sonoma - california
story…
Monte Rio Cellars is the brainchild of longtime sommelier Patrick Cappiello who has enjoyed an immensely successful career in New York City’s restaurant world. Cutting his teeth at Tribeca Grill in the early 2000’s where he eventually became beverage director before moving on to places like Veritas and GILT. He eventually partnered up to open two highly acclaimed spots in the city, a restaurant/wine bar concept called Pearl & Ash along with a Michelin starred restaurant nearby called Rebelle. Due to a multitude of reasons both spots eventually closed leading Patrick on a bit of search for the next step in his impressive career. He dabbled a bit in the import distribution game in the late twenty teens, and it was at this time when he founded his first wine label, Forty Ounce Wines. These were fun, crushable wines produced in the Loire and bottled one liter bottles that resembled the forty ounce beer bottles Patrick remembered drinking back when he was younger and spent his days skateboarding.
The Forty Ounce project struck a chord with Patrick and pushed him to want to produce a wine where he was hands on, Forty Ounce was a made entirely by a small vigneron in Loire that Patrick had met and was also importing his wines into the US along with the Forty Ounce label. After a long, late night conversation with his longtime friend, Pax Mahle (Pax Wines), Patrick decided to dive in deep into the wine production side with the help and guidance of Pax. The first full release under the Monte Rio Cellars label was in 2018, based around an obscure hybrid varietal called Rubired, however there was an initial Syrah bottling from the 2016 vintage that had been released prior. Patrick had tasted a wine produced with Rubired at one point and found the wine to be somewhat mesmerizing, so after a long hunt for a vineyard that met his and Pax’s standards of farming, they finally found a site in 2018 and released the first official Monte Rio Cellars wine in 2019.
Named after the town of Monte Rio, which is a small eccentric spot in Sonoma County that straddles the Russian River. The town was once a booming tourist destination, known for holding outdoor concerts and having a thriving summer cabin vacation layout with plenty of outdoor activities for tourists to enjoy. The town now is made up of mostly year round residents but remnants of this once beloved tourist destination remain, including the Monte Rio Theatre which is the backdrop of the Monte Rio Cellars label. The name is two fold, the name itself pays homage to this historic town that thrived in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s; and is a bit of a nod to the “throwback” style of wines Patrick & Pax produce under the Monte Rio Label. A style that would have been more commonly found in the area during the same time period that Monte Rio the town was thriving.
philosophy…
Minimalistic and hands off are two terms that easily sum up the focus here for their wines. Though like many wineries that tout the hands off moniker, the reality is that these are very hands on wines, choosing to be very active in the production but eliminating any and all additives outside a small amount of SO2. Patrick’s vision is to create the wine he wished he’d had access to from California when he was writing wine lists and running beverage programs in NYC. Wines that speak of a place, are affordable to the masses and are made without loads of intervention and manipulation.
The only source fruit from vineyards that are at the very least farmed organically, some are farmed with more in depth environmentally-conscious practices such as no till, biodynamics, and dry farming. Fermentations take place exclusively with native/ambient yeasts found on the grapes and in the air. The whites are all whole cluster pressed to either stainless steel or neutral Oak barrels, typically a combination of both, where they go through fermentation prior to being aged in old wood barrels. The whites on average are aged at least 5 months in barrel. The reds are all whole cluster fermented in a either stainless steel or concrete, often a combination of both. Several of the wines see short stints of carbonic maceration before being pressed off to tank. All of the reds age at least 6 months in old wood barrels.
Vineyards…
Their hunt for organically farmed vineyards where they could source fruit and produce a wine that was affordable has led them to places like Lodi and Mendocino. Lodi in particular has become their go-to location for a majority of the fruit they source. Finding not only the style of farming they want to work with but great farmers and people that they want to support as well as a treasure trove of old vine material. The varieties they focus on continue with that nod to the “throwback” wines of the early 1900’s, varieties like Mission, Zinfandel, French Colombard, & Petite Sirah which were heavily prevalent throughout California prior to the Chardonnay and Cabernet boom of the late 60’s and 70’s.
They source from a handful of sites but a few are standouts for being not only of high quality but being the source of a large percentage of the wines they produce.
Somers Vineyard - Lodi
18 acre plot of 80 year old Mission vines
Shergill Vineyard - Lodi
planted to mostly Zinfandel, around 90 year old plantings | also more recently the Zinfandel vines have been interplanted with a small amount of Primitivo, around 10 year old plantings
Bains Vineyard - Lodi
40 year old plantings of Petite Sirah
