Napa's Ownroot Collective showcases undiscovered micro-wineries
By Tim Carl
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — Napa’s Ownroot Collective is redefining the way wine enthusiasts access and explore some of the region's rarest wines, bringing lesser-known varietals and small-batch creations to the forefront of California’s wine scene.
Founded by Terra Jane Albee in 2020, the Ownroot Collective offers its subscribers an opportunity to access passion-project wines from the region’s most renowned winemakers’ productions that are often measured not in how many cases were produced but by how many individual bottles were made. While some of these creations may lack the broad market appeal of mainstream choices such as high-alcohol cabernet sauvignon or oaky, buttery chardonnay, that's exactly the point. The platform aims to embrace the uncharted territories of winemaking, fostering a culture of experimentation and appreciation for the unconventional.
Ownroot
The name "ownroot" refers to the nature and challenges of modern-day winemaking. Because a grapevine's own root system is often susceptible to various threats — disease, pests and changing climate conditions — the vast majority of grapevines grown today require a disease-resistant rootstock to thrive. However, in certain exceptionally rare vineyards the soils and conditions are conducive for a grapevine to thrive without such rootstock.
Ownroot Collective is an online wine subscription service on a mission to elevate the best undiscovered micro-wineries in California. What sets the platform apart is that the wines are made by winemakers who often have day jobs elsewhere in the industry.
Albee, who has a background in wine marketing, wine clubs and direct-to-consumer sales, said she had grown tired of seeing talented independent winemakers go unnoticed. When the pandemic hit, she was contemplating her next career move when friends introduced her to their newly released wine.
"That's when I decided I had to do something," Albee said. "I had to help these winemakers and give people access to these wonderful wines."
For years Albee had been working with more established wine brands, helping them spread the word and building their DTC businesses, but she had never fully realized the unmet needs of the smallest producers. She knew these emerging brands couldn't afford to hire her as a consultant, but she thought wine drinkers might appreciate a subscription-based service that would give them inside access.
Soon thereafter she launched Ownroot to promote tiny wine brands and the unknown winemakers behind the labels. She compiled a list of two dozen winemakers who had a winemaking project on the side, then built a digital wine club membership with a monthly fee of $8.95 and no minimum wine purchase requirement. A free subscription is available but does not include some perks, such as a shipping discount.
Today Ownroot features in-depth stories of select winemakers twice a month, with a single wine highlighted from each. Every wine on the Ownroot site has been vetted and approved by a panel of three sommeliers and must meet Albee's four requirements: that it be refreshing, balanced, interesting and offer good value for its price.
Since launching, Albee has featured many dozens of winemakers from regions throughout California, including Sonoma County, Napa Valley, Mendocino County, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County. She said she has never had a problem finding new winemakers to feature as every winemaker knows at least three others making their own wine.
"I've been thrilled with the response," Albee said. "It has really taken off. We are building a community that values learning about and supporting these small brands while at the same time getting a chance to connect and enjoy delicious wines that are beyond rare."
Proxy Wines is one such brand in the Ownroot Collective.
"Working in the Napa Valley wine industry is like playing for the philharmonic — serious, intense and precise, but sometimes you just want to play the fiddle with some friends," said Molly Lippitt, owner of Proxy Wines.
Lippitt explained that after making wine for 15 years with California's most renowned and celebrated winemakers, including Heidi Barrett, Philippe Melka, Julien Fayard and Mike Hirby and working as a consulting winemaker for well-known brands such as Volker Eisele Family Estate, she felt an urge to grow and nurture something that was her own. Thus, Proxy Wines was born.
Growing up in the area — her father was the operations manager at Sebastiani and her mother was a nurse — she always found the process of winemaking fascinating, both from a scientific point of view and as an artistic expression. She appreciated how wine could transform into something greater than the sum of its parts.
Early in her career, while working with Barrett, that sentiment resonated deeply.
“During blending sessions with Heidi she always emphasized that one plus one could often equal four, and that idea has always stuck with me,” Lippitt said. “There is just something magical about making wine and seeing this entirely new expression of nature and what are essentially natural processes.”
Another member of the collective, Jeremy Riddle, owner of Riddle Wines, is a Napa Valley winemaker dedicated to making exclusively low-intervention wines from some of the region's most obscure grape varietals.
“Riddle was born because I wanted to make wine that represents the purest form of what the vineyard, harvest and climate created,” he said. “When I am drinking wines, I don't want to taste the heavy hand of the winemaker but rather a time, a place.”
To achieve this goal, Riddle adds almost nothing to his wines — no enzymes, additives or yeast and only the smallest touch of sulfur.
“I obsess about my wine and even sleep near my barrels most of the year,” he said. “Because I don’t add anything to the wines, it means I need to be extra vigilant to ensure everything goes smoothly.”
He also uses strictly organic grapes, explaining that he has found conventionally farmed fruit to be highly susceptible to going bad or being infiltrated by harmful bacteria, such as the kind that turn wine into vinegar or cause volatile acidity.
“Because conventionally farmed grapes have grown up in basically a sterile environment, they don’t have a natural defense against these things, like VA,” he said. “Basically, it’s like if someone grew up in a sterile environment and was then exposed to a cold virus, which could end up killing them.”
To achieve his goal, Riddle looks for vineyards in which the whole biosystem is taken into account: the roots, birds, flora and microbes.
“My fear is stagnation,” he said. “At the end of the day, I'm an old-school and nerdy winemaker pursuing the perfect wine.”
Some examples of the wine offered through the Ownroot Collective:
Riddle Wines
2021 Counoise ($37 a bottle, 1,487 bottles made): Composed of 100% counoise grapes from Eagle Point Ranch in the Mendocino AVA. It captivates with a nose of lavender and fresh pomegranates, followed by bright fruits and a cracked peppery finish on the palate.
Originating from the David Girard Vineyard in the El Dorado AVA, Riddle's 2020 Sparkling Roussanne ($38 a bottle, 660 bottles made) — perhaps the only such wine produced in the region or even on the planet — blends the crispness of golden apple and ginger with the subtlety of near-ripe apricot and the elegance of honeysuckle aromatics. Its bright yet creamy palate paired with surprisingly refined bubbles keeps this wine distinct and distant from more rustic "Pét-Nat" (Pétillant Naturel) wines. Did I mention that this is a stunning wine. Really. Trust me. Stunning.
2020 Grenache ($36 a bottle, 624 bottles made): Also grown at the David Girard Vineyard, this is 100% grenache and delivers aromas of strawberries, pomegranates, cinnamon, bay leaf and newly turned earth.
Proxy Wines
Proxy Wines currently specializes in a singular varietal: grenache blanc.
“I love grenache blanc because drinking it is like peering into a looking glass to learn where and how it was grown," Lippitt said. "The distinct expression of place, even from nearby vineyards, can be amazingly distinct. Besides, it’s just delicious."
Having limited availability and being priced at $24 a bottle mean that this wine will be gone soon. Sourced from the Mounts Family Vineyard on the eastern fringe of the Dry Creek AVA near the Russian River, this is a bright, lively wine with aromas of white peach, passionfruit, lemon citrus and stone fruit. On the palate, this wine offers a surprisingly rich texture with flavors of Buddha’s hand fruit, pineapple, green tea and wet stone minerality.
Both Riddle and Proxy wines illustrate the variety and inventive spirit of the Ownroot Collective. Through their expressive and lesser-known varietals these wineries epitomize the creativity and curiosity that fuel California's new generation of winemakers. Their offerings not only pose a refreshing challenge to the mainstream wine scene but also bring to light the delightful and often overlooked options that exist if one is willing to explore.
Tim Carl is a Napa Valley based photojournalist.