Healdsburg Ryme Cellars
Ryme Cellars is a collaboration of husband and wife with old world sensibilities, as well as admiration for California’s terroir and sunny disposition. Our portfolio of wines has grown gradually and organically since 2007, beginning with a single ton of Aglianico. The varieties may be rare or unusual but none of them are a mere curiosity for us. Rather, they represent wines that we love, drink often, and truly believe in the potential for success in their chosen sites.
We love wines with distinctive character. They should taste great on their own, but really shine alongside good food. We love wines with ample tannin and acidity, especially if they are expected to age. We always value a great wine’s idiosyncrasies over a polished supple sameness that is so common in the wine world.
We are not driven by any theme necessarily. Most of our wines are made from Italian varieties simply because of the great diversity and unique character of the wines of that culture. While Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay have certainly excelled here in California, the supremacy of the so-called “noble” varieties is not absolute. They need not be the only game in town. We don’t believe they are the most noble, only the most popular.
Our wines come from conscientiously farmed organic or sustainable vineyards. They are produced according to simple methods. The wines are always encouraged, never controlled. We use no cultured yeast, no temperature control, no enzymes or other adulterants. We do not fine or filter. The wines are raised in used French oak barriques between 2 and 10 years old. Many of the reds are fermented on the stems. Many of the whites are fermented on the skins.
From time to time, we have different interpretations of a wine’s true identity, in which case, we will maintain separate projects. Such is the case with the “His” and “Hers” Vermentino. “Hers” pressed, settled clean, and bottled early. “His” picked later, destemmed, fermented on skins, and aged longer.
