ESOTERICA by KENT RASMUSSEN
The idea behind Esoterica is a simple one-California is a great place to grow grapes and make wine, but we have become psychologically dependent upon only a few varieties. And yet the world is full of wonderful grapes that make great wine. Esoterica will explore these varieties and hopefully, as time passes, provide some sort of "spark" for the wider acceptance of grapes that are outside of the "usual".
Initially, Esoterica will have one "cornerstone" wine that will be
made every year -Petite Sirah; it is on the fringe, but not entirely out of the
mainstream. In addition, we will offer a changing group of wines that will be
chosen from various appellations to highlight how well each variety does under
California's climatic and soil condition
s. The quantities we produce will be
small, as market-demand will be limited, but also because most of them come from
tiny plantings grown by far-sighted grape growers.
For twenty years we have off-and-on been making esoteric wines from California's vineyards at Kent Rasmussen Winery. Sadly, while making them has been successful and fun, getting them into the wine-market has been embarrassingly hit-or-miss. Some have been produced under our Ramsay label over the years, but more great wines than I care to admit have never been bottled because we didn't have a cohesive way to market them. Esoterica now gives us a platform for presenting these wonderful wines.
