Founded in 2001, Porter-Bass is located nine miles from the Pacific Ocean between two ridge tops in the Russian River Valley. Owner and winemaker Luke Bass has been quietly making exceptional bottlings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel from this Biodynamically farmed vineyard for over two decades. Originally this 100-year-old vineyard was planted to Zinfandel and Palomino. Luke’s family stated replanting the vineyard to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and rehabilitating the soils in the 1980s. Soil health and regenerative farming are at the heart of Luke’s philosophy at Porter-Bass. In the cellar, all Porter-Bass wines are fermented with indigenous yeast with as little intervention as possible. No new oak is used and only a minimal amount of SO2. Luke’s wines are fresh, lively, and express where they are from as opposed to how they are made. The Porter-Bass Rosé comes from 40-year-old head trained vines on a south-east facing slope. The grapes were hand harvested and whole cluster pressed to stainless steel tank where it was fermented with native yeast. The wine was aged in stainless steel until it was bottled un-fined and unfiltered.
