{"title":"Cruse Wine Co.","description":"\u003cp\u003eMichael Cruse came to wine by way of a lab bench. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2002 with a degree in molecular and cell biology, picked up wine microbiology from Professor Terry Leighton, and worked his way up to associate winemaker at Merryvale's Starmont before opening a custom crush facility in Petaluma. There he began the backyard sparkling experiments that became Ultramarine in 2008, arguably America's first cult sparkling wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2013 Cruse launched Cruse Wine Co. with the goal of making wines that were fruit-driven, fresh, and delicious but still serious. In 2016 he was named San Francisco Chronicle Winemaker of the Year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore on how they farm and work in the cellar in our \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/natural-wine-producers-primal-wine\/cruse-wine-co\"\u003eCruse Wine Co. producer profile\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rorick-vineyard-chardonnay-sierra-foothills-california-usa-white-wine","title":"Cruse Wine Co. Rorick Vineyard Chardonnay 2016","description":"\u003cp\u003eRorick Heritage Vineyard sits at 2,000 feet elevation in Calaveras County, just outside Murphys in the Sierra Foothills AVA. The Chardonnay vines are own-rooted Old Wente clones planted between 1974 and 1976 by Barden Stevenot, the figure credited with establishing modern winegrowing in Calaveras County. Matthew Rorick purchased the 75-acre property in 2013 and converted it to organic farming. The soils are schist over a limestone bedrock, which drives the wine's distinctive minerality and natural acidity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichael Cruse at Cruse Wine Co. handles this fruit with minimal intervention. Grapes are hand harvested and pressed using a long Champagne-style press cycle. The juice is transferred to neutral barrels where fermentation occurs spontaneously with native yeast. The wine ages approximately 16 to 18 months in neutral wood before a small sulfur addition at bottling. No fining or significant manipulation is documented for this wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe nose shows orange blossom, ripe pear, lemon rind, and apricot, with a thread of roasted almond running through. On the palate, the texture is viscous and oily in the way that old, low-yielding vines at elevation tend to produce, but the acidity is firm and cleansing. The finish is long and mineral, with wet stone character that points directly to the limestone bedrock beneath the vineyard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a single-vineyard Chardonnay from a site that is genuinely unusual in California: ungrafted old vines on limestone at altitude, farmed organically, vinified without additives or new oak. It reflects both the specificity of the Rorick site and Cruse's restraint in the cellar.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cruse Wine Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12451627630647,"sku":"CRUSRORI17C","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/rorick-vineyard-chardonnay-sierra-foothills-california-usa-white-wine.jpg?v=1780673491"},{"product_id":"valdiguie-nouveau-michael-cruse-red-wine-california","title":"Cruse Wine Co. Valdiguie' Nouveau 2018","description":"\u003cp\u003eValdiguié is a red grape from southwestern France that spent most of the 20th century being misidentified in California as \"Napa Gamay.\" DNA analysis in 1980 confirmed it is not Gamay at all, though it shares the same broad style: low alcohol, high acidity, and a tendency to produce deeply colored, fruit-forward reds at relatively light body weights. Cruse sources this fruit from Suisun Valley, a small AVA in Solano County nested within the larger North Coast AVA, where warm days and cooling afternoon marine breezes off San Pablo Bay allow the grape to retain its naturally sharp acidity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 2018 Nouveau is made via carbonic maceration, the same technique used in Beaujolais Nouveau production, in which whole intact grape clusters ferment inside a CO2-rich environment. Fermentation begins inside each unbroken berry before any crushing takes place. The result is a wine that is extremely low in tannin, lively in texture, and loaded with primary red-fruit character: fresh raspberry, cranberry, and wild strawberry, with a faint peppery note typical of the variety.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichael Cruse operates out of a warehouse facility in Petaluma, Sonoma County, where he ferments with native yeasts and bottles without fining or filtration. The Nouveau is designed to be drunk young and cold, much like its Beaujolais counterpart, rather than cellared. At 12.5% ABV, it sits comfortably on the light end of the red wine spectrum.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrapes are sourced from organically farmed sites. The wine is unfiltered and unfined, made with minimal additions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cruse Wine Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12892311715895,"sku":"CRUSNOUV18C","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/valdiguie-nouveau-michael-cruse-red-wine-california_f6975576-a7c8-4edc-a9fd-4db067bde201.jpg?v=1780678467"}],"url":"https:\/\/primalwine.com\/collections\/cruse-wine-co.oembed","provider":"Primal Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}