Finca Ca n’Estella is a family-owned winery founded in 1800. In 1964, Delfí Rabetllat— a great lover of wine and wine culture— reinvigorated the property. In 1992, Mercè Rabetllat and her husband, Jaume Vidal, decided to return to the historic traditions, plantings, and vinifications. Today their daughter and third generation Anna Vidal has dedicated herself to making wines that best express the place of Finca Ca n’Estella.

These organic, dry farmed, 100% estate, wines express the passion of the family for this place and its varietals.

Anna Vidal, Director at Finca Ca n’Estella

The Cabardès AOC is a tiny sub-region in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Aude, France. Husband and wife winemakers, Stephanie and Olivier Rame are the third generation of their family to tend the vineyards at Maison Ventenac.

Stephanie and Olivier Ramé took over her family’s estate in 2010. Building on the work of Stephanie’s father, Alain Maurel, they started to modernize the operation, which in many cases meant turning back the clock to work sustainably in the vineyards. Their aim was to work naturally, but as cleanly as possible. They allow no chemicals whatsoever to be used in their vineyards. Their winemaking philosophy is non-interventionist, allowing the vines to grow as a natural expression of their terroir and then capturing that essence in the winemaking, through natural fermentation with wild yeast in terra cotta amphorae or large, concrete vats. 

Within Cabardès, a prime site in the ocean of vines that is Languedoc-Roussillon, the Ramés are growing many of the same grapes as their neighbors but using them to sometimes unusual ends. They call some of these wines “les Dissidents” which are “delicate blends concocted in jars of 150 or 500 litres, and in casks of 2,000 litres.” This one is 100% Vermentino (they call it Rolle there) and it has layers and layers of complexity and fruit.

Luisa Ponzi has spent her entire life on vineyards and in wineries. Her parents, Dick and Nancy Ponzi, founded Ponzi Vineyards in 1970 and Luisa grew up working and learning from her winemaker father. She graduated from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon with a Bachelor of Science. Following her undergraduate studies,  Luisa moved to Beaune, France where she continued her education in viticulture and enology, becoming the first non-French woman to earn a post doctorate degree in Beaune.   

Since 1993, Luisa has been at the helm of the wine production of Ponzi Vineyards and has brought her knowledge of Burgundian practices combined with her personal experience to the family-owned winery. Along with her sister, Maria, over the last three decades she has expanded the vineyard acreage to 175 acres and the winery production to over 40,000 cases. 

For more than three decades, Luisa’s passion and winemaking talent have helped sustain Ponzi Vineyards’ nearly 50-year acclaimed tradition of producing some of the world’s finest wines.