Winemaker's Notes:

This is very dry, Provence-inspired wine – a white wine made with red grapes. It comes from an organically farmed vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains that overlook the city of Los Gatos to the East. The ridge line is incredible steep and the mornings and nights very cool. This combined with an alpine influence gives this wine generous acidity and bright aromatics.

The juice was held on skins for one day before being racked off. The wine was fermetned and aged in a blend of stainless steel barrels and neutral French Oak.

Tasting Notes:

Ripe white peach greets the nose, followed by a soft rose petal, fresh watermelon and a bit of strawberry jam. Incredibly fun and refreshing wine for summer and stays bright and engaging down to the last sip in your glass.

This wine is perfect for Spring, Summer, grilling, porch drinking, sail boating - it will fit in every occasion with sunshine.

I poured this wine for one of my favorite restaurants in Napa, Zuzu, and they took it for their list on the spot. Enjoy it with lobster paella at Zuzu or with your own iteration at home.

Vineyard:

The vineyard sits on a steep grade high up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Pinot Noir red wine from this site delighs the senses with righness and a delicate floral aromas. The Rosé version delivers that balance between richness and delicacy with the same gusto.

Olivia's Story:

Eliza Thurrold (1860-1935) was widowed by her ship captain husband in 1897, left alone in San Francisco to care for her five children. She inherited a 44 foot tugboat named “Marion and Ethel”. Determined to support her family, she applied for a Ship Master’s license stating, “My circumstances compel me to become the master of my own boat.” She became the first female ship captain in 1897, sailing the tug until 1900 when she had the good fortune to sell it for a handsome sum to Olivia Brion. Olivia was delighted to help finance the Thurrold family’s new enterprise, a candy shop, and exuberant that she had a vessel she could sail under the building of the famed Golden Gate Bridge.

The Inspiration: Eliza Thurrold

Mrs. Eliza Thorrold has the distinciton of being the first female master of a steam vessel on the Pacific Coast, and probably in the United States.”

“At the time of exam, Thorrold has been widowed four years.

Her husband Charles dies of blood poisoning in 1893 while trying to spank their daughter on the occasion of her twelfth birthday, he runs a crochet needle into his hand, an 1897 aricle in the San Francisco Call reports.

In addition to shouldering the task of raising five children alone, upon his death Eliza Thorrold becomes the owner of a 44-foot steam tug named Ethel and Marion.

Thorrold operates the tugboat but, despite her maritime experience, is required to pay a licensed master to be onboard since she lacks the license. She tells the Call:

“My circumstances compel me to become the master of my own boat. What l am unnecessarily obliged to pay for a master for the boat would support the entire family. Four years on the bay has made me familiar with the practical handling of the boat, and all I want is a license to do what lam competent to do. I’ know that this kind of occupation is not regarded as that for which woman is most fitted, but I have no choice.”

Asked by the Call if she has mastered the vocabulary tugboat masters use when addressing their crew, Thorrold says she “can make them know what I want, but I don’t think it will be necessary to make use of much violent language to get them to obey my orders.”

On August 27,1897, Eliza Thorrold is granted her master’s license and operates the Ethel and Marion until 1900, when she sells the tugboat.

From 1915 until her death in 1935, Eliza and her son own and operate a candy and ice cream store.”

-California Library Aricle

As an aside - the Golden Gate Bridge began construciton in 1933 and was opned in 1937.