Scythian Wine Co. is arguably the most moving part of Rajat Parr's work with his friend Abe Schoener.
The project was born from a simple, almost urgent gesture: to preserve some of the oldest vineyards still in production in California, around Cucamonga and Temecula.
Planted at the beginning of the 20th century, sometimes on their own rootstock, these vines grow on deep granitic sandy soils. They are neither irrigated nor truly treated, and some have survived for nearly a century in a state of near-abandonment, left to the climate, the wind, and their own adaptability.
Grenache, Palomino, Mission, and other historic grape varieties form a botanical heritage that has become extremely rare.
Scythian Wine Co. seeks less to restore these vineyards than to prolong their existence.
The work remains deliberately understated. Manual harvesting, spontaneous fermentations, measured extractions, simple aging, no added sulfur. Nothing should obscure the fruit's fragility, the uniqueness of the grape varieties, or the strength of these arid landscapes.
The wines surprise with their restraint.
Despite the heat of Southern California, the reds remain light, supple, and infused, with clear fruit and an almost ethereal energy. The whites, made from long-forgotten varieties, develop saline, dry, and deeply tactile profiles.
Straightforward wines, without artifice, carried by vines that tell another story of California.
An older, wilder, and perhaps also more vulnerable story.
