Sheldon Wines

Sheldon Wines
1301 Cleveland Avenue
Santa Rosa, California
USA 95401
Phone: 707. 865. 6755
http://www.sheldonwines.com

Contact: Tobe Sheldon
Email: [email protected]

There’s always “Family Owned” which we are, but then so is Gallo. Home winemakers or “Garagistes”, are just that, making wine out of their garage (which we have been known to do). But generally speaking it’s pretty difficult to get your garage bonded. We are more “Homeless” winemakers in that we rent a little corner of a larger facililty in order to make our wines. And finally, there it was, thanks to a little article on the Sheldon’s. Where we are referred to as a ... “Micro-Winery”.

“Micro-Winery;” it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s not overdone, just like us.In the spring of 2000 I was working as a winery grunt intern on the other side of the World, Margaret River in Western Australia to be exact...hand loading clusters of Estate grown Chardonnay, into an old Champagne press. I'd been working over 90 hours a week for as long as I could remember, eaten more Vegemite sandwiches than I could count, I was a bruised, bee-stung, sticky, & exhausted mess... I had an ear to ear grin through it all. After the last grapes were pressed, the crew was headed out on the town for a well deserved pint! "Oi!... there's a phone call for the Yank

We each worked two full time jobs, auctioned off the wine cellar, sold our cars, & pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down to fund the first vintage, which produced 420 cases from 2003. In 2004 we ramped up production to just over 700 cases, and in 2005 we broke into the 1,000 case mark. We'll be staying a small two person operation, to be able to know what's going on in every row of every vineyard we use, to sort each cluster by hand, to focus on the subtle nuance of every individual barrel. For us, winemaking is not about aggressive manipulation or beverage manufacturing. Winemaking is about building the aromas & flavors in the vineyards, then ushering them from grape to glass. In other words..."Get the best fruit possible, listen very carefully to what it has to say & don't screw it up!" And most importantly, to never forget, that we are Alive...Awake...Free...most likely delusional.!

Winemaker: Tobe Sheldon

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