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Caleb Leisure

Mother Knows 2019

Price: $35.95
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Tasting notes

Seven months of full skin and stem contact in buried Georgian qvevri gives this Marsanne-Roussanne blend a structure and grip you rarely find in California white Rhône fruit — dried orange peel, beeswax, and a stony, earthenware-driven finish. The high-elevation El Dorado granite terroir keeps the acidity alive under all that tannin.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
Beeswax & HoneyWhite PeachWildflowersEarthenware
  • Style: Amber-orange; skin-contact; grippy tannins; dried citrus, beeswax, stone fruit; long mineral finish
  • Grapes & Terroir: 80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne; Sumu Kaw Vineyard; El Dorado AVA; ~3,000 ft elevation; decomposed granite soils; organically farmed
  • Winemaking: Spontaneous fermentation in buried Georgian qvevri; 100% skins and stems; 7-month maceration; unfined; unfiltered; zero sulfur additions (<10 mg/L total SO2)
  • Serving: Serve at 55-58F; no decant needed; opens well over an hour in the glass
  • Pairing: Aged hard cheese, charcuterie, roasted chicken, miso-glazed fish, bitter greens with olive oil
  • Similar To: For fans of Gravner Ribolla Gialla or Pheasant's Tears Rkatsiteli who want a California take on Georgian amber wine

Mother Knows is a skin-contact orange wine from Caleb Leisure, sourced from organically farmed Marsanne (80%) and Roussanne (20%) at Sumu Kaw Vineyard in El Dorado County, Sierra Foothills, California. The vineyard sits at roughly 3,000 feet elevation on decomposed granite soils — terrain that produces fruit with strong natural acidity and concentrated flavor even in white Rhône varieties.

Fermentation takes place in authentic Georgian qvevri — terracotta amphorae buried underground at the Coturri Winery facility in Glen Ellen. The entire cluster goes in: 100% skins and stems. The wine stays in contact with its solids for 7 months before being racked and bottled without fining, filtration, or sulfur additions. Total SO2 is below 10 mg/L. Fermentation is spontaneous, with no temperature control, and no additions or subtractions of any kind are made at any point.

The result is a deep amber wine with grippy tannin structure, dried citrus peel, stone fruit, beeswax, and a long mineral finish driven by the earthenware vessel and granite terroir. It sits in the tradition of Georgian amber wine but with fully ripe California fruit as its foundation.

The tannin and acidity make this a natural match for aged hard cheeses, charcuterie boards with cured meats, and roasted chicken with root vegetables. It also holds up well alongside dishes with some bitterness or umami — think bitter greens with olive oil, or miso-glazed fish. Serve slightly cool, around 55-58F, to keep the tannins from reading as heavy.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Orange Wine
Wine Style:, Medium Body
Grapes:, Marsanne, Roussanne
Farming:, Organic
Vintage:, 2019
Alcohol:, 12.5%
Country:, USA
Region:, El Dorado, Sierra Foothills
Appellation:, El Dorado AVA
Bottle Size:, 750ml
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

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.


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

Caleb Leisure

Caleb Leisure Wines is a one-person natural wine project currently based in Sebastopol, California. Leisure came to wine after careers in academia and cheese, discovering natural wine in New York City around 2006. After two years in England, where the natural wine scene was already established, he returned to California and completed winemaking internships in the Languedoc-Roussillon and Jura regions of France before landing an apprenticeship with Tony Coturri of Coturri Winery in Glen Ellen. His first vintage was 2016.

Before the 2017 harvest, Leisure buried ten authentic Georgian qvevri — sourced directly from the Imereti region of Georgia — in the earthen cellar at Coturri Winery. He works with organically and biodynamically grown California fruit, sourcing from Sumu Kaw Vineyard in El Dorado County, among other sites. He farms roughly a third of the fruit he uses himself, following organic and permaculture principles.

No additions or subtractions are made at any point in the winemaking process. Fermentation is spontaneous. Wines are unfined and unfiltered, with no sulfur additions and total SO2 well below 10 mg/L. The qvevri are lined with beeswax, which has natural antibacterial properties and contributes to the stability and purity of the wine during extended maceration. Leisure's standard approach with the Sumu Kaw Marsanne and Roussanne is a 7-month full skin and stem maceration in qvevri.

Wine region

El Dorado, Sierra Foothills, USA

El Dorado AVA sits within the broader Sierra Foothills AVA on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada, centered around Placerville in El Dorado County, California. Vineyards are planted between 1,200 and 3,500 feet above sea level. The region is cooled by elevation rather than coastal fog, which means grapes receive intense daytime sun while night temperatures drop significantly — a large diurnal swing that preserves natural acidity while allowing full ripeness. Soils are predominantly decomposed granite, fine-grained volcanic rock, and shale, all thin, rocky, and well-draining.

El Dorado sits within the six-sub-appellation Sierra Foothills AVA, alongside Fair Play, Fiddletown, California Shenandoah Valley, Amador County, and North Yuba. The Rhône varieties — Syrah, Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier, and Grenache — have found a strong secondary home here alongside Zinfandel, with El Dorado's granitic soils and higher elevations proving particularly suited to producing Rhône whites with bright acidity and mineral definition.

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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