100% Gamay Noir destemmed into half-ton fermenters. 15 day cuvaison, with punchdowns twice daily. Pressed into variable capacity stainless, where spontaneous malolactic ferment took place. Racked off primary lees at the end of January, and bottled mid-February, 2009.

In 1987, winemaker Francois Peyraud from the great Domaine Tempier of Bandol visited Edmunds St. John and tasted their Mourvedre. When Peyraud placed his nose in the glass, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, he sighed and whispered, “la terre parle.” Steve Edmunds had only been making wine professionally for two years, but this was exactly the validation he needed to know he was on the right path. Rarely will you hear someone state, “the earth speaks,” when tasting American wine, but Edmunds’ wines have proven time and time again that New World wines can indeed showcase the terroir in which the grapes were grown.

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, Edmunds worked as a wine buyer for various stores around the San Francisco Bay area. A former home-brewer, he wanted to utilize his artistic side and became determined to make wines that wouldn’t get lost in the sea of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay flooding the market. Instead, he began a ravenous search across the state of California in search of Rhone varieties to produce wines in the style of Southern France. In 1985, Steve, and his wife Cornelia St. John, combined their names and passions by founding Edmunds St. John in a warehouse in Berkeley. Edmunds doesn’t own a single vineyard. Nor does he need to. Instead, he hand selects vineyards from around California, including sites in Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo and even El Dorado counties, sourcing only from vineyards that are producing grapes appropriate for that location. These grapes are the foundation for his earth-driven wines, of which he produces roughly 4,000 cases per year.

Edmunds makes his presence known in each of the vineyards from which he sources grapes. He consults with vignerons and recommends which grapes to grow according to the vineyard’s climate and subsoil, and gives confidence to farmers who want to convert their orchards to vine. When harvest nears, he’ll travel out to the vineyards and taste the grapes daily until they reach a point when they are vibrant, balanced and focused. In addition, because he produces such small batches of wine that range from 300 to 1,000 cases, Edmunds can maintain the wine’s focus on a specific plot or vineyard. This allows the terroir to remain intact with the wine, rather than becoming lost in a blend coming from many different vineyards. In the cellar, Edmunds uses an open-top fermentation system and racks the wine in used oak barrels.