We are so at home in our little winery on the edge of Los Angeles. Our vineyards are flourishing, North and South. I hope that you can visit us soon and see us in action.
There is so much to tell you. Let me try to be brief: in 2020, during the pandemic, I allowed Scholium to wither so that the Los River Wine Company could thrive.
We are now strong enough to support the work of both. We began slowly by making one last vintage of wine from the Guman Sylphs vineyard, three Mt. Veeder wines in 2023, and will make a total of 6 Scholium wines in 2024. We are offering them for your purchase here and now.
The Rebirth of Scholium: December 2025 Release
6 bottles, bottled in December 2025
2024 The Prince in his Caves
from the Oleta Vineyard
2024 The Land of Skree
from the Oleta Vineyard
2024 LSB+
A cofermentation
The most important thing to tell you is that the olive harvest was TINY this year. So small that the Tenbrinks could offer us no olives at all. Thank goodness olive fruitfulness moves in 2-year cycles, and we can now look forward to much more fruit next year.
For this year, I have made up for the painful shortfall by two means: we have sourced 30 gallons of last year's Tenbrink olive oil, destined for Olio Nuovo, but lost in the warehouse. It's way better than anything you can buy anywhere else in a tin, but it is not as jaw-droppingly brilliant as the Olio Nuovo. Just so that you know.
We have sourced Olio Nuovo this year from an orchard that we have been working with for a couple of years-- in the Sierra Foothills, not too far from our fantastic Oleta Vineyard. We have two single-cultivar bottlings from them, both milled at Il Fiorello-- the amazing millers of the Tenbrink olio since year 1.
43 liters is all that we could source. 43 two-bottle sets. That is it till next year.
2024 Tenbrink Extra Virgin Olive Oil-- one gallon!
In a Single Stainless Container-- old school!
2025 Napa Valley Olio Nuovo
a total of two 500 ml bottles
2025 Napa Valley Olio Nuovo-- ONE GALLON
in an old-school stainless tin
2024 HEART OF SAND BLANC
1 CASE
2024 Los Angeles River Wine Company Lopez Rosé
Lopez Ranch
2024 Los Angeles River Wine Company Heart of Sand Blanc
from the Heart of Sand vineyard
I am so happy to announce this very important step in the Rebirth of Scholium.
Several years ago, my dear friend and colleague, Julia van der Vink, started a campaign of serving blind to us Napa Cabernets from vineyards on Mt. Veeder. Gradually, I came to share her fascination with this really distinct section of Napa.
About 6 years ago, she put together a deal to purchase and plant 20 acres on the top of Mt. Veeder. It is not strong enough to call what she and her partner, Rob Black, are doing up there, breath-taking. You can join their mailing list here.
Their intimate introduction of the mountain to me opened my eyes. I did not want a vineyard of my own, but I wanted fruit-- I wanted to make wine. I was not sure how this fit with my work in the South, but I forged ahead. These wines are the result of that forging-- and they represent one of the foundations of the Rebirth of Scholium: a devotion both new and old to the classical excellence that is possible in Napa.
You may read my missives, laying out my relation to the magic of Mt. Veeder, here-- beginning with the first movement in a four-part fantasia.
12 Seats: our dedication to hospitality and discssusion at once. A series of sessions led by guests from winemaking, grape growing, geology, music… We have hosted Chiara Pepe, Pascaline Lepeltier, Nate Ready, Raj Parr, Deirdre Heekin, and Walter Sterling-- a college President who joined me in a discussion about Machiavelli. We have 10 sessions the works for the Spring and Summer of 2025. I will alert you by email as we schedule them and flesh them out.
12 Seats On the Road: Scholium/Napa/El Quijote
A tutored tasting at the Chelsea Hotel: Thursday June 19 at 7:30 PM
Will be rescheduled!
12 Seats hosts Brenna Quigley: The Primary Stratum
Date and time TBD
Will be available soon, as soon as we set the date.
12 Seats On the Road: Palomino Study
At the Chelsea Hotel: Thursday May 1 at 7:00 PM
It was a truly wonderful and joyous harvest; so many of us working together in a great space on the edge of the city. We harvested delicious fruit in perfect condition from one vineyard after another and made our best wines ever. The one point of sadness and regret: the drought continues to take its terrible toll, and we made only half the wine in 2022 that we did in 2021.
Bottling is now complete! It is so exciting, so rewarding. The wines are beautiful, improbable illuminations of the possibilities of Southern California winemaking.
We have commissioned a small run of Carrhart hoodies and snapback hats to celebrate our wines and work.
Carhartt K121 Logo Hoodie
New Era Logo Cap
