Help us welcome winemaker Evan Lewandowski of Ruth Lewandowski wines! Evan will be in the house pouring and chatting about his wines today from 5-7pm. Info on Evan and the featured wines are below.
Each month, our shop highlights a different small, local California winemaker by acting as a pop-up tasting room, exclusively featuring their wines by the flight or glass. You’re also welcome to drop in anytime all month to taste and discover.
It’s not the winemaker’s name. In fact, there’s nobody named Ruth in Evan Lewandowski’s family… unless—or until—you realize that because matter is neither created nor destroyed, and without death there cannot be new life, then IN FACT, there’s truly a little bit of Ruth in all of us. Spiritual, sensitive and folkloric, Evan culled his wine label’s name and inspiration from the Old Testament’s book of Ruth, and the story of a young woman who, as he explains, out of “the wreckage of death and tragedy[…] finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live... not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all.” Suitably, Evan is wholly dedicated to wines that speak of regeneration in the soils of the vineyards and the natural fermentation that occurs as strains of yeast and bacteria build up, then die off, paving the way for the complex aromas, flavors and textures that make wines like his so enthralling.
Evan started his label a little over a decade ago after getting bitten by the wine bug working at a wine bar in Park City, Utah, (that was owned by the guy who’s now his distributor!), then interning and harvest-chasing through Washington, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Italy and Germany. Back in the US, at first, he was the crazy guy who was picking Mendocino fruit and then trucking his fermenting juice in a refrigerated U-Haul back to his home in Utah! Today however, the Ruth Lewandowski wines are fully planted (literally and figuratively) here in northern California. It’s been amazing to see the evolution of these soulful bottles, which are getting more complex, more focused and more exciting every year, and we’re thrilled to showcase them this month.