The SOMM Journal 🍷🍾

In our May issue, @meridithsommjournal writes, “Charlie Trotter’s opened in 1987 and closed in 2013. But this is a story about his son, Dylan Trotter, who over the past year has organized 12 pop-up dinners at the restaurant’s old Armitage Avenue location in Lincoln Park, which occupies a 5,300-square-foot space in an edifice built in 1881. Joining him have been some of the country’s most renowned chefs, among them Charlie Trotter’s alum Bill Kim, Sam Jett of Audrey in Nashville, James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman of Owamni in Minneapolis, and Sujan Sarkar of Indienne in Chicago—all in exhilarating anticipation of his plan to reopen the restaurant permanently later this year.” Swipe to read more about this exciting culinary concept.

@roberthallwinery ’s diverse cover crop, composed of 15 plant species, was developed specifically for Paso Robles terroir. The winery is driving one of the most ambitious regenerative-farming case studies in American winegrowing. In December 2024, Robert Hall Winery achieved certification through the Regenerative Organic Alliance’s Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) program following a rigorous three-year transition period. Introduced in 2017, ROC goes beyond existing organic frameworks to integrate soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness into a holistic agricultural certification model; Robert Hall is among just a handful of wineries worldwide that have met its standards to date. Swipe to read more about this leader in regenerative winemaking.

Led by proprietor/general manager Sheree Thornsberry, @innumerowines has just experienced another year of exceptional growth, achieving a 72% sales increase in the premium category in 2025 even as overall wine consumption continues to decline. This success reflects her and her husband Brian’s unwavering commitment to crafting wines that capture the soul of Sonoma County, one that involves “a relentless focus on quality and a business built on genuine, lasting relationships with our customers,” in her words. “At Innumero, extraordinary experiences are born where people, place, and passion meet,” she adds. Innumero focuses on single-vineyard, single-clone Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley and Green Valley of Russian River Valley AVAs. “We’ve been fortunate to enjoy exceptional growing conditions over the past four vintages,” notes Innumero winemaker Ashley Herzberg. “Combined with access to world-class Sonoma County vineyards cared for by dedicated, multigenerational grower families, it allows our wines to shine with minimal intervention.” Swipe to read tasting notes from @meridithsommjournal .

Rows of grapevines stretch across the Clarksburg landscape, their parallel lines gently curving where the land rolls toward the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. Here, in the Prince Vineyard, Chardonnay digs deep into alluvial soils shaped by water and sediment over millennia. The word “lineage” takes on dual meaning in this layered place, alluding both to nine generations of Herzog family winemakers across two centuries and to the estate vineyards they oversee across several California appellations, yielding wines in which genealogy and terroir converge. The Herzogs’ winemaking history traces back to 1840 in Slovakia, where Rabbi Menachem Herzog founded a winery, brewery, and distillery. Within a generation, Herzog wines were being poured at the Austro-Hungarian court of Emperor Franz Joseph. But history has a way of bending even the most established lines. The family survived Nazi occupation, then fled the Communist Party’s 1948 takeover of Czechoslovakia, arriving in New York with little more than their knowledge and sheer resilience. Swipe to read more an#bout their story.

@brassfieldestatewinery VP of national sales Billy Ayer offers some insight to the sales strategy of success for the brand. He says, “ We opened a lot of new markets that had never seen our wine [in 2025], and it’s just by going out each day and [doing] what I call old-school blocking and tackling: supporting your distributors, supporting your restaurateurs and retailers, calling on those accounts. I just spent the past two days kicking off a market by myself in Idaho, because we don’t have somebody that’s running that market. So I’m going to run it for the time being. And I felt like the luckiest person in the world to go out and just sell wine for two days. I think it’s just a matter of being positive and not buying into all the negative noise that’s out there right now. You know, we could all commiserate and talk about how bad everything is, or we can go out and we can talk to people. The younger buyer and drinker out there today wants a story, so I lead by talking about [the fact that] our bottles are 100% estate-grown and -produced. And then [terroir] comes right behind that. . . . If you look at vineyards around the world, only 1% . . . are planted above 1,600 feet. Every one of our vineyards is planted above 1,800 feet. . . . There’s so much to tell about the place, about the microclimates and the macroclimates that we have there, the volcanic soils, the 17 different varietals we have planted there. I could talk for two hours about how authentic Brassfield Estate is . . . and how proud and profitable our customers would be if they carried the brand.” Swipe to read more.

Marcello Palazzi, front, with his team of Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF) service volunteers, represented all of the hard work that goes into Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF), held in Naples, Florida, from January 30 to February 1, which had an important mission: raising significant funds to support vulnerable children in Collier County. Their mantra to bid high and bid often was exceptionally effective: The 2026 NWWF live auction at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón, raised more than $30 million for nonprofits that provide education, health care, and social services in the community. Since its inception in 2001, the NWWF has raised more than $336 million to benefit 385,000 children. Swipe to read more.

Thank you again, @sommjournal , for the feature!🍷

Under the stewardship of Daniel Geiger, lead sommelier at @matteistavernauberge , an exceptional wine list at features nearly 500 producers that emphasize a sense of place. While it’s “meant as a love letter to the Old World,” Geiger adds that he also aims “to pay respect to regional pioneers and trailblazers from Santa Barbara County and the Sta. Rita Hills, among other stellar vintners in California,” he says. Of particular importance to him, he adds, are biodynamically grown wines that are “produced with low intervention and have a lighter, leaner style.” He has a gift for relating to his guests when discussing such bottlings, eschewing unnecessary jargon in favor of more thoughtful, natural language. “‘Simplicity is the greatest luxury’ is an idea we try to live by at Mattei’s,” he states. Swipe to read more.

In our April issue, @denveater writes, “for the first time since its inception in 2017, this column is two pages long. I needed the extra space just to list all the accolades that the respective owners of @marbellawinebar and @dearemilia_denver have racked up for their other ventures over the past few years. Recognition isn’t everything, of course-countless wonderful restaurants survive for decades by catering to their communities in relative obscurity—but it certainly helps to explain the major buzz surrounding the two concepts, both of which opened in Denver in January.” Swipe to read more about what makes these eateries so special.

In our April issue, @deborahparkerwong explores one of wine’s age-old questions: Do wines made from old vines taste better? And is there a scientific method for establishing the age of grapevines? Swipe to read about her findings.

“I don’t like to make wines in the style of someone else or try to emulate other regions.” Thank you @sommjournal for the cover, the story, and for getting what we’re actually trying to do out here. We got to host sommeliers and buyers from across California at our @quiltandco tasting room in downtown Napa for this one and to everyone who came out and shared a glass, thank you. 🍷🍷

In her April column, @writeonrubee writes, “When Christopher Brugman opened @heritagekitchencocktails in Scottsdale, Arizona, last October, one goal was to share his love of wine. ‘Wine is a way of life’ is sort of my tagline,” remarks the executive chef and operating partner. “My wife, Jill, and I love wine, and it’s really part of the fabric of our lives. It should be poured generously and revisited often at the table.” Accordingly, Brugman personally curates Heritage’s wine list. “The menu [has] a coastal Mediterranean influence, and the wine program is in lockstep with that,” he explains. “My flavor profiles range from the spice markets of Morocco to Southern Italy and into the Iberian Peninsula—my family is from a small town in northern Spain called Asturias.” Swipe to read more.