Roark - 'This is NOT Orange Wine' - Marsanne, Grenache Blanc - Santa Barbara County, CA - 2020

This wine is good
-Drew
... now for more info from the winery!

When Jenn and I were dating we were up in San Francisco eating at La Ciccia, a great little Italian food spot, and asked the server for something to drink that they thought would go with our food choices and that also would be a bit off of the beaten path. The wine we ended up being served was awesome and my first time drinking a skin contact white. Over the years as this style of wine has gained popularity I have tasted many more. For me there is an “orange wine” style which to me is more funky, austere and sometimes flawed. In my mind there is the other side of skin contact whites, the bottles you keep going back to, unctuous and intriguing. So this is not orange wine, meaning it wasn’t made from oranges and it isn’t orange in color just to fit a trend. It is about ⅔ marsanne and ⅓ grenache blanc, both from Demetria Estate. Each variety was fermented separately on the skins, marsanne for two weeks and grenache blanc for about 5 days. Color is light amber, nose is fresh cut flowers and flavor is deep while remaining delicate. As I taste this wine I want crudo scallops or even better a good ole quesadilla mar y tierra.

Making wine is the last step in the growing of grapes, the preservation of the crop, the enological encapsulation of the vintage. Sometimes inspired by the classics and other times the avant garde we strive to make elegantly energetic wines that reflect the vintage, variety, and vineyard.

Growing grapes and making wine is quite the process and we are guided by the following question; is it necessary? Each additional step in the process takes you one step further away from the grapes, further away from the vines, further away from the simplest expression.

Who?
Ryan, Jenn, and Ellis Roark
In 2009 two monumental things occurred, Ryan made his first batch of Roark Wine Co. wine and he met Jenn. In 2016 they had Ellis and if he wants he can be a winemaker.

Our process is guided by nature with the goal being wine made from responsibly farmed vineyards with as little added or taken away as possible.
Many of the grapes used in our fermentations come from vineyards we farm ourselves or in partnership with other growers. These wines are often our proudest work. When we purchase grapes we seek out growers with similar values.
In the cellar our mantra is “naturally made, classically styled.” Only minimal effective amounts of sulfur are used and the wines are neither fined nor filtered. For me this approach is timeless but ever evolving as I continue to explore the world of wine.