Gundlach Bundschu is an old winery, not just by American standards, but truly old. Currently the owners are the sixth generation of their family to head up the winery in southern Sonoma County. Known as the Rhinefarm, a nod to their German heritage, the estate was founded in 1858. It has had its ups and downs, closing the doors to the winery in 1919 due to Prohibition, the Rhinefarm vineyards continued growing grapes selling them to other wineries like Inglenook and Louis Martini, it wasn’t until the 1973 vintage that wines labeled Gundlach Bundschu finally were made again!

But wait a second, let’s talk about the wines before we can too caught up in the great story! The Rhinefarm vineyard that surrounds the winery is 320 acres, and is planted to 10 different grape varietals. But that raises a question, how on one vineyard can you grow everything from Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer to Cab and Zinfandel? Well the answer is elevation. The Rhinefarm vineyard sits on the edge of the Mayacamas Mountains, so you have things like Pinot and Chardonnay at the bottom of the hill and the further up you get you’ll find late ripening grapes like Cab, that’s because further up the hill equates to more sunlight and overall higher temperatures throughout the growing season. And with 165 years of experience you can bet that they know which parcels are the perfect match for their grapes.

Not taking the family legacy for granted, the Bundschus are dedicated to sustainability in their vineyards, as well as quality. With California being famously sunny and dry they’ve implementing a water recycling program on the vineyard to try to capture as much as possible, as well as installing solar panels to help power most of their needs! Recently the vineyards were certified as organic vineyards, adding an extra feather into the cap of vineyards push to be more sustainable and in tune with their surroundings.

All of this said Gundlach Bundshu is making a range of wines from their great vineyards, their Pinot Noir is vibrant and bright while their cab is bold and robust. They honor the place where they get their grapes from by letting the grapes shine through. One of the through lines across their wines is they tend to be fresh and true to form. Zin taste like Zin, Chard like Chard and so on. There is little more you can ask for in a producer!

So stop in this week and try some of their delicious wines, you won’t be disappointed! And to learn more about our "plus one" this week, Veuve Ambal Cremant de Bourgogne, check out our video!