Shane Finley, winemaker and Lisa Brayton co-owner of Thirty-Seven Wines join Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. This episode of August 10, 2022 featured Lisa along with her husband Al, who is holding down the fort today. This is Shane’s first time on the show.
Thirty-Seven Wines is named after the highway. Dan describes the Thirty-Seven Wines vineyard. There are varieties there that don’t grow in warmer areas. One example of that is Albariño. They have cooler days and warmer nights, near San Pablo Bay, across the street from the Sonoma Raceway. It is at a high enough elevation to have a 180-degree view of the bay. On a clear day they can see Coit Tower in San Francisco. The vineyard lies within the Petaluma Gap AVA. They get winds from both the Petaluma Gap and from the south, off the bay. This keeps the temperatures down and controls the acid levels in all the varietals.
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Russian River vs. Petaluma Gap
Russian River wines have more of a bright juicy red character, while this vineyard produces darker blue fruit, “kind of plummy,” with tangerine skin and spicy flavors. They have a very long growing season, and their harvest goes from late August sometimes into November. Some grapes need more time on the vines. Shane names Albariño, Blau Frankisch, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Merlot, which they have all on the same property. He credits Al and Lisa for being crazy enough and intuitive enough to put so many varieties together like that.
Thirty-Seven Wines produces all their wine from their own estate grown grapes. Shane describes their approach to making wine. To keep it fresh and vibrant, they don’t do any lees stirring, they only do partial ML, mainly fermented in concrete. They use their oldest barrels, from 2010 and 2011. These barrels are “really neutral.” Dan detects a faint tropical note in the Albariño they are tasting. It gets intense morning sun but long cool afternoons. Lisa is in charge of managing the canopy to keep space between the clusters and maintain acidity.
