Phelan Farms 'Misturado' 2021 San Luis Obispo, California

Mencia & Trousseau

Phelan Farms, SLO Coast, California

Raj Parr ran the wine programs for some of San Francisco's most notable restaurants and makes wine for some highly esteemed and incredibly allocated estates, such as Evening Land, Sandhi, and Domaine de la Cote. Raj has decided to bring the "nose to tail" philosophy to wine and start a new project in which he will be involved in every process of wine production, from farming to bottling, called Phelan Farm. The original farm was founded by the Phelan family in the late 1800s near the Steiner Creek just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean in Cambria, California.

Greg Phelan planted some small plots of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines in 2017, hoping to bring quality winemaking to this small pocket of California's coastline. Raj was smitten as soon as he saw the property, and decided to start his new venture dedicated to regenerative farming and bringing a new wave to California winemaking.

The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines remain, but many different international varieties, from Jura to Savoie and Andalusia Spain, have been added. The ultimate goal is to plant grape varieties that are perfectly suited to the terroir, and not just what is in fashion. The inspirations for the project are some of the greatest wines and producers in the world, including Thierry Allemand, Envinate, J. L Chave, and Stéphane Tissot, and the soils here are a unique mix of Cambrian felsite and pink quartz that can be found nowhere else in California. Raj is the chief winemaker on his other projects, but here he is also the farmer, after choosing to move to Cambria and dedicate himself to deeply exploring this unique terroir.

Phelan Farm is experimenting with an number of different wines, but the Misturado de Cambria has really caught the wine world's attention. An ode to Envinate's Misturado de Abeleda, it is made from Mencia (40%) sourced from cuttings from Envinate's legendary Mencia vineyards, as well as Trousseau. Matured in 500L neutral French oak.