Alcohol: 12%
Grape(s): 100% Chardonnay
Location: Sonoma Coast, Sonoma Valley, California, USA
Tasting Notes: A unique expression of Chardonnay that has the vivacity only California can provide to Chardonnay, with the crisp balance of fruit and acidity akin to a Chablis-style wine. This Chardonnay has a long history with us, dating back to our first vintage in 2010. The Michael Mara Vineyard sits along the Sonoma Mountain range in the Sonoma Coast AVA. It’s a unique site for growing Chardonnay in California with the fruit absorbing lots of the marine air along with minerality from the rocky soil. We brought in the grapes whole-cluster and pressed them directly. The juice fermented naturally in two stockinger Austrian oak puncheons. Aged on the lees for 10 months. The result is an approachable wine for chardonnay lovers, novices and dare we say – even skeptics. Age up to 20 years.
Food pairing: Roasted chicken or miso-glazed fish.
Winery Story: Broc Cellars is a Berkeley-based winery that makes refreshing and approachable wines for everyday drinking. Established in 2002 by owner and winemaker Chris Brockway, we use native fermentation and organically grown grapes. Broc wines are made with the intention of lifting you up, never weighing you down.
Chris Brockway’s winemaking journey began with California Zinfandel. The spicy, brambly fruit style drew him from his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska all the way to California. What he found, however, was that California wines had changed to fit the “bigger is better”mold of the time. Personally, he felt it was all too much – high alcohol, too big, too much everything.
Chris believed California wine could be different. From a single barrel in 2002 to now over 20 different wine releases a year, Broc Cellars makes fresh California wines to enjoy and for your table. In 2023, we extended our vision of simple and ethical winemaking into the vineyard as new owners of Fox Hill Vineyard.
How We Make Wine
We make natural wine the way we believe delivers the best wines for us and the earth. We use only organically-farmed grapes. We use cover crops to boost soil health, water retention and biodiversity. Sheep help us manage crop cover and fertilize the soil. We harvest early for more healthy grapes that retain their good acidity. This often results in lower alcohol wines. The lower Brix (sugar content) at harvest allows for easier fermentations. We use native yeasts and bacteria that exist on the grapes and never add sulphur during fermentation. We occasionally add a small amount of sulphur at bottling depending on the wine, style and year.
Three major influences shaped how Broc Cellars makes wine: The book “Real Wine: The Rediscovery of Natural Winemaking” by Patrick Matthews that Chris read early on in his free time as an oenology student at Fresno State. Terroir, San Francisco’s first natural wine bar that enabled Chris to explore the depth and breadth of natural winemaking. And finally, the many Bay Area restaurants who focus on delivering fresh, simply made dishes with locally-sourced ingredients. We seek to make wines that pair with fresh, thoughtfully-made foods.
