Emme Wines 'Amando el Sol' Colombard 2025

Colombard was once the most widely planted white grape in California — then the industry decided Chardonnay was the answer to everything, and it quietly disappeared from serious wine production. Rosalind Reynolds disagreed. 'Amando el Sol' is 100% Colombard from the dry-farmed, organic Ricetti Vineyard in Redwood Valley: lean, precise, and mineral-driven, with the kind of acidity that makes you reach for a second glass before the first one is finished. No oak, no manipulation, no fruit pushed beyond its nature.

'Amando el sol' means loving the sun — an acknowledgment of the grape's nature and the California heat that makes it happy.

Quick Facts

• Varietal: 100% Colombard
• Winemaker: Rosalind Reynolds
• Vineyard: Ricetti Vineyard
• Appellation: Redwood Valley, Mendocino, California
• Farming: Organic, dry-farmed
• ABV: 11%

Tasting Profile

• Aroma: Lemon peel, white nectarine, dried wildflower, faint saline mineral
• Body: Light to medium
• Fruit: Bright citrus and stone fruit; clean, precise, and restrained
• Oak: Unoaked
• Texture: Lean and linear with bracing, mouthwatering acidity
• Finish: Dry, saline, and refreshing — short in length but clean and distinct

Why We Love It

Very few people are making serious Colombard in California right now. Rosalind Reynolds is one of them, and 'Amando el Sol' is the clearest argument we know for why this grape deserves a second look. It drinks beautifully on its own and transforms at the table — the acidity and saline edge make it one of the most food-friendly whites we carry at any price point. At $35, it is also one of the most honest bottles in our white wine program. We keep coming back to it.

Winemaking

The Colombard is harvested from the Ricetti Vineyard in Redwood Valley, a dry-farmed, organically managed site that has been farmed by the same family since 1939. The fruit is pressed directly at harvest, settled overnight, and racked off gross lees into stainless steel for primary fermentation with native yeast. After fermentation, the wine is divided between stainless steel and neutral oak barrels for six months of aging. The stainless steel portion keeps the wine tight, citrus-forward, and slightly reductive in the best sense. The neutral oak opens up warmth and a quiet floral character without contributing any oak flavor. The two components are blended and bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulfur addition. No other additions.

Women of Wine: Rosalind Reynolds

Rosalind Reynolds founded Emme Wines in 2018, naming the label after her maternal grandmother. She works out of a cooperative winemaking facility in Sonoma alongside Pax Mahle and a community of like-minded small producers, where she also serves as assistant winemaker for Pax Wines — a role that has deepened her technical range while keeping her connected to the collaborative, craft-first culture that defines the facility.

Reynolds built Emme around a deliberate premise: that California's most interesting white wines aren't being made from Chardonnay. Her focus on Colombard, Carignan, Valdiguié, Abouriou, and Muscat Vert — grapes that either dominated the state a generation ago or have never been mainstream — is both a historical argument and a winemaking philosophy. She works only with organically farmed sites she has committed to long-term, and makes every wine with native yeast, no additives, and minimal intervention.

In an era when California white wine is still largely defined by a single variety, Reynolds is quietly building one of the most distinctive portfolios in the state. 'Amando el Sol' is its most direct expression: a forgotten grape, treated with the seriousness it always deserved.

Estate Overview

Emme Wines is a small-production label founded in Sonoma County in 2018. Reynolds sources fruit from four vineyard partners across Northern California, each committed to organic or sustainable farming: Ricetti Vineyard in Redwood Valley (Mendocino), Nakai Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, and Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador County, among others. The Ricetti Vineyard, planted in 1939 and farmed by three generations of the same family, is the heart of the Emme program and the source of both the Colombard and Carignan bottlings. Total production is intentionally small, with most wines available only through a short list of trusted retailers and direct allocation.

Serving and Pairing

Serve at 48 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit. 'Amando el Sol' is at its best slightly cool but not cold — too cold and the saline minerality recedes; too warm and the acidity loses its definition. It opens well in the glass over 10 to 15 minutes.

At the table it is exceptionally versatile. The high acidity and saline edge make it a natural match for oysters, grilled seafood, ceviche, and light shellfish preparations. It works equally well with herb-forward dishes, fresh goat cheese, vegetable-forward pastas, and anything with a citrus component in the preparation. For a California pairing, try it with Dungeness crab or a simple roast chicken with preserved lemon.