Lady of the Sunshine/Scar of the Sea - Meet the Winemaker Tasting

Two distinct labels are produced by this young, engaging winemaking couple who share a cellar in San Luís Obispo, which is about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

 

Lady of the Sunshine is Gina’s wine. Having grown up around vineyards she initially rejected wine, but while studying and working at a tasting room in Sonoma, she fell in love with it and changed her study programme to wine and viticulture. After graduating she worked with top producers in Beaujolais, Central Otago and Oregon.

 

Starting her own domain in 2017 she looks for a natural balance for her wines with a focus on Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay & Pinot Noir.

 

Mikey also studied at Cal Poly (though in engineering not wine!). He soon became bored of working at a desk and got a job in a tasting room and then a vineyard, always learning on the job. He travelled to Tasmania to make sparkling wine and this was where his passion for low intervention winemaking developed.

 

Both Mikey and Gina put huge stock in organic and Biodynamic certification as they believe it upholds authenticity and gets consumers asking questions about farming practices. As Mikey says - “In the cellar we aim to produce wines of transparency, doing our best to showcase the land, the farmers, and the vintage of each wine. We do this with minimal intervention, relying on native yeast fermentations, mostly neutral oak barrels, no fining and rarely filtering, with just a responsible amount of SO2 used throughout the wine's life”.

 

Wines on the night: