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In our search for small-scale wine producers to visit in our nearby wine regions, we're always glad to find start-up wineries making excellent wines to a small, devoted audience. Astrale e Terra on the Silverado Trail is one of those wineries. The name translates as "heaven and earth," and we encountered their wines at an event in San Francisco a month or two back, and thought they were on to something special.
The winery is owned by a group of friends led by Paul Johnson, a one-time Air Force fighter pilot who owned a resort in Jamaica and did a turn as a Chicago banker before settling in the Napa Valley in the 90s. Their consulting winemaker is Scott Harvey, who sold his successful brand Folie a Deux in 2004, and who also now makes his own delicious, complex wines under the Scott Harvey Wines label and has his own tasting room in Gold Country, on Main Street in Sutter Creek.
Currently, Astrale e Terra is only making a handful of wines -- a bright, citrus-y, well balanced Sauvignon Blanc ($22), an estate Syrah ($28), and estate Cab ($50), and their signature red blend named Arcturus ($39) after the 4th brightest star in the night sky, which is classified as a Red Supergiant. The 2004 Arcturus that we tasted was rich and jammy with a few herbal notes, a perfectly balanced Cabernet blend in a Bordeaux style that includes some Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
The winery currently doesn't have a public tasting room, but that only means you need to call ahead (707-255-1134) or make an appointment via email with Natalie Bullion, the sales and marketing person there. One sunny afternoon she'll fix you up with a private tasting at one of their picnic tables outside, and you'll never want to fight your way to the counter at a crowded tasting room again.
PREVIOUSLY: Quivira Vineyards
Loxton Cellars
Hess Collection
Preston of Dry Creek
Cline Cellars
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Small nit to pick -- they've been making wine for a significant amount of time (I recall drinking some 2001 Arcturus) so calling them a start-up winery is not accurate.
Point taken... but in the winemaking world, anything less than 10 years is close enough to a start-up. Also, their catalogue remains very small and they only recently hired their first employee, the aforementioned Natalie, so we think they qualify.