The Old Fire Station, Old Market, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

Late Harvest Mourvedre, Cline, Sonoma

Cline Cellars is a family-owned vineyard and winery in Sonoma’s Carneros Valley. Established in 1982 by Fred Cline, a descendant of Italian US settlers, he originally founded the winery in Oakley, Contra Costa County, cultivating Rhône varieties and Zinfandel on vines dating back to 1906. In the 1990s, the family moved their winemaking operation to a 350 acre ranch in Carneros Valley, adopting sustainable farming in 2000, and building the largest solar panelled winery in California.

Cline is proud to be a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard and Winery. The program acknowledges a long-term commitment to continual improvement in the field of sustainable winegrowing and business practices. Fred Cline and Bob Cannard founded Green String Farm and the Green String method of sustainable farming in 2003. Green String Farm is a 57 hectare natural process, sustainable farm near Petaluma, California. The Green String method meets the highest standard of environmental sustainability practices, which is different from certified organic. The methods reduce soil erosion, pesticide dependency, and loss of biodiversity; and increase resistance to natural predators. Instead of herbicides, Cline has 1,500 sheep and 500 goats that roam its vineyards, tasked with removing invasive weeds and instead of harmful pesticides.

This vineyard has always shown intense concentration of flavours due, in part, to the miniscule yields. The wine is a deep dark red velvet colour. The late harvest gives the wine extra depth and shows tobacco, plum, and eucalyptus-mint and chocolate with plenty of flesh and a firm balanced structure of acid and fine-grained tannins. The sweetness is not cloying but beautifully suits both strong cheese and chocolate desserts.

CONTACT TO ORDER

We can deliver anywhere in mainland Britain from £11.95 per case.