Weatherborne
Aviation-Inspired Wine
by Cris Carter
You might not want to sit next to me on a plane. I won’t be closing the shade so you can watch The Office without glare on your screen. I booked the window seat on purpose. I will be studying the curve of Horseshoe Bend, the timbered slopes of the Coastal Range and the maze of freeways in the LA Basin. From thirty-thousand feet, the world feels small and fragile. That vertical perspective is nothing to turn away from. Better to plant your face firmly on the glass and regain your sense of awe from hurtling through the troposphere at close to Mach speed.
My flight path to Anderson Valley was full of long layovers and maybe a few missed connections. I have worked in wine from Southern California to Oregon to New Zealand and back to Cali. Traveling gives one a breadth of experience that shapes how the world is viewed—you know, seeing the forest, not just the trees. My family bought thirty acres of abandoned apple trees and wild grasses in 2015. While we still don’t have a tractor, and our fences still need to be mended, we have started working on our farm. We have planted dozens of fruit trees, including heritage cider apples and perry pears, for future fermentation products. We still need to get some goats and sheep, still need to clear out some poison oak and blackberries, but we have a dream, and isn’t that what California is really about?
I believe that regenerative agriculture is the path forward for California’s farmland. With a warming climate and less rainfall being the new pattern, you will be hearing a lot more about dry farmed grapes! I understand that a lot of people don’t want to see another vineyard in Anderson Valley. Fine, but let me tell you, apples and sheep don’t pay the property taxes anymore in Mendocino, let alone support families easily. Farmers need to add value to their products if they want to survive. Whether that’s growing grapes to make wine, or offering guest stays in a working apple orchard, farmland will only stay farmland by making economic sense.
I’m not an expert in restorative or regenerative farming, but luckily the practices are simple: avoid monocultures, include wild areas, increase biodiversity, care for your soil, and don’t poison your well. Weatherborne has only purchased organic grapes (not all third-party certified) since 2018 and will continue doing so. I believe we need to start planning for a warmer future, so I focus on Grenache, which could do well in Anderson Valley in the coming decades. I still love Pinot and still make it, but it’s nice to do something different. I make my wines with care, intervening only when absolutely necessary.
As a small business owner, I wear many hats, from accounting to deliveries to the actual winemaking. But I find the most joy in pouring a nice glass of wine for new guests and seeing their eyes light up when that first delicious sip hits their tongues. I hope one day I can be behind the bar, but for now we have a nice shady patio and a sunny picnic area.
Wine is wonderful because you can travel the world in a glass, on your porch by yourself or at your table with dear friends. The stories contained in those ounces are stories of joy, of pain, of successes and defeats. Wine is real, or at least it should be. Yes, there are tank farms of industrial juice shipped around the world like any other commodity. Perhaps there is a place for those mass market wines, but that’s not why I’ve spent twenty years in the wine industry.
Alternatively, I don’t aspire to be on the glossy cover of a wine magazine with a glass up to my nose, expounding about a quest to make the “best wine in the world.” I want to make good, grounded wines that provide pleasure and have a sense of place—wines that speak in a steady voice, neither mumbling nor shouting out their own virtues.
So, while I always aim to please, when you fly next, remember to bring your sunglasses—I’ll be keeping that window shade open.
Weatherborne Wine Corp
weatherborne.com | Instagram: Weatherborne | (707) 684-5299
Tasting room: 8750 Philo School Rd., Philo
Open Fri–Sat 12pm–5pm / Sun 11pm–4pm / by appointment
Cris Carter was born to an airline family in Santa Barbara, moved around the States, and then studied Viticulture & Enology at UC Davis, where he graduated in 2002.
