Caleb Leisure took the long way to the cellar. Raised in the East Bay, he studied English at UC Berkeley and was working on a Master of Fine Arts in fiction at NYU when he fell in with New York's natural wine crowd. A 2016 trip to the country of Georgia, where he tasted wine drawn straight from clay qvevri for the first time, changed his course for good.
Backstory
Caleb returned to California and apprenticed under Tony Coturri, the Sonoma natural wine pioneer, before launching his own label around 2014. Determined to work the way Georgians have for millennia, he imported ten qvevri and buried them in the earthen floor of his cellar ahead of the 2017 vintage. He remains one of the only California vintners fermenting in authentic Georgian qvevri.
The Region
The project is based in Sebastopol, in Sonoma County. Caleb sources fruit from the Sierra Foothills and the North Coast, regions whose old vines and warm days suit the long skin contact his vessels encourage.
Vineyards & Farming
Caleb farms roughly a third of the fruit he uses himself, guided by the principles of organics and permaculture. The remaining fruit comes from growers who adhere to organic and biodynamic practices. The aim is healthy, properly grown grapes that need nothing added in the cellar.
Winemaking
Wines ferment with native yeasts, often on their skins, in qvevri, with additional work in concrete and amphorae. Caleb makes no additions and no subtractions of any kind at any point, including no added sulfur. The result is a true zero-zero approach rooted in ancient tradition rather than modern correction.
The Wines
Bottlings such as Obelus and Ab Ovo draw on varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah, Mourvedre and Viognier. They are textural, alive and unmistakably shaped by the clay they were born in.
