We all know that wine trends move in waves. But vines don’t care about trends, and you certainly can’t plan for them if one day you want to drink wine produced from 80 year-old vines. 

We all know that wine trends move in waves. But vines don’t care about trends, and you certainly can’t plan for them if one day you want to drink wine produced from 80 year-old vines. 

That’s the story behind Aperture’s Chenin Blanc. The vines were planted in the 1940s, in a quiet pocket of the North Coast, at a time when California was planting almost anything but Chenin. Decades later, as the grape finally has its moment, Jesse Katz is one of the few working with truly old vines, and doing so with clarity and care. His 2023 North Coast Chenin Blanc is as crisp and mineral as any Loire fan could hope for, but there’s also something unmistakably Californian in its sunshine and ease. A living time capsule, built for today.

Katz’s approach to winemaking is shaped by both precision and perspective. He grew up surrounded by art (his father is a world-renowned photographer) and brings that sense of composition and balance into the cellar. Every wine is a study in texture and line, focused not on power but on place. He’s also a master of small decisions: which block, which barrel, which pick date — all in service of letting the site speak.