Polemonium Wines
Get the Dirt from owner/winemaker Taylor Harris
“You work all year tending your current wines, studying them as they evolve, learning to understand them. You prepare for the next vintage by getting everything in order for the task. And then harvest comes and the effort is all there! You only get one shot per year to get it right. And when you do, if the conditions allow and your team has had their heart in it… the wines can be sublime. ”
Who is your winemaker? I (Taylor Harris) and Ryan Rech are the owners. We both make the wines with equal weight to the process. Every style decision from pick date, barrel model, fermentation temp, blend decision and even the tasting notes must be mutually agreed upon by both partners. The sum of both our unique individual skillsets and experience makes for a more refined end product than either one on its own. It’s quite an interesting process!
What was your first vintage year? 2023 was the first vintage for Polemonium Wines. Prior to that, we spent two years at Beringer, where I was the head winemaker, working together to bring greater focus to the Napa and Knights Valley’s regions respectively and refining the styles and expression of the portfolio overall.
Ryan worked with Beringer Vineyards for (7) years while I worked previous to Beringer with Jean Hoefliger first at Alpha Omega Winery, and then as a co-founder and the G.M. of the Jean Hoefliger Consulting operation.
How many cases do you make per vintage? Total 2023 vintage: ~980 cases. In 2023 we produced two wines, a 2023 single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc from Busch Creek in Potter Valley, Mendocino (730 cases), and a 2023 direct-to-press Napa-Carneros Rosé of Pinot Noir (250 cases).
Do you have a Tasting Room? We do NOT have a tasting room, but we do sell DTC through our website, www.polemoniumwines.com. On the website, folks can also see a calendar of events where people can find us and meet us (such as the Garagiste Festival!) and soon, a list of our restaurant and shop partners where people will be able to try the wines.
What wine made you want to become a winemaker/start your own winery?
For Ryan: “Chardonnay. I have so much love for this grape. It’s really is the winemaker’s grape. You can make acidic, sparkling champagne to rich, chewy Montrachets. It really highlights a winemaker’s ability with its range. You cannot just use a formula; you have to think about it every single vintage. It seems to me as one of those grapes that can be most affected by vintage. The acid, the sugars, the phenolic balance, it’s so affected every year by the season and even more so in good years! Cab, comparatively, you can just lean on the extraction. Chard, you’ve really got to use acid, your degree of malolactic fermentation, and the oak to balance out every vintage and add those layers of complexity.”
For Taylor: “Of the grapes, in the vineyard this is Malbec because nothing beats eating mouthfuls of those delicious juicy eyeball sized grapes when tasting during harvest- I look forward to this all year!! Of the fermentations, this is Sauvignon Blanc. I have so many good memories of the awesome aromas and florals and foaming barrels in September while the jasmine is blooming and everyone is so stoked for the reds to start. Favorite wine to work with overall though are the big BDX reds. Honestly, nothing beats blending season and watching your vintage evolve and mature as you work to layer each independently made lot into its final whole self.”
For both us – We wanted to start this new project because we have similar life philosophies on health, fitness, and the role of the outdoors and the sense of adventure it brings. We also have similar views to making the highest quality wines with respect to the grape and terroir. And most importantly- we wanted to start this venture because we believe that those small independent wineries are the lifeblood of the industry. Independent operations where you really get those interesting, individual expressions of brands and of the wines that you can’t achieve as freely with large, commercial ventures. It’s also a lot more fun! We get to engage with people in more genuine ways doing things on our own and this really brings it all home and makes the venture worthwhile
What varietals do you work with?
Currently – we are working with Sauvignon Blanc because it’s a varietal we both love for different reasons. Ryan loves a white BDX blend of SB and Semillon and I love working with the wine in the cellar and the range of stylistic expression offered by this varietal. We’re also working with a Pinot Noir in the form of a rosé because this is a wine we both love to drink and because we think a rosé can be just as serious a terroir-driven wine as can any regional Cabernet Sauvignon.
Speaking of Cab, we’ve both worked on many, many Cabernet Sauvignons from some of the best vineyards in the country that regularly score 98’s, 99’s and 100s from top critics. We’ll for sure be back on the Cab game in a season or two with Polemonium.
Before we quite get back to any of the big BDX reds though, we’re looking forward to a potential foray during the next vintage into Grenache or Pinot Noir (still, red version). A GSM would be quite fun to make as well!
What vineyards do you source from?
We like to work with skilled growers we already have good relationships with or with ones where there is potential for a good relationship.
Currently, we source our single-vineyard Potter Valley Sauvignon Blanc from the Pauli family whom Ryan has worked with for many years. This relationship allowed us a very specific vineyard selection for our wine and one that we think directly added to the wine’s incredible reception.
The Pinot Noir was sourced from what was previously a single-vineyard program for still red wines by another Napa Valley brand, but we were able to acquire them to make such a focused rosé because Taylor and Doug Hill of Oak Knoll farming have been working together since 2017.
Ultimately, the grapes we choose are ones that we think are best-suited to their region. We would certainly make a Zinfandel out of Calistoga, but never a Riesling. After selecting our grape x region, we spend quite a bit of time feeling out what kind of style would be best suited to maximize the uniqueness of that combination and we adjust our winemaking accordingly.
What type of oak treatment do you use?
Depends. This is such a loaded question! We could write pages on the nuance of oak treatment!
For the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, we originally intended no oak at all. Only steel for focus and laser-crispness. However, after tasting the grapes in the vineyard and realizing how much complexity they had we knew we had to match that complexity in the cellar. So instead of 100% stainless steel, we made 3 lots. We fermented in steel, neutral French oak barrels and [2] brand new French oak Doreau and Marques barrels. We later blended all lots together prior to cold stabilizing. This use of oak dramatically increased the power and focus of the wine and also added a layer of structure that supported the fruit without overpowering it.
For the 2023 Rosé, we fermented 100% in steel and then aged the lot in neutral, French oak barrels. The touch of oak tannin helps to stabilize the delicate color of the wine and adds some finesse to the wines’ acidity.
What do you love about your winemaking region? What makes it different special?
We’ve both worked with many regions, mostly in California but also Australia, New Zealand, Texas… each region really does it have own special attributes. A couple key areas that stand out to us are:
Napa, obviously! The power and nuance of Napa is not un-known. Over 200 soil types?? We’ve got fog and sun and microclimates and dry-farming and mountains and plains… there’s so many cool pockets to choose from, Napa really is a kick-ass place to make wine
Knights Valley- Ryan has quite a bit of experience here and his winemaking style is well-suited to its subtleties. I still doesn’t quite understand it’s understated elegance but this valley is truly all its own.
Mendocino is the newest region to both of us. We’re curious about the climate and how our familiar varietals are interpreted by this terroir. This is an area we look forward to doing more work with over time to see what it has to offer!
What’s the story behind your winery name / label?
Our namesake, the Polemonium is a dual one. Named after the 14,000+ ft. Polemonium Peak in the Eastern Sierras and the Polomonium eximium, considered one of the finest wildflowers offered by the mountains and itself only growing above 12,000 ft., we named our brand after these great symbols of our land for what they represent to us.
We hunt, fish and forage, we mountaineer, we ski / snowboard, we climb… for us the mountains offer not only resources but freedom and challenge. It’s no small feat to get into the Sierra backcountry. And after hiking and climbing for countless hours, just as you are about to crest a ridge at 13,000 ft. you smell something like jasmine or gardenia or… a Polemonium flower! Perfect little blue or white puffballs of flowers joyfully greeting your sweaty self, they’re such a delightful find.
Winemaking is not dissimilar. You work all year tending your current wines, studying them as they evolve, learning to understand them. You prepare for the next vintage by getting everything in order for the task. And then harvest comes and the effort is all there! You only get one shot per year to get it right. And when you do, if the conditions allow and your team has had their heart in it… the wines can be sublime.
This is the crossover. The effort to climb the mountain to find the reward of the flower and its fragrance is like the effort of preparing for the season and being able to see those efforts pay off in the quality of a wine fit for sharing!
What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about the wine business before you started your own winery?
Luckily, we are in the enviable position of being two people with complementary experiences in the wine industry where we do feel confident to navigate the landscape and be flexible in our decisions. We went into the starting of this brand knowing what the risks could be and yet, hopeful of the rewards.
If there was one thing we’d like to know more / be better at… it’s probably cold-calling! Sales is a chapter neither one of us extensive experience in (yet) and we are learning as we go, but that is one thing having experience or knowledge of beforehand would have been nice.
Most importantly, what's so great about being small? What can you do as a small winemaker, that wouldn't be possible for larger wineries?
Being small is awesome. You can work with all branches of your project and be able to make decisions on the fly as the situation demands.
Being small also allows a level of dynamism and flexibility that a large entity would struggle to be if not totally impossible for them. We can change our sourcing, our sales plan, our social media … any time, any which way as we need to
Most importantly though, we love being able to meet directly with customers and buyers face-to-face, know our cellar masters and vineyard managers by name. This cannot be overstated, the people are what make a brand what it is and you just can’t have that kind of soul with a big, faceless entity.
How do you view the future in the wine industry for small-lot winemakers?
With all the doom and gloom pervading our industry news networks lately- we view the future with fierce positivity! Wine has existed for centuries and is one of those human experiences that brings people together. The youth don’t care about wine… mostly because we haven’t figured out as an industry how to connect with them yet and so they don’t know about wine.
Meet a young person as a winemaker and start talking to them about what exactly is in their glass? 8/10 they’re going to be almost as excited as the winemaker by the end of the conversation. In this digital age, people are also deeply craving the authentic. Independent, small-lot winemakers are exactly what they want, they just don’t know it yet and we need to find better ways to tell them!
If you could choose another wine region to work in what would it be?
Ryan: South Africa. The adventure that IS Africa. It is a historic region that is still emerging from a quality-perspective
Taylor: the fact that England is making sparkling right now blows my mind and I’d rather like to get in on that if ever given the chance.
For more information about Polemonium Wines, please visit their website or follow them on Instagram.