TRIM

TRIM’s motto is a pun, and it means something. Many wines at this level are adjusted with sugar, concentrate, colour or other additives to make them taste richer or look darker. TRIM doesn’t do that, and says so on its tech sheets alongside the analysis: zero sugar, about 123 to 128 calories a glass, and a list of six ingredients. You may never need to know that a Chardonnay contains malolactic bacteria. It is still good to be told.

The brand’s reasoning for making only two wines is plain too. With more than ten thousand grape varieties in the world, it says, it is easy to get distracted; trimming the range down lets the team put everything into the two it makes.

We believe in winemaking, not winefaking.

TRIM

Ray Signorello Jr. and his father started Signorello Estate on the Silverado Trail in 1977, grew grapes for some years, and then made estate Cabernet and Chardonnay from hillside vines on volcanic soil. After the 2017 Atlas Fire destroyed the winery and his home, he rebuilt a fire-resistant winery in the hill, which opened in 2024. TRIM, like Edge, comes from the same company and is made at the same standards.

From the first TRIM fact sheets in 2016, the promise has been that Ray personally selects the Chardonnay and Cabernet lots each vintage, looking for concentrated fruit and balance in a wine that is ready to drink early. That selection is the real work behind a wine like this. The sources change when the fruit does.

For the 2021, 2022 and 2023 vintages the Chardonnay came from the Russian River Valley, the cool, foggy heart of Sonoma Chardonnay; the 2022 made 1,528 cases at 13.7 per cent alcohol, with bright acidity. With 2024 it moved to Mendocino, further north, and the production went up to 3,307 cases. Both are on our list, and they are worth tasting side by side.

The Cabernet comes from Lodi, the broad inland district at the edge of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, cooled in the evenings by breezes off the water. The 2023 is 88 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon with 12 per cent Petite Sirah, 13.7 per cent alcohol; 8,381 cases were made.

Wine Enthusiast gave the 2023 Cabernet 89 points and the 2024 Chardonnay 88, both as Best Buys. Jeb Dunnuck gave the 2023 Chardonnay 88 and described it as “bright and refreshing” with “clean citrus and minty nuances in a medium-bodied, fresh, elegant package.” Jim Gordon of Wine Enthusiast, on an earlier Chardonnay, wrote of a flinty mineral character and bright acidity that gives it an appetizing mouthfeel and a clean finish.

Nobody will write poems about it. Everybody will finish the glass.