REGION: California

Named after the trio of winemaking “ants” - Webster Marquez, Anthony Filiberti and David Low - who met while working at Williams-Selyem. Today, they farm many small plots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah with a desire to make wine with minimal intervention.

“A love letter to the Napa Valley of the 1960s,” Ashes & Diamonds sets out to revive this storied era’s pioneering energy. Kashy Khaledi, a California native who was a creative and media executive in a previous life, grew up surrounded by the vines of his family’s vineyard Darioush. He built a winery driven by collaboration amongst winemakers including Steve Matthiasson and Diana Snowden-Seysses in 2018, compelled to investigate the original plantings from the A & D estate vineyard, planted in 1986, along with those sourced from across Napa, such as Red Hen Vineyard in Oak Knoll as well as Bates Ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The focus of Ashes & Diamonds is on ethereal Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, and Kashy also produces a 50/50 Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blend. His goal is to focus on the old-school classics of Napa Valley; wines that are elegant and representative of site and vintage.

An exciting new venture from the makers of Rhys Vineyards, Æris Wines focuses on Italian varieties such as Nebbiolo, Barbera, Nerello Mascarello, and notably the first planting of Carricante in the United States.