Circa 1850, Adrian’s great-great-great grandfather, Charles Jewell, and his brother Thomas, competitively raced steam boats on the Ohio River. One race in particular they were neck-in-neck with the other boat. To send them over the line to win the race and the competitor’s boat, they burned their valuable Chippendale furniture in the furnace. The race winnings totaled $80,000, about $3.5 million in today’s money.
Growing up Adrian’s father wore a special ring won by Charles and Thomas with a ruby gem in it. When Adrian blends the Rubies cuvée each year, he aims for the final wine to shine with a ruby hue like his father’s ring.
The 2019 Rubies is a quintessential Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley. Aptly named for its ruby hue, enticing notes of wild black cherries, bright citrus, black raspberries, sarsaparilla root, eucalyptus, black river rocks, and dried leather grab your attention. Classic Russian River Valley dusty tannins tantalize with flavors of amaro cherries, alpine white strawberries, kumquat, sandy minerality, toasted pumpkin seed, and alfalfa hay fill your palate.
For each vintage, we select the best barrels and age the wine for 18 months in French Oak before bottling without fining or filtration. Our goal is to capture the purity and precision of each vintage from our home here in the Russian River. The 2019 vintage is made up of four vineyards, Starscape, Bucher, Hallberg, and 800 Vines, consisting of five clones of Pinot Noir, Martini, Dijon 115, Dijon 777, Pommard, and Swan.