Fine Wine is Contagious.

CALIFORNIA: 2009

I was wandering.

I had joined up with AmeriCorps and the National Park Service for a gig that took me from Illinois, where I had grown up, to northern California to build trails over a summer. Afterwards, without much of an idea of what was next, I found myself touring California wine country during the harvest. At that time, it hadn’t even occurred to me that winemaking was a career—I knew someone made it, of course, but it never crossed my mind that that someone could be me. But there was a moment during that trip when a wine made me stop and take notice: a 2007 Cabernet Franc absolutely blew me away and a seed was planted.

Winemaking though was not an obvious choice for me. Growing up in Middle America, it was not until I studied abroad in France and Spain that I was even introduced to wine as part of life. As something as constant to one's day as food or water. But once confronted with the pleasure of wine as culture - and after that realization that making wine could be a career - I set out to make crafting fine wine my life’s pursuit.

Since that first taste of this craft, I have sought to learn from and work for the best in the business. Starting with a viticultural apprenticeship in the rural hinterlands of Central Otago to working with big winemaking names in Northern California, Australia, and Austria, I have been fortunate to study under a number of exceptional and influential winemakers and viticulturists around the world, distilling the lessons I learned from them about sustainable viticulture and minimal intervention winemaking into a craft of my own.

In 2016, an incident in my own life made me realize that my true passion lay in building my own wine brand with the intention of making wines centered on that first love of mine, Cabernet Franc. That year, I founded T. Berkley Wines, and this project – inspired by the great wines of the Loire, made under the California sunshine – was born.

Thank you for joining me and I hope you enjoy drinking these wines as much as I have enjoyed making them!

Cheers,

Taylor Berkley Boydstun