Sean Castorani and Joana Wells have spent the last 20 some odd year of their careers with a near-singleminded focus on California’s rugged mountain frontiers, and making wines that quietly defy expectations. Their work, according to Joanna, is a rebuttal to the “99% of stuff that’s out there,” which left them bored and frustrated. The pair originally bonded at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa, where the duo met “burying cow horns and dreaming bigger than our paychecks.” From there, each spent years honing their skills with some seriously a-list producers: Sean at Rhys Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Joanna at Kutch Wines in Sonoma. Of course, it was only a matter of time before they decided they needed something of their own.

Thus, the two started Model Farm in 2013, a bootstrap DTC-focused high altitude winery. It began at Jack London's Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen, where London ran an experimental "Model Farm,' testing radical sustainable agricultural ideas that most thought were impractical. The two started farming two acres of syrah by hand – a “masterclass of humility,” that was “just as hard as it sounds.” The project blossomed, but was, almost by definition, difficult to scale and get bottles into people’s hands. Thus, in 2021, Alta Heights was born – an attempt to raise the standard of the wines people actually could afford to drink.

Production at Alta Heights begins with, obviously, the vineyards, all of which are higher than 1000 ft in elevation, a clear contrast to the sandy soil valley floors that dominate the market. The pair is pretty choosy with their vineyards, focusing on raw potential rather than big names – “AVAs are just gerrymandered marketing gimmicks,” says Sean, “ the terroir of the mountains supersedes whatever names they put on the land.” These mountain vineyards are all stand alone, without a lot of soil exchange, so they are dominated by thin, rocky soils, crucial to creating wines that feel alpine. They range in size from a few backyard rows to cherry-picked selections from larger vineyards. What they have in common is that they are all farmed organically, and coincidentally, all of them were planted by winemakers, which Joanna thinks is a fantastic metric for choosing vineyards, as they were planted and laid out specifically to make really good wine.

There’s a real feeling of playing it by ear with Alta Heights, especially with their meteoric growth – from 500cs their first vintage in 2021 to, hopefully, 5000 this fall. Joanna laughingly describes the whole process as “building the plane while flying it.” The cellar work reflects this - it’s largely hands off, with no additions but moderate sulfur usage and no manipulation of the wines. Key to the project is long undisturbed elevage, native ferments, and a push pull of oxidative and reductive winemaking that shapes each bottle.