California Stars, Love Me Love Me Not 2023

85% Chardonnay, 15% Muscat

North Coast, California

Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast/Mendocino with 10-12 days maceration on the skins. Muscat from Lodi with 6 days on skins. The multiple treatments of Chardonnay across different vineyards/regions give the wine a lot of depth and complexity while still maintaining lightness and freshness. The muscat brings a pop of orange/citrus and floral notes.

California Stars is a custom project from Selection Massale, working with Shaunt Oungoulian and Diego Roig of Les Lunes Wines/Populis.

Shaunt and Diego met at UC Davis but really became fast friends and partners while abroad in France staging separately in the Loire. After setting up shop in California, the duo decided to lease vineyards, but remain very hands-on about farming. Currently, they work with about 45 acres total and have collaborated with the same team for pruning and harvesting for the past five years or so. One tactic has been to source grapes from people they want to learn from– for instance, Larry Venturi. They’ve been able to convert quite a few conventionally farmed vineyards and begin working with them as well.  

Each label tells a story about California and the winemakers’ passions.  The three-part story revolves around a love letter: a bear masked character writes a letter to a farming woman, who receives it while busy working in the fields. The letter is an invitation to dinner, which sees the two of them coming together eating fine food and wine.