Producer Article
Arnot-Roberts
Last edited on 8/18/2023 by LindsayM
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Jamie Kutch left a highly paid career as a stock trader in 2005 to move to California and pursue his dream of making wine. People thought he was crazy, until the first Pinot Noir he released scored 93 points in Wine Spectator. That shouldn't come as a surprise as Jamie has cut his teeth among some of the best producers in the Pinot Noir world. From his time spent working at the revered Kosta Browne in Sonoma to receiving sage advice from none other than Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Jamie has taken everything he has learned to produce some of the most compelling and terroir driven wines in California.
The Kutch wines are made as naturally as possible. After the grapes are harvested by hand, they are sorted meticulously and moved only by gravity, before being fermented in small open-top containers with hand and foot punch downs using indigenous yeasts. When fermented, the wine is gravity flowed into French Oak barrels, where they age sur lie (on the lees). The vineyard pursues a minimalist philosophy, trying to produce the purest expression of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from a particular place and time.
Since foundation 2001, Arnot-Roberts has been one of the most progressive and revolutionary producers on the California landscape. Initially their focus was just on making great Californian wines, but when the cool 2005 vintage gave them wines in a more austere, high acid style than the region was used to, Nathan and Duncan reacted completely differently to practically everyone else in California – they loved them and decided to pursue lower ripeness levels and higher acidity in all of their wines henceforth.
The intent is to produce wines that express the character of the sites in which the grapes are grown. No vineyards are owned. Fruit was sourced by arrangements with farmers from prime sites in Napa, the Sonoma Coast, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Santa Rita Hills, Moon Mountain and the Sierra Foothills. The focus is on single vineyards, but some regional / appellation wines are also made if the grapes show strong association with their origins. The common thread is that most of the fruit is sourced from cooler vineyard sites.
Jamie Kutch left a highly paid career as a stock trader in 2005 to move to California and pursue his dream of making wine. People thought he was crazy, until the first Pinot Noir he released scored 93 points in Wine Spectator. That shouldn't come as a surprise as Jamie has cut his teeth among some of the best producers in the Pinot Noir world. From his time spent working at the revered Kosta Browne in Sonoma to receiving sage advice from none other than Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Jamie has taken everything he has learned to produce some of the most compelling and terroir driven wines in California.
The Kutch wines are made as naturally as possible. After the grapes are harvested by hand, they are sorted meticulously and moved only by gravity, before being fermented in small open-top containers with hand and foot punch downs using indigenous yeasts. When fermented, the wine is gravity flowed into French Oak barrels, where they age sur lie (on the lees). The vineyard pursues a minimalist philosophy, trying to produce the purest expression of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from a particular place and time.
Since foundation 2001, Arnot-Roberts has been one of the most progressive and revolutionary producers on the California landscape. Initially their focus was just on making great Californian wines, but when the cool 2005 vintage gave them wines in a more austere, high acid style than the region was used to, Nathan and Duncan reacted completely differently to practically everyone else in California – they loved them and decided to pursue lower ripeness levels and higher acidity in all of their wines henceforth.
The intent is to produce wines that express the character of the sites in which the grapes are grown. No vineyards are owned. Fruit was sourced by arrangements with farmers from prime sites in Napa, the Sonoma Coast, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Santa Rita Hills, Moon Mountain and the Sierra Foothills. The focus is on single vineyards, but some regional / appellation wines are also made if the grapes show strong association with their origins. The common thread is that most of the fruit is sourced from cooler vineyard sites.