Chris Brockway is a winemaker who is making wine the way it has been made for centuries. No additives, no pesticides, no added yeast, no herbicides, nothing but the grapes and whatever yeast is on... Read More

Chris Brockway is a winemaker who is making wine the way it has been made for centuries. No additives, no pesticides, no added yeast, no herbicides, nothing but the grapes and whatever yeast is on them. Chris is simply making fermented grape juice, a.k.a. wine.

Brockway checks all the "New California" boxes: he makes his wines in Southwest Berkeley, uses minimal intervention techniques, and sources fruit from obscure grapes grown in out of the way places. Chris, though, is actually part of a very long and noble winemaking tradition, and he certainly does not seek out the obscure for the sake of being obscure. As quoted in an Eric Asimov article from a few years ago that put his wines on the map:

“I'm not trying to out-weird anybody or obscure anybody,” he said. “We're trying to get back to a more traditional conception of what wine used to be. Also, we like to drink wine, so lower alcohol is important.”