Field Recordings, "Salad Days" 2021

Andrew Jones has a long career in California vineyards – both planning and planting a plethora of tiny organically-cultivated plots for several decades as a vine nursery fieldman, the ‘about’ page for him reads something like “He’s stood in just about every vineyard on the central coast.” And so the story follows something like this – having this broad-based exposure & network of parcels, the growers & small-plot owners with whom he’d worked through the years have, since 2007, sold off miniscule batches of some of their best fruit to Andrew who, aggregating the grapes, decided to start producing a range of wines from them. In this way, the wines of “Field Recordings” (the name feels particularly appropriate to the genesis of the project) are at once specific & broad – composite pictures of the Central Coast’s organic fingerprint writ-large while also showcasing some single-vineyard expressions of favored grapes. For this bottling, we’ve the light and how-is-this-from-Paso-Robles-it’s-9%-ABV “Salad Days” sparkler composed of Chenin/Chardonnay/Colombard. Perhaps the most playful in the range of hard-won-yet-easygoing concoctions from Andrew Jones & his many vineyard partners.

A delightful little pet nat made from Chenin, Chardonnay and Colombard, direct pressed and fermented in stainless steel with wild yeasts. Subtle, frothy bubbles, pineapple aromatics, and notes of ripe pears, all tied together with a big smack of acidity.