The palm-lined road to Scribe Winery in Sonoma passes a menagerie of fauna and a bramble of flora before arriving at a century-old hacienda. The winery’s appeal, however, goes beyond the picturesque. After just seven years, owner-vintners Andrew and Adam Mariani have transformed it into an ecologically minded label with a serious following. This year, the brothers continue to craft their story with three carefully cultivated new vintages.
Scribe’s first undertaking for 2014 is the broad-market release of its rosé, which debuted as a limited release last year. Made in the fresh, restrained style of Bandol, the rosé is all estate-grown Pinot Noir. “It has great acidity and freshness,” says Andrew, “and it is always bone dry, very much like Provence rosés.”
In February, Scribe also released a Cabernet blend from grapes grown on a steep, rocky vineyard at Napa’s Atlas Peak. “This year, we are releasing a special Cabernet blend only for the Scribe Viticultural Society,” says Andrew, referring to the winery’s VIP subscriber group. “For the first time, we’re making a blend that has Cab and Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot.”
A new edition of Scribe’s skin-fermented chardonnay is also in the works (due to release this month), this time made in concrete egg-shaped fermenters, the de rigueur tank of innovative winemakers.
“The 2010 was the first vintage of the skin-ferment,” says Andrew. “It turned out well, but we tweak it every year. The 2013 was skin-fermented in concrete, and I’m really excited about the results we’ve gotten.”
The brothers will also celebrate the new vintages with a series of intimate wine-cellar dinners featuring guest chefs including Carlo Mirarchi of New York’s Roberta’s and Nick Balla of Bar Tartine. And, not to be upstaged, the vintage hacienda will also enjoy the status of new release: It will undergo renovation for the first time in 30 years to become the Marianis’s latest inscription on the landscape.