{"product_id":"chasing-ether-california-white-wine-2025","title":"Chasing Ether California White Wine 2025","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe appellation on this label is simply California, which usually signals a wine assembled for volume. This is the opposite case. The Chenin Blanc backbone comes from six separate vineyards: two in Lodi, and one each in El Dorado, Cienega Valley, Santa Barbara and Los Alamos. Those sites share almost nothing geologically. Cienega Valley sits directly on the San Andreas Fault, on limestone and decomposed granite. El Dorado is decomposed granite at Sierra Foothills elevation. Lodi is deep sandy loam, cooled at night by Delta air. Los Alamos and Santa Barbara run cool and maritime through the transverse-range corridors that funnel ocean fog inland. Stitching one wine across that spread is a deliberate argument about what California white wine is, not a cost-saving measure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 2025 Chasing Ether California white is 75 percent Chenin Blanc, with 6 percent each old-vine Palomino and Riesling, 5 percent of a mixed white field blend, and 3 percent each Grenache Blanc and Picpoul. Everything is whole-cluster pressed, settled only briefly, and fermented in old French oak barrels on its primary lees, with the secondary fermentations left to finish on their own. The base blend is assembled after six months and returned to wood for three more, nine months in barrel in total. Finished alcohol is 13.5 percent. Quince, Bartlett pear and green apple first, then candied orange rind and camphor, carried on a viscous, lees-built texture with acidity that stays sharp to the end. California 2025 was cool and even statewide, with below-average rainfall and no significant heat spikes, so fruit reached ripeness at lower sugars than usual.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJon Berlin was born in Johannesburg and shaped surfboards in Cape Town from 1991 to 1997 before he ever worked a harvest. Restaurant work in Stellenbosch followed, then cellar jobs across South Africa, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and a postgraduate diploma in viticulture and winemaking from Lincoln University in 2003. He took winemaking roles at Viader, Bello Family, Kristine Ashe and Solis, then spent nearly two decades as winemaker and general manager at El Molino in Napa Valley, through 2024. El Molino made only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, quietly and by old-world logic, which is a long apprenticeship in restraint. He founded Chasing Ether in 2024 to work the other direction: blending across an entire state instead of narrowing to one hillside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChenin with this much texture wants fat and salt. Roast a chicken with lemon and butter and tarragon pushed under the skin, and the acidity cuts straight through the drippings. Sear a pork loin and finish it with sauteed apples and a splash of cider, which plays to the quince and orange rind. Dungeness crab, cracked and served with nothing but drawn butter, lets the mineral side of the wine do the work. For cheese, a wedge of aged Gouda and its caramel crystals meets the camphor edge head-on. This is the California white to keep in the fridge door for the nights you did not plan anything.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Doug Krenik Selections","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51452400632031,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P9270429.jpg?v=1790548336","url":"https:\/\/danverwinemerchant.com\/products\/chasing-ether-california-white-wine-2025","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}