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ESTABLISHED IN 1997

Vinum Cellars is a collaboration of winemakers Richard Bruno and Chris Condos, who first became friends while they were students at UC Davis. They share a long standing passion for Chenin Blanc and fondness for the more obscure grape varieties.

After graduation, Chris went to work for Pine Ridge as Enologist, and Richard went to Bonny Doon as their distiller. Shortly after, their friendship was solidified over Chenin Blanc with the creation of their first wine "Pointe Blanc". Currently the Vinum Cellars team is working with over 14 grape varieties from El Dorado and San Benito Counties to Napa Valley.

THE PROCESS

Our basic winemaking philosophy is to work with great grape growers to develop the best fruit in the vineyard. We pick the grapes at optimal ripeness and gently process the fruit. We are very experimental with yeast strains and use different cultures for each variety. Our whites are barrel fermented slowly and aged Sur Lies in small French Oak barrels. With our reds, skin contact is optimized by the use of small open top fermentors, hand punch downs and extended maceration before pressing. Our belief in the use of older French Oak barrels allows the varietal fruit of our wines to be expressed. We are committed to experimenting and learning new winemaking methods while preserving an old world approach.

Richard Bruno

Richard pursued his interest in wine by going into the restaurant business in 1985. As a waiter and bartender, the opportunity to taste rare and exiting wines increased as his experience in the industry progressed. After deciding to become a winemaker, he attended UC Davis to learn Viticulture & Enology in 1994 and graduated in 1997. Richard worked for various wineries from Santa Cruz to Napa Valley and as an independent wine consultant in California and Colorado. He was the Director of Winemaking for Don Sebastiani & Sons for eight years and has consulted for various wineries including Niebaum-Coppola and Michael Pozzan Winery in the Napa Valley.

The Wines!

Chenin Blanc

The first thought is refreshing after nosing this wine and discovering tropical fruits such as kiwi and casaba melon notes and a touch of linalool and blood orange notes. The palate is completely balanced in its acidity and mid palate allowing a variation of flavors to be revealed: citron lemon, key lime, Pipen apple, fig and Meyer lemon zest. It finishes with honeysuckle, mango, passion fruit and kumquat.

This is our 17th year of producing Chenin Blanc from Wilson Farms in Clarksburg California, near Sacramento in the Delta.

Pinot Noir
On the palate, this wine is very supple and generous with ripe cherries and cherry pie flavors with subtle vanilla and toasted oak texturing and flavors. The wine finishes complete with balanced acidity and extracted fruit notes highlighting cherries but also incorporating earthy notes from both the terroir, but also the clonal selection which includes Pommard clone 4.

Cabernet Sauvignon
This Cabernet Sauvignon is from a dry farmed, low yielding, hillside vineyard riddled with granite deposits. Each year this vineyard produces small-berried clusters of fully mature grapes from which we make wines of maximum concentration while preserving varietal distinction.

Petite Sirah 

This is our 14th year of producing Petite Sirah from Clarksburg and this is one of our best efforts to date. The color is inky purple with maximum teeth staining capacity and has ripe plummy aromas backed with leathery and slight earth notes.

On the palate this wine shines with ripe blue fruit such as blueberry, huckleberry and blackberries. These deep fruit notes sit on a silky tannin matrix of French oak with hints

of vanilla, but finishes elegantly with cassis.