Scythian Wine Co., Revolution Palomino (2023)

Cucamonga Valley, California— 100% Palomino from ~100 year old vines from a vineyard that was left abandoned across the freeway from a McDonalds. Super elegant and refreshing white wine— Melon rind and white flowers on the nose, crisp stone fruit and subtle aloe on the palate with a long finish. 

From the Lopez Vineyard, planted in 1912. The soils are sandy granite, and much of the vineyard has been left unpruned for the past several years. These old vines produce very small amounts of fruit (~1kg per plant), but it is hoped that continued work (pruning, care) will restore their vigor. The vineyard is dry farmed and has never been sprayed or treated in any way.

The grapes were harvested by hand, left whole cluster, and pressed to ferment without temperature control in neutral used French oak barrels. Rested and aged in the same vessels before bottling. Bottled without fining or filtering and with only 20ppm SO2 added

Scythian Wine Co. is a new project from sommelier-turned- vigneron Raj Parr that highlights the nearly lost viticultural heritage of Los Angeles. Before prohibition, the city was the center of the California wine industry, producing highly regarded wines from varieties like Palomino, Mission, Garnacha Tintorera and Zinfandel planted on sandy soils. A few of these own-rooted, dry-farmed, vineyards endure, largely due to the stewardship of the Galleano family. With a few collaborators, Raj Parr started exploring, then rehabilitating, some of the most interesting plots of these vines in 2019. The vineyards are relics, sandwiched between warehouses, corporate headquarters, neighborhoods, and highways around Los Angeles County. The vines are almost all over 100-years-old, and none of the vineyards have ever been treated with pesticides fungicides, or even sulfur or copper. From these marvels of endurance and survival, Raj makes low-intervention wines in a small cellar near Boyle Heights, working with minimal additives and neutral vessels. The Scythian Wine Company wines are a fascinating opportunity to taste a fundamentally different side of the history of California wine.