At last month’s Unified Wine and Grape Symposium, the California Association of Winegrape Growers presented me with the Leader of the Year award. Over the past several years, I’ve advocated tirelessly for California winegrowers, challenging the largest wine companies for prioritizing imported bulk wine over local farmers. My advocacy has brought national attention to federal policies that incentivize imports at the expense of rural communities, placing me in direct opposition to some of the industry’s most powerful interests.
This winter’s wine club features four of our most beloved wines, each sourced from a different vineyard. These aren’t just points on a map, they’re farms tended by families who have shaped our story and shared in our journey. Each vineyard holds a chapter of our history.
For me, wine has never been just a beverage. It’s a connection to people, to place, and to time. It’s a lens into our shared past and a window into culture. In today’s globally connected world, brand, and even one’s personal brand, can sometimes overshadow history, substance, and soul. That shift may feel inevitable.
But place still matters. History still matters. And true sustainability begins with a deep commitment to community.
Over the past few years, I’ve been outspoken about a troubling shift in our industry. Some of the largest wine companies are choosing to import bulk wine from overseas instead of purchasing locally grown winegrapes. They are sourcing from wherever it’s cheapest rather than supporting the local farmers who built the California wine industry. It is a deliberate business decision. And it has real consequences for families, for rural communities, and for the long-term health of American wine.
That is their choice. But it isn’t mine.
From a viticultural standpoint, place isn’t romantic nostalgia or marketing speak. The French call it terroir: the intersection of soil, climate, and the human hand. And only a small percentage of the world’s farmland is truly suited for winegrapes, restricted by climate, soil, and those narrow Mediterranean-like conditions where vines thrive. Within that narrow band, site shapes nearly every decision we make from variety selection to trellising to soil management, and ultimately defines what ends up in your glass.
And then there’s the human element. Every grower farms with different intentions. Some chase tonnage. Some chase quality. And some have no idea what they are doing. And then there are those who fall in love with the idea of owning a vineyard without fully appreciating that farming is a lot of hard work and anxiety.
But those of us who plan to be here for generations farm differently. We’re not chasing short-term gains or the illusion of romance. We’re building something meant to endure.
Each of this month’s wines represents a real connection to place. A specific vineyard, a specific season, a specific piece of ground that matters. With intention, care, good fortune, and a lot of hard work, those vineyards produce something truly special. And with every vintage, it is our responsibility and obligation to ensure the wines deliver on that promise.
Loyalty to a place means tying your future to a particular community and piece of ground. Allowing your business and your reputation to rise and fall with each season. In the wine business, and in life, it’s a quiet commitment to steward what sustains you, to invest in your community, and to build something rooted deeply enough to outlast you. This is why place matters to me.
At the end of the day, there are thousands of wines in the world. Many are good, and many are forgettable. We all have choices, and we are genuinely grateful you’ve chosen St. Amant.
If you’re going to go out, go out in style. No wine embodies that spirit more than our 2023 Barbera from the Leventini Vineyard. This was the final vintage from a vineyard that gave us decades of friendship and remarkable wines. After harvest, the family retired, the property was sold, and the vines were pulled after 51 long and fruitful years. But not before leaving us with one last extraordinary bottle. In a blind tasting of nearly 1,600 entries from across California, this Barbera earned the Golden Bear for Best Red Wine of Show at the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition.
The wine itself is true to its roots. Lively and bright, deeply expressive of the site where Barbera’s natural acidity found purity in Lodi’s sandy soils. It carries energy, freshness, and depth born from those tiny, gnarly clusters that produced character year after year. What began as friendship and shared curiosity became a lasting legacy. Though the vineyard is gone, it left behind many delicious wines and a final vintage that reminds us that place matters, and that sometimes the last one truly is the best one.
The 2022 Mohr-Fry Ranch Old Vine Zinfandel is a vivid expression of Lodi’s sandy soils and old-vine heritage, deep and generous yet unmistakably rooted in place. For nearly three decades we have crafted this wine from the same historic vineyard that helped define our house style and, in many ways, helped define what classic Lodi Zinfandel can be. Whether you call it “Mohr-Fry” or simply “the Old Vine,” the vineyard speaks clearly in the glass, with vibrant raspberry and blackberry layered with warm spice and a touch of earth, carried by the natural balance that old vines and sandy soils consistently deliver.
This is a wine that reinforces why place matters. These head-trained vines, farmed with intention reflect a long relationship between grower, vineyard, and winemaker, and it reminds us that when you commit to a vineyard over time, the wine develops a voice that cannot be replicated anywhere else.
Spencer Ranch in Amador County has been part of our family’s story for more than fifty years. It is not just a vineyard we source from; it is our vineyard, a place I grew up in, and a place that has been at the center of our story. That continuity matters. The elevation, the decomposed granite and clay-loam soils, the warm Sierra foothill days followed by cool nights all shape the Tempranillo grown here. When you farm the same ground for 50 years, you begin to understand its rhythms, its strengths, and how to grow its best wines.
The 2023 vintage was one of the coolest in recent memory, allowing for a long, measured growing season that preserved freshness while building remarkable concentration. The result is a Tempranillo of immense depth and structure, layered with dark fruit, savory spice, and a core of natural acidity that carries the wine with precision and length. It is a vintage I am truly proud of, not simply for its intensity, but for how clearly it reflects Spencer Ranch itself, and reminds us that place matters!
The 2022 Lloyd Martel Cabernet Sauvignon is more than a wine. It is a story of friendship, history, and a place in Lodi that deserves to be remembered. Lloyd Martel was a longtime friend of my dad’s and the steward of one of the oldest Cabernet vineyards in Lodi. This is not a wine we make because the world needs another Cabernet. It is a wine we make because the world needs a Lloyd Martel Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine and a vineyard that helped shape Lodi’s history.
In the glass, this Cabernet stands apart. It is elegant and herbal, structured yet restrained, the antithesis of the modern, oversized style that dominates today’s shelves. It harkens back to a time where acidity, balance, and nuance created wines of complexity and quiet power. There is lift, there is tension, and there is length. It tastes like a vineyard that has seen decades of a family that farmed with intention. It’s a piece of Lodi, a piece of our story, and another example of why place matters.
