Chasse Patate Frenchtown Farms 2022 (red)

2022 Chasse Patate Frenchtown Farms

Sierra Foothills, California

Malbec

DAME WINE CLUB

DRINKER PICK

OCTOBER 2023 

Our favorite part of this industry (or I guess life, really) is meeting so many fascinating people and listening to their stories. The circuitous path that brings a group of people together to a table at a precise moment—love it. And we also love sharing stories from our friends who are winemakers, importers and distributors with you.

We feel lucky to call Simon Lowry a friend—he’s got an extraordinary palate and he expertly crafted the lists at Olympia Oyster Bar and then his program at Sardine Head before he started working with the importer and distributor Petit Monde. He usually has a fantastic line up of wines in his bag when he rolls through to taste with us, but the Chasse Patate stopped us in our tracks the moment we encountered it in our glasses. And not just because we were surprised to be so enthralled with a Malbec from California. We started asking Simon questions, and, as it turns out, he knows the winemakers Aaron and Cara Mockrish well (and has been down to the vineyards to visit and work with them).

From Simon: 

 Aaron and Cara are amazing people . . . They are both from the East Coast and ended up in California later in life. They were cannabis farmers for a while but tasted a bottle from Yuba county made by the legendary natural producer Clos Saron made by Giddeon Beinstock, the former winemaker for the Renaissance vineyard that is owned by a big cult (sidenote: Yup! A cult. Not a cult winery, a vineyard owned by a cult).

 They were both interns for a harvest at Clos Saron and immediately fell in love with the wild high elevation vineyards and landscape of this part of the Sierra Foothills and decided to set roots in the area. They built their own project farming the historic terraced old vines of the Renaissance vineyard by renting the best plots from the cult. True vigneron work, all by hand, no irrigation, organic, and all by themselves. Most of their time is spent in their vineyards with their dogs and the help they get from one intern each year. The vines they farm are still partially wild and living symbiotically with the plants, brush and forests of the area. They worked with sheep in the vineyard for a while and are planning on resuming such work shortly.

 Aaron and Cara are very driven, meticulous and hard working. They love what they do and are proud of their mission to restore and keep alive forgotten vineyards in the middle of nowhere.

 In 2021 they also started farming a vineyard close by in Grass Valley where the Malbec from Chasse Patate comes from. They were involved in the pruning, vineyard work across the year and picking. 2022 Chasse Patate is their second year making this wine. 

Their vineyards in Renaissance speak loudly with such a crazy rocky exposed area, and by contrast the vineyard for Chasse Patate is a little softer, less tannic and allows them to make a wine they farm themselves but that doesn't require aging for quite as long as what the Renaissance vineyard fruit requires.