There is a running joke in the American natural wine world that serious domestic examples cost as much as Burgundy. Populis exists partly as a rebuttal. Shaunt Oungoulian and Diego Roig founded the project upon returning to California in 2014 from apprenticeships in France, determined to make honest, affordable natural wine from organically farmed California fruit — and to do it from a converted basement in suburban Orinda, just east of Berkeley.
Backstory
Oungoulian's path into wine began with a harvest in Mendocino's Anderson Valley, followed by a degree in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis and a formative stint in Beaujolais with natural-wine pioneer Julie Balagny and then in the Maconnais with Philippe Valette. Roig, raised in a family with deep California viticultural roots, took a parallel route via Leon Barral in the Faugères and COS in Sicily — two estates with very different temperaments but the same commitment to farming as the primary craft. The two met back in California and launched Populis alongside Les Lunes, their estate-fruit label, in 2014.
The Region
Populis is not a single-terroir project. The duo sources fruit from a network of trusted growers across California — from Mendocino and the Anderson Valley south to Lodi, the Sierra Foothills, and Sonoma. What unifies these diverse origins is a firm requirement for organic farming. The project leans on the diversity of California's climate and soils as a creative resource rather than a complication.
Vineyards and Farming
In addition to purchasing from partner growers, Oungoulian and Roig manage and farm approximately nine hectares of leased vineyards in Sonoma and Napa under fully organic protocols. Their sourcing priorities skew toward old vine material: one flagship white draws on Sauvignon Blanc planted in 1948 in Mendocino. Every vineyard in the Populis network is farmed without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or irrigation beyond what the site requires.
Winemaking
The cellar is deliberately minimal: fermentations proceed with native yeasts, no additives are used, and the wines go through shorter maceration and elevage periods than the estate-grown Les Lunes wines. The goal is freshness and drinkability. Acidity management — always a challenge in California's warm climate — is the defining technical focus, and the duo's European training in regions where high acidity is the norm gives them a useful frame of reference.
The Wines
The Populis range includes whites, a rosé, and reds from varieties as varied as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Grenache, and Carignan. The Wabi-Sabi blend — a field-blend white inspired by Japanese aesthetics of imperfect beauty — is one of the project's most talked-about wines. Reversée is the signature red, built for immediate pleasure without sacrificing structure. Across the lineup the prices stay modest: this is natural California wine designed for the dinner table, not the cellar.
