"These 2023s from Cody and Emily Rasmussen show how captivating this vintage is in the right hands. The whites are translucent, vibrant and wonderfully expressive of place. There is a feeling of completeness in these wines that is palpable. The two reds I tasted are just as compelling, if not more so... Readers who have not checked out these wines owe it to themselves to do so." - Antonio Galloni, January 2025
See the curve in that river's bend
I look at you and I see my friend
One hundred miles an hour in the fast lane
One hundred miles an hour till the end
-Caamp, “Vagabond”
This release is a tale of two stories: the first, of the miraculous 2023 vintage—a year that is rightfully being hailed as a once-in-a-generation growing season. The conditions were simply perfect, when all factors of weather and climate came together, in conjunction with excellent farming, to grow pristine fruit. The Rieslings are positively numinous. The Syrahs are nimble, intense, even sublime.
The second is the story of Desire Lines Rosés, which have become what we fondly call our “Educational Series” wines, made with significant contributions from Caleb and Drew. Caleb asked to make his own wine in 2023, and we were thrilled to say yes. We told him he could choose the vineyard, so long as he was willing to help pick the grapes, say thank you to everyone, and help out at the winery too. To our delight he choose Sky Vineyard, and to our eternal wonder they had a small block of Grenache they were willing to sell. Picking those grapes with him, Maya, and Lore is and always will be one of my most treasured memories, and we were beyond thrilled to repeat the experience with harvest 2024 and make another tiny-production Grenache Rosé from what is now known up at Sky as “Caleb’s Block.”
For 2024, we got to expand the Educational Series concept with the opportunity for the boys to make a rosé from another vineyard, reinforcing that wines taste different first and foremost because they come from different places. That idea is, after all, the guiding light of Desire Lines: wines that speak of a place, and a time, and a farmer, from some of California’s most iconic vineyard sites. Ann Kraemer’s Shake Ridge Ranch was an easy choice – it’s a remarkable and singular vineyard, we adore Ann and her family, and it’s one of our greatest joys visiting the ranch and driving around in the RTV with our boys. Ann was sweet enough to send along a separate contract for Caleb’s block of Mourvèdre so that he could practice writing his name, and even put his name on the tags on the ends of the vine rows.
We have had the honor of working with Shake Ridge Ranch since 2016, when we were introduced to Ann Kraemer by Hardy Wallace at Extradimensional Wine Co YEAH! From our first visit to the property just outside Sutter Creek, we were goners. Pristine organic farming; rich, complex geology that hearkens back to the Gold Rush days; and the care and passion with which Ann and her family and crew tend to the vines.
Our friend Matt Nelsen joined us on the Saturday last fall when we drove up to Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador for the early-morning pick of Mourvèdre for rosé. Matt captured some lovely footage and made a great video, which we’d love for you to watch here. (In case you missed it, his video of the 2022 Sky Syrah harvest is linked here). It’s an indescribable treasure to have those peaceful-yet-chaotic harvest mornings captured on camera even as the boys look so much bigger and older just six months later.
The 2023 vintage in Northern California has been auspiciously hailed as a once-in-a-generation growing season. The stunning beauty of the 2023 wines resulted from an exceptionally wet winter that re-charged drought-stressed vines, and an unusually cold growing season that kept acids high with plenty of hang-time on the vine for flavors to ripen and concentrate, at pace with physiological development of the grapes and their phenolic compounds.
The vintage 2023 water year started out propitiously, with a parade of storms in late December and early January ushering in one of the coldest and wettest winters on record. In total, the West Coast saw an astounding 31 atmospheric rivers from October 2022 through the end of March 2023, according to the Scripps Institute. Summer featured a persistent troughing pattern, which typically gives the Bay Area a deeper marine layer and more onshore flow from the cool waters of the nearby Pacific, which made for an unusually cool and temperate summer. Typically our vintages are defined in part by how we as winemakers navigate the inevitable warm temperatures brought by high pressure ridges and heat domes, but in 2023, none materialized. June and July were historically cool, followed by a cool August, and a cool September… well, you get the picture. For many of our vineyards, harvest was three to six weeks later than average (depending on how you define “average” these days).
These conditions came together to make the 2023s simply remarkable – deep colors, beautiful flavors, vibrant acidities, silky tannins, and unparalleled balance. And why the vintage has been described by so many as the finest in living memory. The wines are drinking so well right now and they’re going to drink beautifully well into the future, which is why we’ve held back so much extra for ourselves. And why we’re recommend these as “can’t miss, go deep” Desire Lines wines. It’s a vintage I expect to see very rarely in my lifetime.
2024 Sky Vineyards Grenache Rosé, Mt. Veeder
While the review for our 2024 Sky Vineyards Grenache Rosé isn’t yet released, Antonio Galloni spoke glowingly of our 2023, calling it “superb, effusive and aromatic… a rosé with real depth, complexity, and structure to match.” We shared a precious bottle with family over Christmas and were thrilled with how beautifully (and slowly) the wine is aging.
The 2024 is a touch more concentrated than the 2023, effusively charming with a magnetic draw. White flowers, raspberry, orange citrus, and a bit of mountain garrigue (Yerba santa and California bay laurel) soar from the glass. The fruit intensity is practically palate-staining, a product of young vines watered minimally on a steep and rocky slope, with refreshing acidity and subtle phenolics creating a sense of tension and poise.
2024 Shake Ridge Ranch Mourvèdre Rosé, Sierra Foothills
Our 2024 Shake Ridge Ranch Mourvèdre Rosé comes from the upper portion of I-Block, which is a steep block planted with a west-facing orientation such that the vines catch the light of the setting sun, before the sun dips below the Coast Range. The view from the top is gorgeous, and the view is well-earned by the time you’ve hiked there. It’s a wonderful block for Mourvèdre, yielding absolutely tiny clusters with fruit that is snappy, succulent, and ultra flavorful. It’s exactly the sort of fruit that defies any convention that rosé be made from fruit that is less serious, cheaper, or less propitiously situated than for red wines.
The nose is a bit subdued on pop and pour, so give this a healthy swirl in your glass, or even a decant. This wine has the stuffing to drink beautifully at Thanksgiving this year, and beyond. Aromatically, the nose is beautifully delineated and finally nuanced, opening slowly to reveal layers of red fruits, orange candies, peach, and succulent herbal notes. The palate is fresh and powerful, laced with minerality and succulent red fruits, like biting into a nectarine at the height of summer.
2023 Wiley Vineyard Riesling, Anderson Valley
Our 2023 Wiley Vineyard Riesling was picked on October 19, over three weeks later than recent historical average. The vintage was absolutely dreamy for Riesling, with a long and drawn-out ripening cycle that kept sugars low and acids high while flavors ripened to intense levels. The wine is pure and crystalline, with a subtle salty concentration on the palate. The nose soars and leaps, pixelated in its intensity, with lemon citrus, beguiling florals, resinous herbs, and a slight brackishness on the nose. In other words, it tastes just as it should – like Riesling from a cold, maritime vineyard at the edge of ripening in the Deep End of Anderson Valley. Our 2023 Wiley Vineyard Riesling rings as clear as a bell, and shines as brilliantly as the setting sun over the ocean.
Wiley Vineyard was one of the first vineyards to be planted in Anderson Valley following the repeal of Prohibition, with a block of Riesling planted on its own roots in 1976 in the Deep End of Anderson Valley. The vines are perched on a ridgeline high above Highway 128 with a gently south-facing exposition, encircled by redwood and Douglas fir trees, with a beautiful view all the way back down Anderson Valley and to the top of Signal Ridge to the south.
Wiley Vineyard is colder than Cole Ranch with a prominent marine influence from the nearby Pacific Ocean, giving a wine that’s relatively more taught and laser-focused. Sometimes it’s sunny, but as often as not the marine layer sits thick on the vineyard, especially in the morning or late afternoon in the summer. The moderating influence of the nearby Pacific Ocean, which is less than 10 miles away, keeps temperatures in a narrow band at Wiley Vineyard: rarely below 40F or above 80F. By contrast, Cole Ranch is both colder (in the winter and at night) and warmer (during the day), which helps to explain the distinct personalities of our two old-vine Mendocino Riesling vineyards.
As with the 2022, we’ve chosen a reductive fermentation and élevage for our Wiley Vineyard Riesling (inspired by the wines and winemaking practices of Shafer-Frolich in Germany’s Nahe Valley, whose wines I deeply admire). Wiley tends to push reductive during fermentation, more so than Cole Ranch, developing flinty aromas and a steely tension that tempers the floral, citrus zesty effusiveness the wine otherwise flaunts. The more reductive élevage in stainless steel barrels leans into that tendency, rather than trying to fight it, retaining all the nuance and precision that the wine so naturally expresses.
2023 Shake Ridge Syrah, Sierra Foothills AVA
Shake Ridge Ranch was first planted in 2003 under the careful eye of Ann Kraemer. Ann worked for many years as a vineyard manager and consulting viticulturalist for Domaine Chandon, Swanson, Cain, Calera, Hobbs, and Shaefer, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The first pick Ann ran for Walsh Vineyard Management in Napa was for the great André Tchelistcheff. As Ann tells the story, André came running out into the vineyard midway through the pick, demanding to know where all the botrytised clusters had gone. Come to find out, he’d been patiently waiting for the botrytis to develop to the perfect level in the Sauvignon Blanc, but nobody had told Ann: she was diligently sorting out those clusters for fear of rot in the finished wine.
We could go into exhausting detail on the remarkable soils of Shake Ridge, the history of the property, and the decades of scientifically minded grape-growing in the Sierra Foothills. But ultimately, the heart of Shake Ridge that transcends into powerful, graceful, lovely wines stems from the people who grow the grapes and who have welcomed us into their lives. Ann’s attention to detail and expansive farming knowledge are met only by her unrivaled hospitality and graciousness—it’s an honor to work with her every year and throw sticks for her dog Lucy to fetch on repeat between our rows of Syrah.
Our 2023 Shake Ridge Ranch Syrah is flat-out gorgeous – powerful and intense on the palate, with a supple generosity, and thunderously aromatic. Black cherry, white pepper, a hint of tangerine, floral accents, cocoa, and cedar all sing from the glass. Wines from the Sierra Foothills can be remarkably fragrant at their best, and this wine has perfume in spades. As with recent vintages, this wine comes entirely from my favorite clone of Syrah (Syrah Noir, a California heritage clone introduced in 1937) from my favorite Syrah block at Shake Ridge (B-Block Upper). The wine was fermented with 50% whole cluster and 5% Viognier and raised in 33% new French oak for fifteen months without racking. This wine, with a lengthy decant, would make a fun side-by-side with our 2018 or 2019 Syrah from Shake Ridge, which are both drinking beautifully right now.
2023 Winds of Change Syrah, California
One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite wine retailers is “We’ll keep this short…” (courtesy of the great Crush Wine & Spirits in NYC.) The implication being that a lengthy sales pitch for the wine in question is so obviously unnecessary, so why bother rambling on?
If you’ve opened and enjoyed any of our previous Winds of Change wines, we hope that spirit rings true here. Consistently our spectacular value, “back the truck up” wine, our Winds of Change Syrah reaches new heights in 2023 courtesy of a majestic vintage, careful fruit sourcing and blending, and a reckless disregard for the bottom line born of a conviction that we should all drink great Syrah more regularly. This is perhaps the most mission-driven wine that we make; made (and priced!) with the intention of turning wine lovers everywhere into ardent Syrah lovers. I adore Syrah, and I think it’s a fabulous grape for California across much of state, evidenced by the fact that we launched Desire Lines in the first place to make Syrah (from Griffin’s Lair and Eaglepoint Ranch, and later Shake Ridge Ranch).
We’ve been absolutely thrilled to see what folks have been saying about previous vintages of Winds of Change on CellarTracker: