Winemaker's Notes:

This is bar none my favorite block at Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador. The Mourvedre is perched on a steep hillside looking over all the alpine views. The wine from this site is always surprising in nature given the warmer climate (most of the offerings taste old world, which is counterintuitive). And this wine is particularly special as its my first 100% Mourvedre. 

Have you ever felt like you had a whole meal in a wine? The flavors start with the appetizer course of shitake mushroom. You feel your way through the savory mid-palate that begs for some rosemary herb-crusted beef to greet it, then you finish with a zing of raspberry coulis as a grand farewell. This wine swings through flavors like Indian Jones. It tastes different with wasabi peas (although still good!) as it does with a beef teriyaki (yes we paired it with both in one evening to much delight). It’s a shapeshifter that brings to mind the magical meal gum from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Enjoy this wine that I think of as the essence of Fall itself.

Olivia's Story:

Olivia Brion’s hit as she approached the Grand Duc was as fatal as it was exacting. She caught another spy on her tail as she made it down the rue Pigalle in the summer of 1914. Slipping down an alley into the shadows she approached the German sympathizer with the end of her sniper rifle.

Temporarily unencumbered, Olivia walked into her meeting with Eugene Jacques Bullard at The Duc with her information regarding the approaching troops. Their embrace quick but fierce, she slid the paper with the location of the German forces over to her dear friend. The resistance would use this for their early victory in September.

Her Vie d'Espionnage in WW1 would go on to inspire the multiple female led spy networks in WW2 including the eponymous work of Virginia Hall.

The Inspiration:

Virginia Hall was brought to my attention from the phenomenal book "A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II" by Sonia Purnell. I wanted Olivia's story to be contempory to her life, so I placed her in World War I Paris, meeting with Eugene Jacques Bullard, the first Black fighter pilot and also a interesting figure in the night club and Jazz scene in Paris. His story was inspired by the book "All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard-Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy" by Tom Clavin. 

This spy story for Olivia Brion has been dancing around my head for years and I'm so excited to have finally produced one worthy of her fictional life. I highly recommend both the books on Virigina Hall and Eugene Bullard. However, unlike the back labels for other Olivia Brion wines, this lacks a main figure that inspired the story and is rather like a true chapter in Olivia Brion's novel that I may eventually have to write. 

-Kira Ballotta, Winemaker/Chief Storyteller