Recline

Sojourn began in 2001 as a collaboration between two tennis partners, Craig Haserot and Erich Bradley, who shared a passion for great wine as well as tennis. Erich had been assistant winemaker at Arrowood. Their plan was to make small bottlings of Cabernet Sauvignon from extraordinary vineyards, and they started with just over a hundred cases, sold to friends and family.

Twenty years on, Sojourn makes twenty-one wines, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet, many of them from single vineyards, and pours them in a tasting salon in the town of Sonoma. Erich Bradley is still Director of Winemaking. Alongside the Sojourn label the winery now has three others: Fog & Wind for the far Sonoma Coast, Earthwork for high-end Napa Cabernet, and Recline.

Born from the idea that great wine doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions.

Sojourn Cellars, on Recline

Sojourn’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay come from family-owned vineyards on the West Sonoma Coast, in the Petaluma Gap and in the Russian River Valley, many farmed by the same families for generations. Sangiacomo, on Roberts Road near Cotati, has been its flagship Pinot vineyard since 2004, planted in an old creekbed at the western foot of Sonoma Mountain. Gap’s Crown rises from 300 to 800 feet just above it. Rodgers Creek sits in the teeth of the Petaluma Gap’s wind and fog on light, chalky volcanic ash. Ridgetop, at 1,100 feet near Annapolis, is the most coastal of them all, just behind the first ridge from the ocean.

The Recline Pinot Noir is a blend from eight sites across that country, from Annapolis in the north through Occidental to the Petaluma Gap, with several Pinot clones in the mix. The Chardonnay is from three of the region’s top sites. Sojourn doesn’t name which vineyards go into each Recline lot, and we won’t guess.

The Cabernet is from Oakville, the stretch of the Napa Valley that holds To Kalon and much of the valley’s history. Recline draws on several Oakville vineyards. Each lot is fermented separately and the wine is blended late, so the different sites can be weighed against one another before they are put together. Sojourn’s own Oakville Cabernet comes from Oakville Ranch, high on rocky, iron-rich clay, loam and basalt, and from parcels on the alluvial soils off Skellenger Lane.

In the cellar Sojourn describes itself as minimalist: small lots fermented and barrel-aged separately, worked by hand when they need it, and blended at the end. Recline gets the same treatment. Sojourn keeps the vintage details of the Recline lots to itself, so we won’t print numbers we can’t stand behind.

Recline’s own website puts it in one line: the best wines are the ones you actually open. That suits a restaurant floor. The Chardonnay and the Pinot need no speech, and anyone who asks gets a real answer: cool Sonoma Coast vineyards, a respected Sonoma winery, a cellar that makes single-vineyard wines for collectors and treats this one with the same care.

The Oakville Cabernet does the same job for the steak side of the list. It is generous and easy to like, and it comes from one of the most famous names in American wine. The point of Recline is that none of this has to be explained. It just has to be poured.

The best wines are the ones you actually open.

Recline