OUR STORY BEGINS WITH A BLEND
The word SALDO derives from the Italian word for ‘I join’. In a broad sense, this is what SALDO is about: putting together fruit from California’s historic growing regions and shaping that fruit with human hands.
Making great wine requires experimentation, a willingness to try anything to best serve the fruit and the soil. As part of the SALDO Collective we are excited to introduce you to some off-the-beaten-path winemaking methods. These approaches may be new or may be centuries old but either way, we are pushing the boundaries of California wine to new and delicious places.
To get your hands on our limited-production offerings, we'd love to welcome you as a member of the Collective!
Announcing our Upcoming Club Release!
Our Spring release includes two brand new vintages:
The 2024 Carbonic Zinfandel and 2024 White Zinfandel plus the 2021 Carignan
Join the club today to secure these offerings.
Learn more about our wines below.
SALDO CARBONIC ZINFANDEL
Our winemakers went wild creating this bright red that bursts with flavors of red fruit.
While Zinfandel traditionally runs on the bolder end of the spectrum, producing hearty wines for hearty meals, SALDO’s carbonic Zinfandel opens up new possibilities. What if, we wondered, you could keep all the juicy, brooding fruit character of the Zinfandel we love, but make a wine suitable for less lush occasions?
We got to experimenting and by making use of carbonic maceration, we’ve made a wine bursting with energy; fresh fruit and baking spice in a wine that remains light on its feet and ready to drink.
Zippy, juicy and perfect with a slight chill, our Carbonic Zinfandel opens with crushed wild berries, jammy blackberries and a lively mouthfeel of raspberry, black cherry and light peppercorn spice.
SALDO WHITE ZINFANDEL
Meet your new summer rosé.
Chances are you’ve heard someone speak ill of White Zinfandel. Sometimes called ‘blush’, White Zin was a staple of California wine in the 1980s and 1990s. The thing is, White Zinfandel as we know it was a mistake. The style was born when a fermentation stalled in a batch of wine, leaving a high level of residual sugar unconverted to alcohol. The result was a bright pink, semi-sweet wine that was technically drinkable, but not what critics might call a ‘serious’ wine.
White Zinfandel deserves better. At SALDO, we love Zinfandel. It’s America’s grape after all, capable of producing wines of texture, depth, and profound expression. Our White Zinfandel is anything but conventional. It is a bright, elegant wine – light on its feet, completely dry in style, with notes of watermelon and green apple skin. Far from your parents’ “blush”, this White Zin has serious poise.
2022 SALDO CARIGNAN
Our Carignan is sourced from family owned and run Pastori Vineyard in Alexander Valley. The vines are truly majestic at 75+ years of age, are head trained and produce concentrated low yields, perfect for making great wine!
The Carignan 2022 presents a captivating bouquet of blackberry, red cherry, dried cranberry, and strawberries, layered with subtle hints of leather and tobacco. Its aromatic profile is enriched by brown spices, including clove and nutmeg, which add a touch of complexity. On the palate, the wine is soft and fleshy, showcasing a harmonic balance that makes it incredibly approachable. With a refreshing acidity and a round mouthfeel, this Carignan delivers a delightful experience from the first sip to the lasting finish.
2022 SALDO ZINFANDEL DRY CREEK VALLEY
This Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel comes predominately from Grist Vineyard, sitting high above the fog line on top of Bradford Mountain, some 900ft above sea level. The site was originally planted to vines around 100 years ago and is still being farmed today with later plantings on the rich, red, volcanic boomer loam soils. The vines are low yielding and produce wonderfully concentrated fruit. The vineyard is farmed and certified Organic through CCOF certification.
The 2022 Zinfandel displays layers upon layers of ripe red and dark red fruit, black cherries, baking spices and tamarind with notes of dates and chocolate. This Zinfandel is the ultimate expression of power and elegance interwoven together. Rich and full-bodied yet maintaining a delicate finesse, it draws you in with its intricate array of flavors, silky soft tannins and delicious mocha oak finish. A truly remarkable Zinfandel, striking a harmonious balance between complexity and grace, making it a compelling choice for any occasion.
2021 SALDO RED BLEND
This wine is paradigmatically California. Ripe with character and weight, but fresh and ready to drink, it beautifully represents the SALDO perspective.
We like to say that we started with a blend, and we remember why that matters year after year each time we release our Red Blend. Blends are about balance: different varietals in conversations with each other, weighing tannin and fruit, acidity, and color.
This blend is Petite Sirah dominate, which is a bold, tannic varietal that offers brooding dark fruit and spice. But this base is made up of an iconic trio of grapes from France’s Rhone Valley: Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre. Dark fruit like blueberry, blackberry and plum. What results is a wine that is ready for a hearty meal and the summer passes to fall, or a contemplative wine drink on its own, savored and enjoyed among friends.
2022 SALDO ORSI SYRAH
Giving our winemakers the opportunity to create small lot, specially crafted bottlings for you to enjoy, this single vineyard Syrah hails from Orsi vineyard, minutes south of the township of Healdsburg at the cooler, more southern end of Dry Creek Valley.
This 2022 vintage is elegant on the nose with concentrated aromas of black plum, elderberries, dark chocolate, and a nuanced herbal thread interwoven in the complex bouquet. The palate is medium to medium plus in body. It is soft on entry with silky tannins that frame the juicy purple and black fruits and lead through the palate with an enticing umami savory finish that leaves you wanting for another sip.
2022 SALDO ZINFANDEL
There is nothing quite like Zinfandel. A thin-skilled grape capable of producing wine that manage to be both structured and direct, Zinfandel bursts with intensity. This grape also has something of a cosmopolitan history. It goes by the name “Primitivo” in Italy and “Tribidrag” in Croatia where geneticists believe its story began. Still, Zinfandel flourishes in California, thriving in regions of extended sunny exposure. As wine fashions change and growers and vintners started to champion more familiar European styles like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel got list in the shuffle. Refusing to be swept up by the trends, we decided to restore dignity to Zinfandel, treating it with the seriousness and care it deserves.
The 2022 vintage of our iconic Zinfandel is beautifully balanced. Bursting with ripe blackberries, black currants, pepper spice, dark chocolate and fig paste, this wine is rich and enticing. The palate is immediately soft and approachable on entry, with a juicy core supported by silky tannins and soft acidity.
2023 SALDO FALANGHINA
California by way of Italy: skin contact Falanghina for everything from aperitivo hour to a full meal. We took a trend—hey, orange wine lovers—and made it not only visually beautiful, but remarkably delicious. Hailing from southern Italy’s Campania region, Falanghina is not exactly a household name in the U.S. – but it should be. This wine is a great match with scallops, prawns, or pasta with fresh garlic and butter.
The bouquet on this 2023 skins fermented Falanghina is a glorious mix of lemon zest, bright dried apricot, ginger, chamomile, some nuanced floral notes, quince, pears and honey. It has a chalkiness in the background alluding to its time on skins and oxidatively handled fermentation, which adds complexity and intrigue.
The palate is bursting with bright lemon zest acidity, which the Italian native variety is known for, quickly balanced by the weight and phenolic structure of the wine. From the extended time in contact with its skins, which is not a typical white winemaking technique, this wine is very structured with a beautifully textured mouthfeel from the tannins and is long on the palate with a dry finish.
SALDO CHENIN BLANC
One could be forgiven for not immediately thinking of Chenin when asked about white wine.
Native to the Loire Valley in central France, Chenin was long a wine geek’s secret, overshadowed by a more conventional taste for Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. But there is something magical about Chenin, a story that deserves to be told.
Chenin’s early days were dominated by sweet wine of varying quality, made with late-harvest grapes that produced high-alcohol dessert wine. In recent years though, renowned voices like Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier have advocated strongly for Chenin, inspiring the venerable Portland, Oregon wine program SE Wine Collective to found #DrinkCheninDay. Chenin, it would seem, is due for a renaissance. Wines made from Chenin have a satisfying textural quality, a sort of honeyed depth that is balanced by a powerful but not overbearing acidity. Departing from the French style, our Chenin reflects the particular microclimate of Clarksburg: fruity, floral, and fun.