Absentee
Location: California, USA
Founded in 2016 by Avi Deixler
From curator Siôn Iorwerth:
"Introducing the wines of Avi Deixler to BC. Absentee winery is an outlier from the rest of the Californian wine scene, based in the non-viticultural Marin county, north of San Francisco, where we first discovered his wines. When we asked our friends south of the border, “Who is making the most exciting wine in California?” The response was always just one word: “Avi.”
Avi is the first of two producers we’re working with from California, both of whom are coming from the school of Tony Coturri in Sonoma County. These are zero sulfur, dry-farmed, and defiantly ripe Californian natural wines.
Having cut his winemaking teeth working with Baptiste Cousin in the Loire and befriending the likes of François Saint-Lô, Avi’s approach to winemaking follows their path: organically farmed grapes, wild yeast fermentation, and zero additions. As his labels clearly state, the only ingredients are grapes.
Whilst Avi doesn’t own his own vines (he gets his fruit from the Poor Ranch vineyard in Mendocino), he takes hands-on artisanal and zero sulfur wine making to another level.
Avi Deixler. Credits: Steven Graf
Avi is a self-taught cooper, so where others might use sulfur to clean their barrels, he hand-shaves and reconditions each barrel he uses to ferment his wines, removing any trace of previous additives or little kinks where bacteria might thrive. His production is small scale and he is in the process of moving spaces to make his wine.
We were fortunate enough to get two cuveés from him, both from the 2019 vintage and the last to be vinified at Point Reyes Station, CA. Having tasted with him at Brumaire, Avi isn’t one to talk about grape varietals, tasting notes, or vinification techniques. So in the spirit of Avi, the red is big and boozy and the pink is alcoholic, fresh, and, well, pink.
We hope you enjoy drinking these wines as much as we do. Let them transport you down to California. Just sit back with a full glass, a baguette, and a chunk of cheese and you’ll be in for a good time."
