Carlisle Vineyards

USA • California

Carlisle Winery & Vineyards is the realization of a dream for long-time home winemakers Mike and Kendall Officer. After a decade of producing award-winning wines at home for family and friends, they crushed their first "commercial" grapes in 1998.

Focusing on Zinfandel and Rhone-based varieties, their goal is simple but ambitious: to produce small lots of world-class wines from some of California's most exceptional vineyards.

Although the winemaker’s bag of tricks has grown considerably over recent years, these tools and techniques can only take a wine so far. For a wine to be exceptional, it must be intrinsic to the grapes. Given this simple fact, Carlisle strives to work with only the best vineyards, vineyards that consistently produce grapes of quality and distinction, vintage after vintage. They source their Zinfandel and Mourvèdre from some of the finest old-vine Sonoma Country vineyards, some planted as early as the 1800's. For other varieties – Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, and Grüner Veltliner – they work diligently with small family growers who share Carlisle's passion for great wine.

With some luck and a lot of determination, Mike and Kendall purchased one of Russian River Valley's benchmark old-vine Zinfandel vineyards. Planted in 1927 by Italian immigrant Alcide Pelletti (with some occasional direction from his father-in-law Giuseppi Frati), they began producing wine from that site in 2001. Additionally, they have secured a nearby two-acre, predominantly Mourvèdre vineyard planted in 1910, and several other old-vines Zin vineyards, which they meticulously farm themselves.

Their approach to winemaking is simple, yet difficult. They prefer to intervene in nature’s process as little as possible and rely on, mostly, uninoculated fermentations and minimal use of new oak. They rarely fine or filter. However, they are not dogmatic and will intervene if they feel it results in a higher quality wine while remaining true to the vintage and the vineyard.

https://www.carlislewinery.net