{"title":"LA River Wine Co.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAbe Schoener founded The LA River Wine Co in 2019, but the seed had been planted many years previously. Once a philosophy professor at St John’s College, he took a sabbatical in 1998, turning his hand to grape growing and that's all it took. Soon thereafter he began to craft wines under his label the Scholium Project where he developed not only a fondness, but a deep dedication to the somewhat underdog vines of California. In the process he has helped to highlight the lesser-known but magical vineyards that exist in the state, such as the deep-rooted ancient vines of Lodi. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt Scholium, almost all of the fruit he worked with was derived from Cali's northern climes. But Abe’s a bit of a history nerd and once he learned about the history of southern California wine, it sparked a fire deep within, so much so that he uprooted his life in Napa to move to Los Angeles, in order to explore the potential of SoCal’s unheralded terroir. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt all finally came together when Abe picked up the phone and called California’s most famous sommelier-turned-winemaker and farmer, Rajat Parr.. He had a visceral instinct that this project would intrigue him. His instinct was spot on and together, they set out to see what might be possible. What they discovered was almost unthinkable: a treasure trove of century-old and semi-forgotten grapevines growing just 30 minutes outside of the city. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOnce a center of California winemaking, the rapid decline of vineyards in southern California is testament to their location; an acre of land here can easily fetch several million dollars on the market, hence much of the land home to the original vineyards have succumbed to one of Southern California most infamous exports; terrible urban planning. So it's no surprise that when you say the word Cucamonga in wine circles these days,you will usually get a look of puzzlement or disdain. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYet somehow amongst all those enormous roads, strip malls, subdivisions and parking lots the size of small towns some of the old original vineyards remain, their determined roots buried tens of feet into the deep sand of the region. Abe and Raj have dedicated themselves to the preservation of these unique sites attempting to prevent what would inevitably have been their untimely demise. They have taken it upon themselves to do everything in their power to bring their existence and majesty to light. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The idea is to work with the small remaining traces of these vineyards, and to rediscover the nature of wines that can be made in Southern California from vineyards that are so close to a city; so close to the ocean; so close to the desert — at the intersection of all of these elements,” says Abe. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile they allude to wines from other regions, these own-rooted old vines, grown in the desert of Southern California, are something truly their own. They work with Palomino, Grenache, Salvador, Alicante Bouschet, País, Rose of Peru and Zinfandel, all grapes that I have at least a bit of familiarity with but the LA River iterations are wholly unique. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt feels that we are constantly hammered with the notion that the high acid, low abv wines with complexity, concentration and balance can only come from areas that are cool and wet. The LA River Wine Company turns that notion on its head!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/sf.flatiron-wines.com\/collections\/la-river-wine-co.oembed","provider":"Flatiron SF","version":"1.0","type":"link"}