the scholium project

We are on the road to , driving through a series of desert and near-desert landscapes: the Sonora Desert, and then the Colorado Plateau; then later today we will sweep from the plain older mudstone and sandstone of Arizona into the much younger and more dramatic mesas and dry river beds of western New Mexico.
We are on Interstate 40, following the old path of US Route 66. Both roads bend and curve and sweep; the geography up here does not permit long, straight, stretches.
The border between Arizona and New Mexico could not seem— on a map— less natural and more arbitrary, more human—the confluence of geometrical and political necessity. The border is one long, straight, line; meeting famously with the long, straight, borders of two other states at a perfect right angle at the Four Corners— as if to proclaim with complete clarity, and at a single glance, that the West has been divided up and tamed by the mind of men.
Yet when you drive 40 or 66 across the border, whether you are going east or west, it somehow seems perfect: the geology changes so much and so dramatically from one state to the other that the placement of this long, straight, border feels brilliant, and utterly responsive to the primeval structure of the earth.
As part of Dérive, this wonderful weekend-long wine festival, I am going to hold a little event Friday night, inspired by the one that and I put on a month ago in New York city. We are going to meet at the new wine bar and cafe, and I am going to talk a little about the topics below, and pour some wine. Each topic will be brought up just to sew the seed for further reflection and discussion:

⛰️Fence lines versus river beds; the Scythian notion of territory
⛰️the vineyard as property; the clos and the farming that suits it
⛰️the etymology of farm and farmer; working the soil
⛰️farming vertically; the tower and the city walls
We will pour 9 wines. All I will tell you right now is that only one is Champagne.
There are two tickets left.

A nearly final report on the harvest of 2023-- with an invitation - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2023_end_of_harvest_report

2023 Tenbrink Olio Nuovo!
https://scholium.securecheckout.com/product/detail/SCHO-2023-OLIO-pick1-2PAK.html

A first report on harvest 2023-- and a futures offer on the wines! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/first_report_on_harvest-2023

Pascaline Lepeltier: Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept 12 7-9 pm. At #12 seats.
: a towering & beloved figure in our little world. Her accomplishments are hard to summarize: She is one of the most distinguished sommeliers in the world, & has set a new standard for depth & subtlety of understanding about wine. She has also gracefully & effortlessly helped to erase the expectation of arcane & tiresome expertise in sommeliers; like , she has re-centered the role of the wine professional on service, not connoisseurship. But much more than that, she is the recent author of a monumental book about grape-growing & winemaking: Mille vignes: Penser le vin de demain. It is an awe-filling accomplishment.

She is also a dear friend to me, and a source of encouragement & guidance in my own winemaking. I am so excited to welcome her into our little domain tomorrow for a mini-seminar on The Virtue Of Disappearance in Wine. We both have graduate degrees in Philosophy, & for both of us, our previous studies deeply (if quietly) inform our present work. This will be the first time that we have held a public discussion at the intersection of philosophy & wine. We will serve four or five wines & 2 sakés in the course of the discussion.

Let tell you quickly about . We make wine in the city, in a building built at the same time as one of our Cucamonga vineyards, 1912. We lease 3 adjacent small spaces in the building. We have made wine there now for 2 harvests, next to our colleague & neighbor, , & together with our partner in all things Scythian, . We have always wanted to host more events, some of them tastings, some more like colloquia. This Spring, as we were planning the barrel layouts & other use of space for the upcoming harvest, I realized that we had everything that we needed right in front of us. & & I reconfigured the spaces & dedicated one of the rooms to a single stack of barrels and beautiful table, capable of seating 12.
We have hosted nine events already, this is the 10th.
6 tickets remain as I publish this. Link in bio.

Two Remarkable Tastings in August- https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/two_tastings_in_august

So excited to join the gang at tonight for a sudden and pyrotechnic tasting of our 2022 wines.
This is the first time that we have poured the newly bottled wines in public— so it’s a coming out party!
I will lead a quick tutored tasting of 6 wines at 8:30, andy from 7 to 9 and and I will be roaming and pouring.
Just drop by, or make sure that you are there at 8:30 for the tasting. No RSVP necessary.
Thank you, , for hosting!




Friday JUNE 2 7-9 PM

An update on the Cucamonga Revolution - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2023-lone-wolf-anticipation-15859309

The Los Angeles wines of the 2022 vintage are now in bottle! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2023-lone-wolf-anticipation-15848485

We prune Lone Wolf on Saturday-- an anticipation - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2023-lone-wolf-anticipation

The Annual Release of Blowout Rosé-- today! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2021_lecture_in_london-15796294

We begin bottling the 2022 wines today! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/lopez_palomino_res_release

the last tranche of 2022 olio nuovo - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/first-olive-oil-pick-15529438

We have picked our first olives-- and made 60 gallons of oil! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/first-olive-oil-pick

Raj Parr's Phelan Farm-- an introduction from the inside - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/phelan_farm

At long last-- We have a new winery! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/new_winery_on_15th

I saw this amazing truck - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/la-tasting-14178982

The Return of the Scythians - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/la-tasting-14178566 A tutored tasting and discussion on the edge of the city..

We have bottled! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/new-moon-bottling-14175498

New Moon bottling! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/new-moon-bottling

The Lone Wolf Vine Count-- a quick update! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/lone-wolf-vine-count

a quick report on three vineyards (and a dinner in Marfa!) - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/first_pruning_report

3 special wines from the 2018 vintage! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/la_cabana_tasting-14110704

It was a truly wonderful event.
Last Sunday, 13 of us gathered in a 70s clubhouse in Carpinteria.
The cause-> to taste the wines that we had made from 5 ancient LA vineyards in 2021. 23 wines from 4 wineries– 4 who had worked together all year, in devotion to these vineyards, the scattered remains of a vast & deep culture that originated in the city of Los Angeles.
We are not alone in this: it is surely a movement now, gathering bodies, energy, knowledge every day.

In 2019, & I heard about a block of Palomino somewhere in the Lopez vineyard controlled by -- but it remained hidden from us, mythical.
Early in 2020, DM'd me a photo of old vines surrounded by commercial buildings somewhere in Ontario. We tracked it down & were amazed. Not many vines, but what was there looked strong, well-pruned. Dom Galleano, who knows & sees all in this realm, put us in touch with the owner. "It's Grenache." We harvested it in the fall of 2020 & made really good red wine, called "Heart of Sand." The man in charge of the vines is Fidel Guerra. He sensed our crazy passion & said, "Want to see another vineyard?" He brought us back to Lopez, about 15 miles away. It was a corner we had never seen before.
And it had white fruit.
But it was a mess. We had just harvested the Grenache in 100 degree heat. This fruit was cooked. Nothing we could do with it. Fidel said: "It's Palomino." I texted Xtina, & told Fidel: "next year."
The call of abandoned 100-year old Mission vines had brought many of us together. On the way home from pruning in March of 2021, we stopped at the Palomino. Fidel had pruned it & it looked glorious.
9 months later, we gathered to taste the 4 wines that 4 of us had made from it, + an amazing from
& 6 wines from the Grenache
7 Lopez zin– red, white, rose
3 Galleano home
1 abandoned Gateway
& 1 .
All stirring, beautiful.
The lesson of the tasting: there is a collection of vineyards here whose power & excellence transcend the work of any one winemaker. A sign of the greatness of a region: that it depends on no one human interpreter. The place stands above.

A report on the La Cabana tasting: 23 Los Angeles wines from 4 wineries https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/la_cabana_tasting

Blowout Rosé-- a Scholium sparkling wine bursts on the scene - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2021_lecture_in_london-5977700

A Report as we Approach The Solstice-- and an End of the Year Offering - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2021_lecture_in_london-5976120

A Report as we Approach The Solstice-- and an End of the Year Offering It rained this morning, and will rain again Monday, for a couple of days. If you are not in the American West, this will not seem extraordinary to you, but for us, it is as wonderful as a White Christmas, but much more serious.

Your November Obligants shipment (and a lost one from June!) - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/the_desert-5973916

Your November Obligants shipment (and a lost one from June!) I was just reviewing the November Obligants orders, and it looks like we never shipped you your double order in September. UPS deleted our whole account with all of our historical tracking records, so I am not quite sure— but my own notes don't show it going out.

A Lecture in London-- and one more Olive Oil pressing! - https://mailchi.mp/scholiumwines.com/2021_lecture_in_london

A Lecture in London-- and one more Olive Oil pressing! Soon, I will not begin every communication with this kind of reflection. Six months ago, I had no confidence that I would ever fly very far again. I can't say exactly why, but I certainly had the sense that the world had shrunk, become constricted and restricted. I did not regret this in itself; unl...