We first came across Arnot-Roberts wine at our local Winston-Salem wine shop The Caviste. We were recommended the Trousseau (2014) by wine shop owner Russ because of our interest in Arbois. The wine was complex, interesting, and highly unusual for a California wine, so given that we were about to take a trip to the Bay Area we reached out to Arnot-Roberts directly (even though upon some investigation it seemed they didn’t have a full-fledged tasting room) for a visit. We were pleasantly surprised when we heard back quite quickly from Caitlin who was more than happy to arrange an appointment with us.

We took the gorgeous drive from the Bay Area up to Healdsburg, CA early in the morning to start our day off in a great way, a 10:00am wine tasting. Upon arrival we realized we were going to be able to taste wine in the winery itself and were surrounded by tall stacks of boxes of wine bottles along with a large number of barrels already filled. Caitlin (who, throughout our appointment, was knowledgeable and awesome) brought out several wines for us to taste, and walked us through the special climate and terrior of local Bay Area and surrounding area’s vineyards.After tasting and chatting for a while Caitlin was gracious enough to share a couple of the wines that were prepped to be bottled including a Syrah that was elegant and delicious.

Upon leaving we took with us a partial bottle of Falanghina and full bottles of Clary Ranch Syrah, Gamay, Trousseau, and Ribolla Gialla. We enjoyed each heartily and were so happy that we took the time to go up to Healdsburg for the experience. Caitlin also told us about the Seven % Solution Wine Festival, which was started

by local winemakers who had the shared interest in making wine from varietals that were outside of the eight grapes which cover 93% of Califonia’s winemaking acreage. We were unable to attend, but with the stellar list of winemakers involved are definitely planning on attending in the future.

Thank you Caitlin, thank you Arnot-Roberts!