Mike Lucia began his wine career as a teenaged cellar rat at De Loach, jumping in right after graduating from high school. After stints as an assistant at Goldeneye and as the lead winemaker at Copain, Mike left to start his own gig, Rootdown, making wines he calls “playful, organic, true, single-vineyard/variety yet serious.” The Rootdown wines are currently from a variety of single vineyard sites, but eventually they will be made entirely from Jura varietals grown entirely from Cole Ranch. Mike now owns the Cole Ranch in Mendocino, a single-vineyard appellation and the smallest AVA in the US. While the Rootdown wines will focus on the Jura, the Cole Ranch label’s focus is Riesling. And “focus” is the word for these wines: they have keen-edged clarity, almost geometric acidity, loads of minerality, and the legs to cellar for an age. A third label is Es Okay, a project where Mike basically finds a home for some not-so-random fruit from his favorite growers. Blends by both necessity and intent, these are Mike’s “smartass” wines.
For more information, please visit Rootdown Wines
