“It is truly satisfying and even exciting to contemplate the new vineyard as it develops.” —Chris Howell
All of us at Cain want to thank you for your support over the past year and we want to bring you up to date on our doings and what you can expect in 2024.
But first, this: it is raining. At this time of the year, we welcome the rain to saturate our soils, to replenish our watershed, and to fill our reservoirs. This year, we’re off to a good start, but there’s still a long way to go if we’re to reach the total of 50 inches or more that the Cain Vineyard often receives between November and April. Rain may seem so banal, or even an annoyance—unless you’re a farmer. Then you know, in your deepest being, that water truly is life.
We are often asked about our progress in rebuilding Cain. The natural assumption is that “rebuilding” means building a new winery to replace the one we lost to the wildfire of 2020. Our response remains the same: at Cain, we begin with the vineyard where we also lost many of our vines to the wildfire. Each year at this time, Ashley and her team plant new baby vines in blocks that they have methodically cleared and prepared during the previous season. Now, in our fourth year of replanting, we have tens of thousands of thriving new vines. It is truly satisfying and even exciting to contemplate the new vineyard as it develops. It is built upon all we’ve learned since the first vines were planted here in 1981. It’s designed with the future in mind, and will surely be better than anything we had before. In another email, I will go deeper in explaining some of the changes and improvements we’ve been making.
When these new vines bear enough grapes—say in another five or so years—we will need a winery. Needless to say, we have plenty of ideas about how to do it, but that is for the future.
In the meantime, Mandy and I have been blessed to be able to make our wine in a friend’s winery in St. Helena. Last Summer, after two years, we were able to bring the first Cain Five to bottle since the fire—and we look forward to offering it to you this Summer: the 2021 Cain Five. These few precious bottles carry forward the legacy and continuity of the Cain Vineyard and continue to inspire us for the future. We must be patient while the wine is still settling into the bottle, but honestly, we can’t wait to be able to send it to you!
Also, there are more wines to look forward to in 2024. Coming soon will be our 2018 Cain Vineyard Syrah, and towards the end of the year you’ll be the first to taste our NV18 Cain Cuvée. Both of these wines have been waiting patiently for their moment as we work our way towards the future. These few years of bottle age have done them good.
And, be on the lookout for a couple of surprises in the “O.T.O.” (One Time Only) series, as we continue our exploration of other vineyards and other varieties to give us inspiration for the future of the Cain Vineyard.
We continue to remind ourselves that Cain is not only about a vineyard or a wine—it is also about people, without whom none of this would exist. Of course, we begin first in the vineyard by acknowledging Ashley and her amazing team, more than half of whom have been tending vines at Cain for more than two decades; then, Mandy has been my key support in getting those grapes made into wine. But none of this would have any purpose without Katie Lazar who plays the central role in guiding our business and keeping it together—she’s also been running our sales for a decade and a half now (and she’s my wife). On the phone or by email, you’ll have met her team, Matt, Brooke, and Mandy, who are responsible for getting our wine to you. We must also acknowledge our owner, Jim Meadlock, who has been supporting the Cain project since 1986. And we need to think of the large community who support us, from grapevines, bottles, corks, and labels to shipping and website, with accounting, taxes, and legal compliance along the way, in all the myriad details the make up our day-to-day work at Cain.
To all of these people, I am profoundly grateful—and all of us are deeply grateful to you, who explore and taste our wines and take this journey with us.
Should you be planning to be in our area, please call ahead. If we can, we’d love to find a way to show you in person what we’ve been doing. And if we’re going to be in your neighborhood, we’ll be sure to reach out so that we can meet you and share our latest wines.
Here’s to 2024!
—Christopher Howell, Wine Grower
2024