This week's pick is La Onda’s Aguafiestas. La Onda is a small outfit out of the Sierra Hills in California run by winemaker Dani Rozman. Typically this newsletter addresses the wine towards the end after a brief vignette of the winemaker. We will get to La Onda and Dani, momentarily, but let’s address the wine with minimal delay.

While deliciousness is in the eye of the beholder, we can talk about Aguafiestas in objective terms. And seeing as it’s a “California cab” a style that many are familiar with, it might be helpful to run a little comparison. Let’s start this comparison by googling California Cab. The search will return adjectives like black cherry, licorice, black pepper, vanilla, full bodied, etc. All good things, but decidedly different than what comes out of the La Onda cellars.

Let’s break down a few of these differences. First, appearance - Aguafiestas is ruby in color, lighter than its more purple cousins. In the glass it opens up and you get hit with the smell of apples and ocean. Those aromas make their way into the way the wine tastes but broaden to hint at cranberries, jolly ranchers, and mulling spice. The wine is light to medium bodied and low tannins. Aside from the mulling spice, Aguafiestas strikes a strong contrast to what many think of when they think of California Cab. Again, deliciousness depends on the person but if you have a perception of Cali wines being big bold bruisers, it might be fun to give Aguafiestas a try and see a different expression of a very popular grape varietal. Now onto Dani.

One has to admire Dani Rozman. Dani has 4 acres(!) in the Sierra Foothills. While he does source some of his grapes from growers he knows, he is mainly producing his wines from the vines he tends. In the vineyard the work is done by hand, without the use of industrial equipment, chemicals, or irrigation. He also practices a unique way of harvesting, instead of taking all the grapes off the vine at once, Dani and team make multiple passes through the vines harvesting grapes and varying levels of ripeness. These grapes are then foot-stomped, pressed, and fed via gravity into the cellar to ferment and age until ready. These practices are not necessarily very different from many natural winemakers but what sets Dani apart is that as soon as things finish up in California, he heads to the Southern Hemisphere (Specifically the Itata region of Chile) and runs the whole process back. Dani is part of a small but growing contingent of South American producers that are implementing natural wine practices. His South American wines are made under the Onda Brava and A Los Viñateros Bravos brand and there’s much more to say here, but that will have to wait for now.

Winemaker/Estate: Dani Rozman/ La Onda 

Label: Aquafiestas

Country/Region: Sierra Hills, California 

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 

Making of: Grapes are picked at various points throughout the harvest season, by hand, foot stomped, gravity fed to cellar, aged in oak, no fining/filtration

Notes:  apples, salinity, red fruit, mulling spice

Food: Barbecue, Mexican, grilled seafood

All of the La Onda wines also have immense aging potential, so if you are looking for some wines to hold onto these would be great for it!