Twenty years ago this September, we lost my dad. But his vision is still very much alive at St. Amant. More than forty-five years ago, his curiosity led him to plant Portuguese varieties at our Amador County ranch when almost no one in California was paying attention to them. He believed they belonged there, and he was right. The four wines in this release are a direct extension of that decision. His willingness to question convention, follow his instincts, and take the road less travelled continues to shape the wines we make today.
On September 12, 2006, my dad passed away. He was 68 years old. Too young. He had more he wanted to do. We had more we wanted to do together.
Three days later, we were picking grapes. There was no time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. The grapes were ready and the work needed to be done. So we moved forward. My dad would not have wanted it any other way.
Twenty years later, I think about that period differently than I did at the time. There was certainly an unfairness to losing him. But mostly, I feel lucky.
I had a father who cared. He showed up. He lived his life by a pretty clear set of principles and did what he believed was right whether it benefited him or not. He was fiercely independent, stubborn as hell, and at the same time incredibly loyal. He did not spend much time worrying about what other people thought of him. He had his own compass, and that compass still guides much of what we do today.
I am reminded of him often. We still have barrels of Port he made, some with his handwriting on the barrel tags. I get to taste wine that my dad made more than twenty years ago. There is something pretty remarkable about that. Few people get to sit down with something their father made with his own hands decades earlier and literally drink it.
The vineyard is another reminder. Many of the grapes we grow today exist because he was curious enough to plant varieties nobody around here knew much about. He was willing to try things, fail at things, change direction, and try again. That willingness to question conventional wisdom became part of the DNA of St. Amant.
Our customers remind me of him regularly. Some of you have been coming here for more than thirty years. You remember my dad. You remember his stories, the hours spent talking with him, and probably the wine you drank together. He did not really pour tastes. He poured glasses. And if you showed a little curiosity and were not an “asshole,” as he might have put it, he would open the door and give you his time. That was hospitality to him. It was not scripted. It was not a sales technique. He simply enjoyed people who were genuinely interested in wine.
When he died, there were people who thought St. Amant was probably finished. Nobody said it to me at the time, but some admitted it years later. They thought Dad was the glue. He was the winemaker. He had the knowledge, the skill, the personality, and the vision. They were not sure I had it in me. They misjudged me. And more importantly, they misjudged my mom.
They also did not understand the community around us. In that first year especially, people stepped forward. Family, friends, growers, customers, and others in the industry helped in ways large and small. At the time, I probably did not fully appreciate how important that was. Looking back, it made all the difference. The strange thing is that I do not remember feeling a tremendous amount of pressure back then. There was too much to do. I was 36 years old, we were in the middle of harvest, and the winery had to keep moving. So I moved with it.
Building on my dad’s legacy has never meant trying to copy him. I am quite certain he would disagree with some of the things I do. But he gave me something much more valuable than a set of instructions. He gave me the confidence to be curious, to think independently, to take chances, and to find my own way. In that sense, we are still building St. Amant together.
I wish he could taste the wines we are making today. I wish he could see what St. Amant has become and where we are trying to take it. But I also know that much of what we are doing would feel very familiar to him. We are still farming. Still making wine. Still trying new things. Still going our own direction. Still trying to do what we believe is right, whether it is the easiest path or not.
And twenty years later, I am still lucky enough to be doing it with him.
Souzao is one of the more obscure Portuguese varieties we grow at our ranch in Amador County, and it has never been particularly interested in making our lives easy. It is naturally low yielding, usually around two to three tons per acre, with small clusters and an incredible amount of color. It stains just about everything it touches in the winery. Once a picking bin has held Souzao, it never quite looks the same again.
What makes the variety especially interesting is how well suited it is to our warm climate. Souzao holds an extraordinary amount of natural acidity, which gives the wine freshness, energy, and makes it particularly good at the table. The 2024 combines bright berry fruit, firm natural acidity, a touch of new oak, and moderate alcohol at around 13 percent.
We did not produce a 2023, and the 2024 comes back with a little more intensity and structure than previous vintages. Bottled last spring, it is showing beautifully now but has the acidity and structure to continue developing for another decade.
Touriga Nacional may be the best variety we grow at our Amador County vineyard. It consistently makes delicious wine, is relatively easy to farm, and gives us an unusual amount of flexibility in the cellar. We use it in everything from our Iberian Rosé to our Iberian Red, a varietal Touriga Nacional, and as the most important component in our Vintage Port.
It is naturally low yielding and late ripening, with small berries, deep color, fragrant aromatics, firm structure, and excellent natural acidity. More importantly, it simply seems to belong in our vineyard.
The 2024 is a little more structured than previous vintages and I think it will be more age worthy. About 16 percent was aged in new French oak, and for the first time roughly 20 percent was fermented whole cluster. That whole cluster component brings a little more lift and a savory quality to the aromatics, with hints of underbrush and forest floor behind the dark fruit and floral character. It is a more serious expression of Touriga Nacional, but still very much rooted in the freshness and perfume that make the variety so compelling.
The 2023 Iberian Red was our first vintage of this wine and quickly became one of our most popular new releases, so the 2024 had a lot to live up to. Like the first vintage, it is essentially an equal blend of Touriga Nacional and Tempranillo, selected from some of the best barrels in the cellar.
What I like about this blend is how well the two varieties complement each other. Touriga Nacional brings the spice, floral perfume, and lifted aromatics, while Tempranillo fills in the middle with richer fruit, texture, and a long, mouth filling finish. The result is flavorful, aromatic, and immediately delicious, but with enough structure and freshness to continue developing in the bottle.
This is only our second vintage, but I think the Iberian Red is quickly becoming one of the wines that best captures a sense of place at our Amador County vineyard.
We first planted Tempranillo at our Amador County ranch in 1998 and made our first varietal wine from it in 2001. Twenty years later, we bottled our first Tempranillo Reserve. The 2023 is now just our third reserve vintage, and like the previous releases, it represents the best of what the vineyard gave us that year.
It starts with fruit from the strongest section of the vineyard, followed by selection of the best lot and then the best barrels. The 2023 season was cool and late ripening, which gave the fruit a long growing season and helped build structure, depth, and freshness. The blend is 86 percent Tempranillo and 14 percent Touriga Nacional, aged primarily in 500 liter French oak puncheons, with 58 percent new oak.
This is a serious, well structured wine with mouth filling flavor and texture, dark fruit, savory spice, firm tannins, and enough natural acidity to keep everything in balance. The Touriga adds color, perfume, and another layer of structure. It is showing well now with some air, but I think this vintage will reward patience and continue to develop beautifully in the bottle.
