New World v. Old World Wine

Word From The Bird //

What is the difference between Old Wold and New World wines?

From our hometown in Northern California, we makes wines with an emphasis on the maritime growing regions of California wine country. Crafted with a bit of wild California winemaking spirit and a homage to Old-World practices, Sea Bird Wines can be summed up as the ideal adventure into the exploration of New World Wines.

As a boutique micro winery, we source fruit from prime vineyards and make small production wines dedicated to a classic but approachable style that you can pop for any occasion. It’s part of what we believe makes wine great: if you drink a bottle and are still enjoying it to the last drop with friends, then it’s a great wine!

But even though we are New World winemakers, we never forget our roots. That’s why our winemaking style still has its Wild West spirit, but is also true to its Old World history. Our cooler climate fruit sources (thanks to that maritime influence) lends more to the lighter-body expression of our Burgundian varieties like our Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. It also allows for brighter acidity that makes our Sonoma Coast Chardonnay from Robert’s Road Vineyard such a crowd-pleaser.

Newer wine regions in California like the Santa Rita Hills AVA have only been planted within the last 20 years. But the combination of calcium in the soil, cooling influence from the Pacific fog and moderate growing season has proven to be an ideal growing climate for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Stay tuned for our new releases, where we’ll be able to show you just what we’re talking about!

The climates of New World wine regions are often warmer, which tends to result in riper, higher alcohol and more fruit-forward expressions. But as we experience climate change across the globe, this distinction may evolve to lean less on climate and really be more defined by technique. In fact, National Geographic reports some of the  most significant climate changes in Burgundy where Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are growing increasingly warmer.

One of the great privileges we have as American winemakers is the ability to take all we know from our predecessors in the industry, and apply it to our work in the cellar to produce and exceptional wine, year after year with little restrictions. European wines are crafted with greatness, but as we move forward in the industry to embrace technology and science, the ability to progress beyond tradition to continue evolving is what makes our freedom as New World winemakers so delicious.

Want to learn more about our New World Wine Regions? Watch our episode of #SipWithSeaBird on Instagram


What To Drink Now: A Vintage Report Update

Our winemaker, Patrick Durbin, fondly notes, “I love watching my wines grow up.” And for good reason. At Sea Bird Wines, we believe in relaxed wines to enjoy with friends and loved ones. That kind of wines that are as interesting as they are easy-drinking. Vintage after vintage report, we stay dedicated to taking Great Vines To Great Times with ever bottle. To make choosing your next bottle even easier, here’s a peek into our cellar with a vintage report update to see if you should hold or drink your favorite Sea Bird Wines bottles with our easy guide.

2013
This was an ideal growing season all across California. Ideal growing conditions offered moderate temperatures all throughout the growing season without rain or extreme temperatures. 

What you need to know: Napa
• Dry conditions and a long sunny summer resulted in Cabernet Sauvignon that steals that show over all varietals.
• Patient growers were able to moderate soaring sugar levels to cultivate a Cabernet Sauvignon with balance, bright fruit and robust tannins that lend to long aging potential for years to come. Or, if you’re a tannin fiend, a tight, grippy wine ready to impress with structure.

Hold it: 2013 Broken Rock Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley
Located on the east side of Napa near Soda Canyon and Atlas Peak, this vineyard produces bright fruit with a balanced acidity thanks to the volcanic mountainside soils. The structure of this Bordeaux inspired blend representative of the best of Napa Valley results in black cherry and cola notes, nuanced vanilla and a touch of white pepper that will continue to evolve in your cellar. These last five years have just started to soften the edges of the fine tannin structure, but can easily go about 3-5 more for a luxurious expression of this iconic vintage to come.

Broken Rock Vineyard Napa Valley
Broken Rock Vineyard in Napa Valley

What you need to know: Sonoma
• The growing season was off to an early start in Sonoma with abundant sunshine and moderate temperatures similar to neighboring Napa.
• Quality AND quality abound! Pinot Noir in particular grew large crops offering a volume of premium wine.

Drink it: 2013 Sonoma Stage Pinot Noir - Sonoma
The Sonoma Stage vineyard is nestled between the Petaluma Gap and Los Carneros as the south end of the Sonoma Coast AVA. Cool morning fog and warm winds cultivate a Pinot Noir with classic red fruits, dark cherries and touches of cocoa and leather for a balanced Pinot ready to drink now. Enjoy a glass now as the delicious tertiary flavors have developed beautifully.

Sonoma Stage Vineyard in Sonoma Coast AVA
Sonoma Stage Vineyard in Sonoma Coast AVA

2014
Drought in the winemaking world is a delicate balance. However, it struck the perfect cord in 2014 offering lower yields, but higher quality. Sprinkling with a few well-timed rains over the growing season offered a sunny summer and a ripe fall.

What you need to know: Napa
• The perfect blend of 2012 and 2013 was the best way to describe 2014.
• Bright red fruits, balanced acidity and lower yields delivered a dreamlike vintage, especially for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
• An early harvest still delivered deep color, intense aromatics and lively acidity across the board.

Hold It: 2014 Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley
This was the perfect vintage to showcase our show-stopping Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon. Aptly named after the kind of the sea, it is comprised of the “king of grapes,” Cabernet Sauvignon from a premiere Napa Valley vineyard. The G3 vineyard is home to some of the most prestigious fruit in the Valley in the Rutherford AVA. Polished tannin, wild berries, and a hint of Rutherford Dust this wine can easily rest its trident for years to come in your cellar.

G3 Vineyard in Rutherford AVA Napa Valley
G3 Vineyard in Rutherford AVA Napa Valley

What you need to know: Sonoma
• Early season come in slow and steady with
• The drought season was still going strong. For now, it allowed for high quality and reduced yield…perfect for premium vineyards.
• The warm weather paired with little rains resulted in higher alcohol wines that overall had a welcoming ripe aroma and flavors, and softer acidity…perfect for wines that are drinking well sooner than later!

Drink it: 2014 Sangiacomo Robert’s Road Pinot Noir - Sonoma
This family-owned vineyard is the ideal Sonoma Pinot Noir site. Long slow growing seasons thanks to the coastal Sonoma influence offer fog until mid-day and warm sunshine for even ripening. The bright red fruits of this vineyard shine in this Pinot Noir with a bottle ready to pop now!

Sangiacomo Robert's Road Vineyard in Sonoma County
Sangiacomo Robert's Road Vineyard in Sonoma County

Enjoy summertime drinking with our current release wines, all available to purchase online. And stay tuned in the Fall for our upcoming vintage report update and releases coming soon!

 


Let’s Talk Terroir | Single Vineyard Wine for a Great Time

Can California have terroir?

Terroir: it’s a word you may have heard casually woven into wine conversations between friends, sommeliers, and dining companions. Its French origins define it as all the environmental factors that determine the quality of a crop. Any wine aficionado will tell you it’s just as much an artistic term as it is a scientific definition. There’s the certain something about a place that makes particularly delicious wine. Something that can’t be recreated just anywhere.

For us, there are the many elements that come together to make wine with a little bit of California terroir. Yes, it’s the basics of sun, soil, air, temperature and rainfall that makes up the technical elements of terroir. It’s the maritime breezes that cool the grapes in vineyard mornings. But it’s also the uniqueness of our single-vineyard selections, and a little bit of New World winemaking spirit that combines to make up of the terroir of every bottle created by Sea Bird Wines.

Napa vs. Sonoma: what’s the difference?

When you’re cruising the wine aisle to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner, are you thinking about the differences in the region between the two different bottles of Pinot Noir you have in hand? One of the greatest parts about experiencing wine is the way that two of the same varietals can taste completely different, even if there’s grown just a few miles apart.

When we’re choosing our single vineyard selections for you every year, we have the chance to get our hands on some of the most premium wine-growing selections in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Napa fruit offers a warmer expression of wine as the heat of the Valley floor ripens the grapes in that lush fashion we all have come to love about Napa. The morning fog carried out from the sea brings cool crisp mornings, and the sun burns it all off. Our Sonoma fruit sources are closer to the coast, bringing a cooler average day as the maritime breezes blow in from the sea and allow for our favorite cool-climate varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to develop a pleasing acidity and balance.

Coast Breezes & marine habitat preservation

As you work your way around the tastings rooms in Wine Country, you’ll inevitably hear the expression “diurnal shift” when talking about the growing season. In wine terms, it’s the difference in temperature variation from the highest and lowest point in the day. In “normal” terms, it’s the reason you need to dress in layers when you come to visit!

This matters for us in the vineyard because that shift in temperature from cool, foggy and breezy to warm and full of sunshine helps define the quality of our wine each year. We can’t make great wine without the swing in temperature, and that shift wouldn’t happen without the coastal influence nearby. It comes and goes every day, just as the sun and the tide rise and sets. That’s why we dedicate proceeds for each bottle of Sea Bird Wine to the preservation of marine habitats from coast-to-coast. It’s our way of saying “thanks!” for the great wine that only a healthy coastline can offer.

Every time you open a bottle of Sea Bird Wines, you can raise a toast to nature’s most unstoppable force: a wine drinker determined to have a Good Time!

Ready to experience a taste of terroir with us? Shop our current release vintages here or dig into our cellar with our Library Collection here.