Terroir

You can taste it.

Soda has no terroir. It tastes the same every time you drink it. It has consistency, but no individuality. An olive oil from a small producer in the Napa Valley, though, tastes like its smoky Manzanillo olives and perhaps the influence of the dry, hot weather that year. People who like to taste distinctive flavors seek out handcrafted olive oils, or chocolate, or wine, or just about anything where the land and environment come together to create something…unique.

This is what we apply to our work, and to the reputation we’re building.

All our land is filled with the scent of Northern California. Wild oats, mustard flowers, fir trees, and oaks…every rock and breeze adds its character to our wines. The call of a hawk, the sounds of distant cattle as they call to one another. It’s not like anywhere else. It’s the lands of our ranch and of Sumner Vineyards.

Terroir is a sense of place. It is the sum of all the elements that make up our land: climate, soils, other plants, and animals. It emphases place over varietal of grape. It is where our wines get their personalities.

In a world filled with homogeneous products, we believe in expressing individuality and the singularity of this moment, this place, this time.

Explore California with Lonely Planet’s California Best Trips