Chilion Skin Contact 2020 – natural wine bottle, USA | Primal Wine
Ruth Lewandowski – natural wine producer
Ruth Lewandowski
Sold Out -9%

Chilion Skin Contact 2020

$31.95 $34.95
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Tasting notes

Six-plus months of skin contact on a grape that is usually crisp and weightless produces something genuinely surprising: apricot, dried herbs, baking spice, and a firm phenolic texture that lingers. This is one of the most distinctive expressions of Cortese grown anywhere outside Piedmont, made from vines covering a plot that represents about one-sixth of all Cortese in the United States.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
ApricotOreganoBaking SpicesHay
Dry/Sweet:Dry
Wine Type:Orange Wine
Wine Style:Medium Body
Grapes:Cortese
Farming:Organic
Vintage:2020
Alcohol:13.2%
Country:United States
Region:Mendocino
Appellation:Mendocino County AVA
Bottle Size:750ml
Sugar Level:Zero Added Sugar
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Important information

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package; carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older. Shipping to PO Boxes is not allowed.

Re-shipping a Package

If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.

Re-routing a Package

If you'd like to reroute a package after it's been shipped, we can do so for a $20 re-routing fee. We cannot re-route a package across state borders. For any change of address, please contact us as soon as possible, ideally within 1-2 days from placing the order or we cannot guarantee we'll be able to reroute or change your order's shipping address.

Canceling an Order

If you'd like to cancel an order after it's been shipped, we can do so upon payment of a small cancellation fee – the amount depends on the size of the order. Carriers charge us a lot of money to recall a package en-route.

Heat/Frost damage

We are not responsible for heat- or frost-related issues. We offer ice-packs upon request. Please let us know if you think that there could be heat-related issues. If we don't hear anything from you regarding weather issues before an order is shipped, or if you don't request a hold due to the weather, we are not responsible for heat/frost damage.

Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

3. Please track your package using the tracking service.

4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

*Please ensure your email address is correct; otherwise, you will not receive the order and shipping confirmation emails.

**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Ruth Lewandowski

Ruth Lewandowski Wines was founded in 2012 by Evan Lewandowski, who grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and discovered wine while attending the University of Utah. His early career took him through harvests at multiple wineries internationally, including several seasons at Domaine Binner in Alsace, where he worked directly in organic and biodynamic viticulture and natural winemaking. He also earned a degree from the Walla Walla Institute for viticulture and enology.

The winery's name comes from the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament, a text Lewandowski reads through the lens of farming and fermentation: the cycles of death, renewal, and interdependence that run through the story mirror the behavior of native yeasts and bacteria during fermentation, and the idea of gleaning from another's field reflects his practice of sourcing from other growers' vineyards. The project was initially based in Salt Lake City, where Lewandowski would begin fermentation in California and transport fermenting juice by refrigerated truck back to Utah for aging and bottling. In 2018, he moved his entire operation to Mendocino, where he shares a facility with Sam Bilbro of Idlewild Wines.

Lewandowski sources primarily from Fox Hill Vineyard and Testa Vineyard in Mendocino County, farming his Fox Hill plots through Wild Ruth Farming, a collaboration with Sam Bilbro focused on holistic, organic practices. The 2020 Fox Hill Cortese block was farmed organically, with no synthetic inputs. Winemaking at Ruth Lewandowski is built on native yeast fermentation, no added sulfites, no fining, and no filtration. Vinification choices are made to draw out what each grape and site offers naturally rather than to impose a consistent house style.

Wine region

Mendocino, United States

Mendocino County sits north of Sonoma in California's North Coast, stretching from a cool Pacific-facing coast inland to warm, dry valleys around Ukiah and Redwood Valley. The county encompasses multiple distinct climates: the cold, fog-driven Anderson Valley in the west suits Pinot Noir and sparkling wine; the inland Ukiah Valley and Talmage Bench run hotter during the day but benefit from significant diurnal temperature swings that preserve acidity in the fruit. Fox Hill Vineyard sits on the Talmage Bench at 650 feet elevation, on soils of alluvial, rocky sandy clay loam derived from sandstone with high concentrations of quartz, which drain quickly and limit vine vigor.

The Mendocino County AVA is a broad appellation covering much of the county. Within it, the Talmage Bench is not a named sub-AVA but is recognized by growers as a distinct site where uplifted former Russian River riverbed soils and warm inland temperatures produce intensely flavored fruit. Mendocino is notable for a high proportion of organically and biodynamically farmed vineyards relative to other California counties. Fox Hill Vineyard, planted in the late 1980s almost entirely to Italian varieties, is one of the county's more unusual sites and a key source for producers working outside the mainstream California variety palette.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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