Ruth Lewandowski Wines

Winemaker Evan Lewandowski makes thought-provoking wines inspired by the redemptive cycle of life, death, and life again, using farming and winemaking as a means to explore this theme.  After working at Binner in Alsace for several years, he moved back to his home state of Utah to start making his own wine, using fruit grown at Fox Hill Vineyards and Testa Vineyards in Mendocino county. He began fermentation in California and then transported his fermenting juice in a refrigerated U-Haul to his home in Salt Lake City where he completed the fermentation, aging, and bottling process. 

Evan moved to Northern CA in 2018 and now makes all his wine here, continuing to source fruit from several organic vineyards in the North Coast AVA, and Fox Hill (now owned by Broc Cellars). He focuses largely on Italian and Portuguese grape varieties, which are well-suited to the warm and dry Californian summers and produce interesting, fresh and delicious wines with a ton of character.

Evan explains that natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving its unique signature of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds). No additives are used: no acid, no sugar, no water, no tannin, no filtration, and no cultured yeast. Little-to-no no sulfur is used, according to the cuvée.