Absentee Winery

Avi Deixler launched Absentee Wines in 2016, initially crushing his first vintage at a shared facility in Sebastopol before obtaining county permits to operate from a converted dairy farm on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road in Marin County. His winery became the only registered winery in the North Marin Wine District. Before starting Absentee, Deixler worked at Rudd Estate in Napa and completed internships in Burgundy (where a connection with Baptiste Cousin in Anjou was formative), in Corbières with John Schmitt, and at Domaine des Gandines in the Maconnais. His approach draws influence from Sonoma natural wine pioneer Tony Coturri.

Deixler sources all fruit from Poor Ranch in Hopland, Mendocino County, a sixth-generation family operation homesteaded in 1888. The ranch has over 1,000 acres and dry-farms its vines without irrigation on St. George rootstock. Organic practices have been in place since the ranch's inception in the 1970s. Vines range from 10 to 40 years old, with the oldest Carignan block planted in 1942. Elemental sulfur is the only treatment applied in the vineyard.

In the cellar, Deixler ferments whole clusters in used oak barriques that he hand-sands to fresh wood grain before each fermentation to eliminate any residue or contamination from prior use. Barrels are sealed and rolled every few days during a two-week maceration. After pressing, wine rests in the same barrel for approximately one year. No commercial yeast, fining agents, filtration, or added sulfur are used. Wines ferment and stabilize on native yeasts only.