up to the carbonic edge as the wine opens, inviting further tastes to see just how close to that edge you can get.
 

$24 per bottle (65 cases produced)

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2017 Griffin’s Lair Syrah

Thinking about this wine certainly stirs up some buried memories. The fires in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, & Calistoga put a stressful exclamation point onto the end of the 2017 harvest. While this wine was safely picked, fermented, and barreled down just before the fires started the first week of October, getting the rest of the 2017 wines (at Bedrock that year) through fermentation and into barrel while being evacuated from Sonoma and helping displaced friends dominates memories of this vintage.

That all being said…oh Griffin’s Lair, your savory beauty shines through those memories and continues to leave me agape at the flavors coming out of this vineyard. This wine was fermented indigenously, 100% whole cluster with around 25 days on skins. Pressed to two neutral 500L puncheons and aged for 16 months, this wine was bottled in February 2019 and has been bottle aging ever since.

Briny tapenade and ferric notes, echoes of black cherry and plum mixed with slow roasted, dry rubbed prime rib fill the nose immediately after popping the cork. The palate is brooding, almost sanguine, rich and saline. Fruit starts to show its face after about an hour of being open. Blackberry leads the brigade, followed closely by dates and the slightest hint of ripe tamarind. Enough structure to support all of the flavors found within, this wine will only become further complex as it ages.
 

$42 per bottle (75 cases produced)

To wrap things up, just a few notes on harvest and exciting new Filomena wines coming down the pipeline in 2023. It has been a whirlwind 2022 harvest, with a big heat wave sizzling through Northern California the week that September took over the calendar from August. We managed to get both St. Laurent and *spoiler warning* Cabernet Pfeffer in the day before the heat really got going. Vermentino, well positioned at the bottom of its cooling ravine, followed just a few days later.

Malbec from Massa Vineyard in Carmel Valley (a new wine for Filomena that you will all see in 2023 and beyond) and Syrah from Griffin’s Lair found a prime window towards the end of the heat wave to get picked the following week, with both lots benefitting from cooler nights beginning to break the heat and help the grapes retain what acid they could. We are still waiting for Massa Cabernet Sauvignon, another new wine we’ll be sharing in the not-so-distant future, to hit the desired flavors and ripeness; we’ll likely bring that in within the next week.

We are incredibly stoked about both the wines in bottle being offered today as well as the ferments ticking away at the winery as we write this. Eternal gratitude to the growers we work with and their tireless vineyard crews for putting in the often unseen and constantly underappreciated hard work, lovingly tending the vines from which we source our grapes. Thank you to the crew at Green & Red for supporting our little side project. Thank you to my stunning and incredible better half, Kat, for literally everything, especially during those insanely long harvest days/nights. And finally, thank YOU for reading this whole thing, supporting us, and for being a part of the Filomena family. We hope you enjoy the wines and are excited to continue sharing this drinkable journey with you all!
 

Cheers & Love,
Luke, Kat, & Kuma

Fall 2021: Filomena Wine Co. Fall Release

Hello Everyone!

A warm and welcoming, happy holidays to you all! First off, I just want to say I love the evolution our mailing list has gone through in such a short amount of time with supporters becoming friends and friends becoming family. And we have a few exciting bits of news to share with you, our Filomena friends and family.

After many COVID-related delays, Kat and I finally tied the knot and celebrated our marriage with a tiny group of relatives and close friends this past July at the charming and beautiful Monkey Ranch in Petaluma. It was such a fun night while also being a huge sigh of relief now that we are able to look towards the next steps of our life together.

The other big, exciting news is that I am now officially the Assistant Winemaker for Green & Red Vineyard in Napa. A hidden gem of a winery located up in the mountains between Lake Hennessey and Lake Berryessa in the Chiles Valley AVA just east of St. Helena. G&R is a longtime (founded in 1969) estate Zinfandel producer with fruit ties to some of the Zin greats of California (think Turley, Biale, Once & Future, & Ridge). Though I am appreciative of all that I learned and experienced during my time as Cellar Master at Bedrock, I can’t express enough how excited I am to play an integral role in the future of Green & Red Vineyard!

I could go on and on about Green & Red (come up for a tour/tasting and you can hear me do just that!), but let’s get to the reason for which you’re all here, our holiday release.

2020 Unti Vineyards Vermentino

Well here it is, our first white wine—finally! Now, based on the seemingly random nature of our varietal offerings, one might think that I’m just picking different varieties to make all willy-nilly. And while that may be slightly true, for the most part I settle on different varieties and vineyard sites based on farming practices. All of our vineyard partners employ sustainable practices, with most taking the next step of full organic and regenerative farming (albeit not necessarily certified, as it’s quite an expensive process).
 
Our new wine and vineyard partner, Vermentino from Unti Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley, only continues that trend. Unti employs organic farming techniques such as building soil health through the use of compost and planting off-season cover crops instead of chemical fertilizers. They also employ mechanical and manual techniques for weed removal instead of harmful herbicides and pesticides. The Unti family are ecologically-minded farmers looking to the future and I am extremely happy to be working with them.
 
The 2020 Vermentino was harvested the second week of September under hazy skies, a remnant of the Walbridge Fire that had burned only a few miles to the east in the hills above Dry Creek and Guerneville. Thankfully there is no sign of smoke taint in this wine, based both on sensory evaluation and laboratory analysis. The grapes were lightly whole-cluster pressed and fermented indigenously in a stainless steel barrel, a neutral French oak barrel, and a new French oak barrel. Following fermentation, I consolidated the wine into the neutral oak and stainless steel barrels. There it sat for 9 months on lees before being bottled in July of this year.
 
The resulting wine boasts a plethora of apricot, pineapple, and citrus on the nose with a saline, floral note reminiscent of jasmine growing seaside. Subtle vanilla and baking spice rise to the nostrils as it sits in the glass. Asian pear, yuzu, and honey fall on the tongue from front to back with the acidity rising to a crescendo before a mellow, lasting finish. This wine is begging to be dropped on a big dining room table, surrounded by family and a holiday feast!
 

$28 per bottle (35 cases produced)

We also thought it would be fun to offer an assortment of our wines at a special price to make the decision-making process a bit easier. In this sampler pack we have:
 

2 Bottles of 2020 Unti Vineyards Vermentino 
2 Bottles of 2019 Ricci Vineyards St. Laurent
2 Bottles of 2016 Griffin's Lair Syrah

Holiday Sampler Price: $170
(Valued at $188)

All wines are sold on a first come, first served basis. There are no allocations or limits per customer. The shop will remain open through the end of the year, however if you are hoping to receive a shipment in time for Christmas, orders must be placed by Sunday, December 5th. Orders will begin shipping as early as November 29th and will continue to ship out as received.  We do have a limited supply of wines from previous releases  if you'd like to revisit any of those as well!

As always, thank you all for the continued support. Hearing how much our growing Filomena family has enjoyed all of our wines only makes this journey all the more rewarding. From our little family to yours, we wish you the happiest of holidays!

Cheers & Love,
Luke, Kat, & Kuma