2017
SUTRO
Cabernet Sauvignon
Warnecke Ranch
Featured on October 24, 2020
Where: Warnecke Ranch, Sonoma County
Who: Alice Sutro is an interdisciplinary winemaker, artist, and mother. A renaissance woman in the truest sense, she previously ran the Chalk Hill Residency program on Warnecke Ranch, the same property where she was raised and now lives and works. Now, she hosts regular online “SUTRO Social” events in conversation with fellow wine industry creatives.
Says Alice:
“After I finished my art degree I came to live here and find out about and contribute to my family grape growing business. With that personal commitment, I set out to make a life in the wine industry that integrates art. No one in my family had ever made vineyard designate wines from our volcanic terroir along the Russian River, in the Mayacama foothills, so I took that on as an extension of my creative life.”
| How: “The main driver for the winemaking process with SUTRO is minimal inputs to preserve the sense of place. This year I’m transitioning to native ferments and the lowest possible SO2 additions and nothing else. It’s the only way to let wine do what it does best: be a scribe for the combination of environmental influences that give each site and vintage a unique thumbprint.” |
On making tasting notes available in both English and Spanish:
“Recently I started making the transition from my lifelong thinking of “I see people not color” and “I’m not racist” to actively supporting anti-racism. Making my tasting notes available in Spanish is a teeny part of steering my brand in the same direction that the wine industry is finally going towards thanks to the many activists who care about wine and it’s people: inclusivity and diversity.
I asked a friend to translate for me because I don’t speak Spanish and really need to learn. In particular, they are for the team that works the vineyard at Warnecke Ranch, so that when they try my wine, the wine that they help produce, they can have access to the same information that I provide my costumers to inform their appreciation of the wine. It’s meant to be the start of a dialogue, we’ll see where it goes. “