Madroña Vineyards Blog

So many years ago back in the early 1990's, Hugh Chappelle was the winemaker here at Madroña (and I was just a wee whippersnapper). Some of you (and you'll be dating yourselves) still remember our 1990 Claret, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. This wine was a bit of an introduction into how well our mountain-grown Bordeaux varieties worked together. Structured and bold with layers of complexity, the wine had an immediate following of lovers.

When Hugh started here in 1993, he too noticed how well these wines married together. But he also felt the blend would benefit...

Well, a week ago, we were experiencing temperatures in the 60's and now there's a foot of snow on the ground. It's beautiful watching the snow fall gracefully to ground (and I wonder how many of the other wine regions in California experience anything like this!). Truly, though, we've been waiting for this type of weather for the entire winter. Our winter has been very warm, much warmer than we wanted or ever expected.

So, as a farmer, where does this put us right now. Well, the vines are thinking it's the beginning of spring as they have been for the last few weeks. (See the Views from the...

Seldom do small family wineries do things just for the "hell of it". (Excuse my salty language there.) Actually, I take that back. Big business seldom does things just for the "heck of it". There are focus groups, consumer trials, test audiences, political surveys, and soft releases to dip the proverbial toe into the scary world of new products.

Yep, as a small business, we don't do any of that. Instead, we make what we like and then hope others like it too! And thus the start to the story of Madroña's Pinot Noir. (Full transparency, it should be called "Maggie's Pinot", but we'll get to...

Sometimes, being a small winery has its benefits. The experience tasters at the winery have can be more intimate, most often talking to the winemaker or the grapegrower (or both). But sometimes, when it comes to issues like new potential regulations or laws that just don't make sense for small producers, it's hard to be heard.

This is where Family Winemakers of California comes in. This organization (also know as FWC or just "The Family") is a grouping of wineries all wanting to have a voice at the state government level. FWC started back in 1990 with a set of wineries interested in making a...

Ah, 2025. Now that it's done, we can talk about it without it being offended. What an interesting year it has been, and I'll add that it has had its share of challenges too (at least for small business).

But let's start on the positive, shall we? First of all, for those of us who harvested grapes in 2025, the quality of the vintage is especially exciting. As we rack the very last of the 2025's today (first rackings), all the wines (white, red and rose) are all tasting amazing with great structure and purity of characters. That can't be said for all vintages, so I think 2025 is an exceptional...