Out of stock
Out of stock
100% Cabernet Sauvignon, Clonal selections: Heritage, Old Wente
The Mohrhardt Ridge vineyard perfectly encapsulates our mission in viticulture & winemaking – Remote, coastal vineyards that are a challenge to farm, that bare little, yet precious fruit each vintage. Perched atop a ridge near the center of the Fort Ross – Seaview AVA, this site is home to some of the oldest and only Cabernet vines in the AVA. Morning fog, cool days and proximity to the Pacific Ocean make this site unique for growing Cabernet, culminating in wines of typicity and individuality. The 2018 growing season proved to be everything that we look for in a stellar vintage: cool and moderate temperatures, yet plenty of sunshine, lending to slow and even maturation on the vine. Our 2018 bottling was fermented in small open top tanks, using only punch downs & gravity flow, and was aged on lees for 16 months in a combination of neutral & new French Oak barrels. Bottled without fining or filtration the resulting wine is deep & layered offering rich & supple tannins that will continue to evolve for many years to come.
Aged 10 month in 13% New, 87% Neutral Oak
Tanner Scheer
Winemaking at Red Car is led by Tanner Scheer. Tanner spent six years at Ampelos Cellars, learning on the job and eventually working his way up to Assistant Winemaker in 2011. Leaving in 2013, he joined mutual friends for harvest at Dragonette Winery in Buellton, CA before accepting a position at Liquid Farm. But Chardonnay was calling him. “Chardonnay is one of my favorite varietals and I was looking for a place that could produce Chardonnay of true character, not manipulated in any way. That boils down to soil and climate.” Tanner interviewed with Red Car in June 2015 and joined the team two weeks later.
At Red Car, Tanner adheres to simple but strict principles. “I believe in minimalism,” he explains. “Don’t manipulate the fruit in the winery. It’s up to the vineyards, the climate, the soil and the farming practices we choose to employ. What’s important for me at a fundamental level is to represent each varietal in its truest form. That’s a foundation of any of our wines.” The Red Car team is a close-knit family and Tanner especially values the camaraderie and teamwork. “We are all connected to these vineyard sites and these wines. We’ve all bought into what we are doing here, so it becomes a symbiotic relationship. The wines represent us and we represent the wines,” he says. “We rely and count on one another to come through with the parts that are on each of our plates so we can come together with a common purpose and shared vision of where we are going.”
Tanner credits his father with instilling in him how important it is to love what you do. “I’ve never seen another human who just jumped out of bed every day—2:30 in the morning even! That love and passion he has for cowboying, for me it metamorphosed to the wine industry. That type of energy, that approach to life and work. I also learned from him the importance of loyalty, respect and being accountable.” Tanner Scheer lives in Petaluma, CA with his dog, Button. Describing himself as “an avid, avid lifelong fisherman,” if Tanner isn’t working, he’s fly fishing or catching bass from his kayak.
