4 Brothers & a lot of passion

My childhood shapes the wine I make in surprising ways.

I have a big family: 2 sisters, 4 brothers including me, 2 moms, 4 dads, dozens of aunts and uncles, and 82 cousins at last count. We grew up in the ghettos of South Sac & Oak Park (Sacramento, CA) in an eccentric home to say the least.

The mercurial oddities of our childhood had some unpredictably cool effects. We were poor but we also ran wild on a half acre of fruit trees and half-tame gardens and animals (4 goats, 2 ducks, many chickens, 3 dogs and 2 cats amongst others). We had a three-story tree fort in a massive ancient fig tree and our uncle sent us a massive fishing net that our dad suspended under the tree so that we could jump from the top of the fort without dying. We made bows and arrows and swords out of tree limbs. We worked in the garden and in our dad's wood and welding shop under the house. We rarely wore shoes. In short, I loved it.

We also figured out how to make money with little neighborhood hustles. For example, we bought candy from Smart & Final in bulk and would re-sell it to other neighborhood kids (riding around the neighbourhood on bikes and pedicabs our dad made). We sold candy at school too until the Principal found out and put a stop to it.

We all took on jobs as teens working for our Uncle Steve, who owned a small woodworking shop. John and Jerome continued down that path, with Jerome now a Director of Project Management for Universal Custom Display and John a Industrial Design Engineer for California House. Marcus, after serving in the US Marines & working for UPS, has launched his own carpentry company, Ambrose 852 Crafts.

I went a different direction from my brothers. After brief forays into journalism & environmental science, I found winemaking. Winemaking allowed me to fuse these influences--nature & craftsmanship--into one.

-Kevin Luther, Owner & Winemaker

& a quote that reminds me of my childhood & it's influence on me now:

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later year…the alienation from the sources of our strength.” 

-Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder