SPRING BOTTLE CLUB
Dates to know.
Log into your account to add or swap between the club wines. Double up your shipment to get complimentary shipping! And don’t forget to add a case (or two) of our large-production wines for just $180. To make further edits, email club@fieldrecordingswine.com.
2/19: Customization window opens
All customizations must be completed on 3/4. Cards are automatically charged at midnight on 3/5. After this time, we can’t make any changes to your order, pickup/shipping preference, or address, so please double check everything!
3/5: Cards charged
Your wines will leave our warehouse and head to their final destination — you! This will be our first club shipment using UPS, and we hope it’s a great experience. Want to ship your wine to a UPS location? Email club@fieldrecordingswine.com & we’ll help you out.
3/19: Orders ship
Opt for picking up your wines instead, and join us for our spring pickup party — ahem, Gnario Party! Crush your friends in the Tricycle Grand Prix, re-up on fancy pizzas, and taste the spring collection. Reserve your 2 free spots or purchase additional tickets for friends!
3/22: Spring pickup party
(Psst … keep scrolling for Andrew’s winery update & all the details on our spring selection!)
“Each bottle is an annual snapshot combining special people, special places and special grapes. And even though we have a ton of sunshine on the Central Coast of California for relatively consistent vintages, each wine will never, ever be repeated.”
As I write this semi-annual update for everyone, I’m sitting at the terminal working my way home from grapevine nursery work in the Pacific Northwest.
I'm not sure if I have put anything in these little tidbits for a long time about my day job. I've been very fortunate to spend the last 23 years traveling up and down the West Coast helping winegrowers of all sizes and types plant successful vineyards.
I’m the guy that gets the phone call once somebody has purchased their dream vineyard property to ask the obvious question: “What should I plant?” I’m also the one that gets called when the vines just aren’t working and we need some sort of fix. From time to time, we can figure things out on those calls, but unfortunately (and way too frequently), the old vines just have to go and the grower needs to start fresh.
Doing all this has given me insight into what works well and what doesn't when it comes to farming grapes that will turn into a bottle of wine you’re going to enjoy at your next family meal or weekend soiree.
So now what does this long ramble have to do with your spring allocation of wines? It’s the absolute root of everything we’ve crafted through the years that you’ve enjoyed. We call it Field Recordings because each bottle is an annual snapshot combining special people, special places and special grapes. And even though we have a ton of sunshine on the Central Coast of California for relatively consistent vintages, each wine will never, ever be repeated. These bottles are it. And I hope you enjoy drinking them as much as we enjoyed making them and telling the stories behind each one.
With that being said, we can take all that seriousness and turn it into a lot of fun for everybody. This will be the spring of Gnario, to be exact. The anchor for our spring releases is a full “Gnario” party for everyone to enjoy. (Literally, actually … check out the details for our spring release party on March 22!).
The entire Field Recordings team is extremely grateful you choose to continue on this adventure of a winery. We hope to host you sooner than later at the tasting room, the Super Gnario party, or at Le Bon Climat (more on that below). We’ll be hosting the first-ever Gnario Kart races this March at the winery, if you choose to pick up your bottles vs shipping them to your doorstep. If there was ever any wine club party not to miss, the Gnario Party is the one.
If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us and the team will make sure we get everything answered and taken care of as soon as possible.
All the best,
Andrew and the crew (Tim, Andrea, Brittany, Austin, Mitch, Jack, Cole, Hector, Tyler, Isabelle, Zack, Keegan and DJ Pete)
Now, on to the wines …
STANDARD BOTTLE CLUB:
1 each of the following wines
RED WINE BOTTLE CLUB:
2 each of Super Gnario, Super Gnario 2, and Fiasco
WHITE WINE BOTTLE CLUB:
2 each of Super Gnario 3, Domo Arigato, and Le Bon Climat
SUPER GNARIO //
SUPER GNARIO //
85% NEBBIOLO, 15% BARBERA
$25 REGULAR / $20 BOTTLE CLUB
We’ve made Super Gnario for a few years now — a delicious blend of grapes originally from northwest Italy, now farmed down in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara. Savory Nebbiolo anchors this wine, but we bring out fruitiness by adding a small percentage of Barbera to the final blend.
Historically, these two grapes were regularly blended in the region, but as Barolo became a trophy in wine collectors’ cellars, the table wines fell out of favor. With our general affection for regional table wines, the Alta Gaviota Vineyard provided the perfect spot to build this one. These grapes ferment for over two months on the skins before we press them to French oak barrels for 18 months of aging. We used a few new barrels to help tame the massive tannins that Nebbiolo brings to the party.
While we’re inspired by foreign wines, we know Happy Canyon will never taste like Piedmont. We don’t want to give the impression that this is something true to type from Italy, hence the name “Super Gnario.”
SUPER GNARIO 2 //
SUPER GNARIO 2 //
78% CORVINA, 22% RONDINELLA
$35 REGULAR / $28 BOTTLE CLUB
With all the love we’ve gotten for Gnario, we thought it might be fitting to produce Super Gnario 2 someday — and obviously Gnario 3 to complete the trilogy. Gnario 2 has been a long time coming. A few of you might remember some other attempts at creating a Corvina-based wine in California. Corvina is originally from the Veneto region in the northeastern part of Italy.
The tricky thing with this grape? It gets partially dried before fermenting. Many wineries have generation-old rooms that are set up so that the afternoon breezes can slowly concentrate the grapes before they’re crushed and fermented. In our industrial complex, we don’t have that luxury, so we had to rethink the process. I even tried to go without, but it just wasn’t the same.
In 2023, we made a last-ditch effort to save our Corvina. We tried a technique used in Australia for dessert wines, called cane cutting. About 3 weeks before harvest, when the grapes are at just the right level of acidity, we clip the base of the grape shoot. We let it hang in the trellising, but the clusters remain intact. Since they’re still attached to the vine clipping, the grapes slowly concentrate in the sun — kind of like a raisin, except it doesn’t go too fast and actually turn into a raisin.
Think of an avocado on your counter. Once you pull that little stem plug off the avocado, the fruit ripens super rapidly. It softens much slower if you keep the stem on. You’ll have to be more patient, but it’s worth the wait.
In 2023, we had the perfect conditions to try this all out. We clipped the vines and let the cluster bask in the sunlight for exactly 3 weeks. Then, we went back through and picked them to bring into the winery. The final wine is truly something special, aged in second-fill French oak barrels for 18 months. We only made a whopping 6 barrels of Super Gnario 2, so make sure you raise your hand if you want seconds of this cherry vanilla Dr Pepper goodness.
SUPER GNARIO 3 //
SUPER GNARIO 3 //
100% MALVASIA BIANCA
$25 REGULAR / $20 BOTTLE CLUB
To complete the trilogy, we got our first harvest in 2024 of Malvasia Bianca from the George Brown Vineyard in El Pomar from our good buddy Joe Beato. Joe is a jack of all trades in the grape business, and we’ve been lucky to work with him through the years, helping him plant grapes and buying some back.
Joe’s neighbor George leased him this ground a few years back, and Joe opted to plant a mix of experimental white grapes for us to use in different things (but mostly for SKINS). We peeled off a few tons of Malvasia and put it straight into the press to make a deliciously refreshing and aromatic white wine. Malvasia is related to Muscat, carrying some of that floral character but without getting overly sweet. I can’t think of a more delicious wine grape to eat fresh off the vine.
Originally from central Italy, Malvasia finds its way into many wines from Tuscany. In the old days, they’d even combine it with the reds of Chianti Classico from time to time. An absolutely perfect pairing for wandering through the “desert world” (Mario 3, World 2) with its bright acidity and dry, crisp finish. We kept 6 barrels’ worth in stainless steel for 5 months before bottling. This is another one that won't last forever.
DOMO ARIGATO (MR. RAMATO) //
DOMO ARIGATO (MR. RAMATO) //
100% PINOT GRIS
$25 REGULAR / $20 BOTTLE CLUB
Keeping with the central and northern Italian trend, we have the triumphant return of two of our favorite wines using Italian-origin grapes or Italian techniques.
First, Domo Arigato (Mr. Ramato) is back. As always, these are the finest 26 barrels of skin contact Pinot Gris from Greengate Ranch in the Edna Valley of San Luis Obispo. Aged in older French oak barrels for 5 months to soften any lingering tannin left from the extended maceration, our Greengate Pinot Gris is always the one lot out of the many going into SKINS that can stand alone by itself.
For those unfamiliar with Ramato, it’s an Italian style of rosé made as a skin-contact white/orange wine. The grey skins on Pinot Gris create a perfect pink color, though. And while it pours pink, there’s a real weight to the wine. If we poured it for you in a dark glass, you might call it out as being Pinot Noir.
FIASCO //
FIASCO //
80% CABERNET SAUVIGNON, 15% SANGIOVESE, 5% MERLOT
$25 REGULAR / $20 BOTTLE CLUB
The other returning classic is FIASCO. Named for the straw basket you’d historically see around the base of Italian wines from the Tuscany region, FIASCO is a blend of Cabernet and Sangiovese. This is our take on a super Tuscan red wine. These wines got their name from rogue vintners that opted not to follow the regional rules of varieties, instead combining the native Sangiovese with international varieties such as Cabernet, Syrah or Merlot.
We choose to pair our Sangio with Cabernet from both the Wilderness and Loomis vineyards to create an exceptionally rustic yet refreshing red table wine. It works equally well for family spaghetti night or an evening at a bougie à la carte steakhouse.
LE BON CLIMAT //
LE BON CLIMAT //
100% SAUVIGNON BLANC
$25 REGULAR / $20 BOTTLE CLUB
Finally getting off the train to Italy, we have our final spring offering — a teaser of things to come at Field Recordings. As doors have opened for me over the years, I was fortunate enough to partner with some friends from Cal Poly to purchase the legendary Santa Maria Vineyard, Le Bon Climat. For many years, Le Bon Climat was the estate vineyard for one of Santa Barbara wine country’s founding fathers, Jim Clendenen. Jim unfortunately passed away a few years ago, and dealing with the vineyard was too much for his family.
The vines were old and tired, and the ground needed to be redeveloped. My friends and I put a team together to redevelop the land, and you'll get to experience the results as it becomes another anchor property for the Field Recordings lineup.
The new 2-year-old vines yielded some fruit, and we were lucky enough to have enough Sauvignon Blanc to share with all of our wine club — 12 total barrels’ worth. We made most of it in stainless steel, but we kept two neutral barrels in the mix to add some weight and richness to the wine. We feel Sauv Blanc has a great future in Santa Maria with its signature “spicy margarita” flavor profile in the end wine.
We were also able to make two lonely barrels of other white grapes and two barrels of mixed reds. We’ll offer these two field blends to our members later this spring, and we hope to have you all out soon to show off the rebuilt “Le Bon Climat” vineyard.