Les Lunes / Populis Wines

Shaunt and Diego have a very clear goal: to take Californian wine back to what it was before big money and 99 points got in the way. Fresh, easy drinking wines free of commercial techniques, yeasts and other corrective additives that only serve to manipulate the wine into some rich man's idea of what the market wants. Shaunt took the academic route to begin with, but he got into winemaking and had the chance to work with Julie Balagny (we love her!) and Philippe Valette. In other words, the foundation is solid. Diego apparetly came out of the womb with a wine glass in his hand, so he just work his butt off at domaines all over. But you see, once you get into wine and you like to taste as much as you can, sooner or later it is just obvious: natural wine just feels better in every way. In the body, the mind and the soul. Also, when you study wine like Shaunt did, it is just much more fun to take a natural approach - you get to be the rebellious geek in the class! Some of the vineyards they lease are quite old, planted as early as in the 1940's, and chemicals are banned in the vineyards as well as in the winery, where the wines only see a bit of sulphur if needed. Les Lunes Wines focus on single, classic Californian varietals, like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel etc, whereas Populis is more of a playground where the boys get to experiment a bit (glou-glou rosé from old Carignan, anyone?)