RUTH LEWANDOWSKI (Evan Lewandowski), Salt Lake City, Utah
Evan Lewandowski comes to us by way of Park City, Utah, where at the age of 21, he met Zev while working in Zev's wine bar. Speed forward to the present, we are now proud to share Evan's independent wines, labeled as Ruth Lewandowski. Using fruit grown at Testa Vineyard and Fox Hill Vineyard in Mendocino county, Evan begins fermentation in California then drives the fermenting juice in a refrigerated U-Haul to his home in Salt Lake City where he completes fermentation, ageing, and bottling. Evan will ultimately harvest grapes from Utah; and for that vintage, we eagerly wait. In regard to organic winemaking, Evan says "A winegrower working incessantly in his/her vines, with a mind focused both on the sky above and the soil below, not just the fruit zone, will naturally come to deeply know their vines and their specific place and inevitably seek to eradicate those things that destroy in favor of choosing to support and encourage life. It must start with these connections in the vineyard. Wine made by these people, the ones earnestly and honestly seeking to know their farms, in the end will be organic wine to me."