Field Recordings Freddo Sangiovese 2024

Field Recordings was started in 2007 by Andrew Jones in Paso Robles as a side project alongside his primary occupation as a vine nursery fieldman—the person who plans and plants vineyards for growers across California's Central Coast. That role has given Jones direct access to sites that most winemakers encounter only from a distance. Growers occasionally offered him small lots of their best fruit, and Jones began turning those opportunities into wine under the Field Recordings name.

Jones studied agricultural business with a viticulture minor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on a football scholarship, interning at Gallo on the Sonoma Coast before returning to nursery work full time. His first wine was made from Chenin Blanc off the Jurassic Park Vineyard in Los Olivos, planted in the 1970s—a site most buyers had overlooked. That instinct for identifying undervalued material in overlooked places has defined the label ever since.

What began as a few hundred cases has expanded into an operation sourcing from over 28 ranches and 120 acres across the Central Coast, with a twelve-person team based in Tin City, the industrial wine district on the edge of Paso Robles that has become a hub for California natural wine producers. Jones has also planted varieties like Charbono, Xarel·lo, and Nebbiolo himself—creating source material that didn't previously exist in the region in meaningful quantities.

His winemaking philosophy centers on native yeast fermentations, organic grape sourcing, and minimal additions, with targeted filtration where needed to keep sulfur levels low during transport and storage. The result is a portfolio of wines that ranges from Field Recordings Skins Orange—widely cited as a gateway orange wine for American consumers—to the Fiction Red, an annual Paso Robles red blend, and the So Far Out Chillable Red, a Nebbiolo-Charbono-Chenin Blanc co-ferment. The Freddo Sangiovese sits squarely in Field Recordings' chillable red range: a low-intervention, food-friendly wine that delivers varietal character without requiring any ceremony to enjoy.

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Paso Robles is a large wine-growing territory in San Luis Obispo County, California, officially designated as an AVA in 1983 and covering over 610,000 acres—roughly three times the size of Napa Valley. For over three decades it functioned as a single appellation, but in 2014 it was divided into eleven sub-appellations, each reflecting distinct differences in elevation, soil composition, climate, and the varieties that perform best within them.

The grapes for Field Recordings Freddo Sangiovese 2024 come from two sites within this broader territory: Trousdale and Creston Ridge, the latter located in the Creston District. Creston sits at the base of the La Panza Range on an alluvial plain at the southeast edge of the AVA. The soils here are a mix of granite and sedimentary rock carried in by waterways over time, providing drainage and structure that encourage deep root development. Despite being an eastern district—generally warmer than Paso's coastal-facing west side—Creston receives cooling marine breezes that pass through the Templeton Gap, a break in the Santa Lucia Range about 18 miles from the coast. Most vineyards are planted on west and southwest-facing slopes to capture this moderation.

Diurnal temperature swings in Creston can exceed 35°F between day and night, a pattern that compresses the ripening window and helps Sangiovese retain its natural acidity and structural tension rather than going soft and overripe. The district receives only about 11 inches of rainfall annually, meaning dry farming and careful water management are part of the picture.

Paso Robles has historically been associated with Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Zinfandel, but producers like Field Recordings have demonstrated that Italian varieties—Sangiovese in particular—can find a coherent voice here when planted on the right site and handled with restraint in the cellar. The combination of warm days, cold nights, and well-drained soils mirrors in some ways the conditions that make Sangiovese compelling in its Central Italian homeland.

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