Ventura Visit With Wildflower Winery’s Woman Winemaker Natalie Albertson

With their pastoral beauty, I love visiting vineyards surrounding wineries–don’t you?. But urban wineries and tasting rooms can be fun too– and often closer to home! Recently, my writing partner Sue Hill and I drove just a few miles from my house in Ventura to Wildflower Winery to check out the space, and to meet up with woman winemaker  and winery owner Natalie Albertson to taste through a selection of her wines in bottle — plus two in barrel!   Sue made a beautiful charcuterie board which we brought with us — and you can bring a picnic too on your next winery visit! Keep reading for ideas (just be sure to check if they allow outside food first).

Wildflower Winery’s Natalie Albertson getting a sample for us

“We use a minimalist winemaking approach in the cellar so the natural yeast present on the grape skins perform the fermentation to preserve the influence of the terroir. We present dry wines with no new oak so you taste the unique and individual flavors of each grape varietal.” Wildflower Winery Website 

Natalie is passionate about making low intervention, natural wines, wines similar to those she tasted while traveling in Europe when she lived in Sicily with her husband William, a civil service mechanical engineer for the Navy. The two both grew up in the Central Valley of California, and met through mutual friends.  Always the scientist, Natalie earned her RN degree and worked in labor and delivery. With a two year old, and with Natalie seven months pregnant, William accepted a transfer to Sicily where it is much cheaper to live and raise a family than California. Plus it was easy for them to visit wine regions in France, Portugal, Spain, and more. “We took our kids almost every time,” said Natalie. “It’s fun with kids because it makes you slow down.” 

Ventura’s Wildflower Winery’s owner and Winemaker Natalie Albertson

After five years living on the slopes of Sicily’s Mt Etna, they returned to the states. Natalie continued to learn about wine, and completed the wine certificate program at UC Davis. Her first vintage was in 2020, and she makes under 1k cases a year in small lots with no new oak, native yeast fermentation, minimal SO2 additions, and unfined and unfiltered.  Today the children are 10 and 8, and attend elementary school while Natalie attends to the cellar, and the tasting room which opened Nov. 2022, is open Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and Sundays located at 4517 Market Street, Unit 7 Ventura, CA 93003. The distinct line drawings on the labels and which decorate a wall and t-shirts are by Beth Chaney. 

Wildflower Winery tasting room with Winemaker Natalie Albertson with a selection of wines and charcuterie

What To Take For a Wildflower Winery Picnic: Menu

• Cheeses:
  Delice, Mushroom Brie, Creamy Roquefort, Apricot Stilton, Aged Sheep Milk Cheese marinated in EVOO, Tavola
• And:
  Black pepper Salami, Prosciutto, Olives, Almonds, Apple 
• Breads:
  Fig and olive crackers, olive bread, breadsticks  

Wildflower Winery Wines

• 2022 Zee Bubbles Sparkling Chardonnay
• 2022 Breezy Albarino skin contact 
• 2022 Wheeze the Juice, Carbonic Grenache
• 2021 Good Intentions Sangiovese
• 2021 Domani Syrah
• plus barrel samples: Carbonic Grenache and a port style Grenache 
• stay tuned for Wildflower Winery Viognier for Viognier Day the final Friday in April 

2022 Wildflower Winery “Zee Bubbles” Pétillant-Naturel Chardonnay, Riverbench Vineyard, Santa Maria

 2022 Wildflower Winery “Zee Bubbles” Pétillant-Naturel Chardonnay, Riverbench Vineyard, Santa Maria 

ABV: 12%
SRP: $28
Grapes: SIP certified Chardonnay
tasting room sample for my review

Narrative: Pétillant-Naturel aka Pet Nat, un-fined and unfiltered, disgorged, sandy soils. 

Appearance:  Yellow gold, pale butterscotch, tinge of green

Aroma: Lightly fragrant, grasses, lemon, citrus blossom, chamomile, 

Palate: Bright tart green apple, Meyer lemon, salinity, minerals, fresh green peas, edamame, baking soda, 

Pairing: Great with the Delice on the cranberry cracker even better with a thinly sliced apple on top, lovely with the smokey procuitto which was a surprise to Sue, Fabulous with the toasted almonds, mushroom brie on the cranberry cracker brings out a zesty cinnamon spice in the wine, also perfect with the apricot stilton, 

2022 Wildflower Winery “Breezy Albarino” Orange Wine, Zaca Mesa, SB County

2022 Wildflower Winery “Breezy Albarino” Orange Wine, Riverbench Vineyard, Santa Maria   

ABV: 11%
SRP: $26
Grapes: organically farmed Albarino 
tasting room sample for my review

Narrative: Unfined, unfiltered, I love the skin contact wines because it brings out such a fresh fruit in the wines, “Like biting into a fresh peach,” says Natalie. 

Appearance:  Amber, cloudy, platinum rim, 

Aroma: Very floral, honeysuckle, chamomile, mead, meadow grass, yellow peach, apricot, 

Palate: Very tart, lemon, minerals, long lingering mineral finish, honeysuckle, saline

Pairing: Beautiful with the apricot stilton, works well with the salt cured olives as well as the creamy Roquefort, the wine works really well with salty foods, I thought it wold be a really nice wine with a turkey burger with a little blue cheese or Roquefort, 

Wildflower Winery’s carbonic grenache

2022 Wildflower Winery “Wheeze the Juice” Carbonic Grenache, Alamo Creek Ranch, SLO

ABV: 12%
SRP: $26
Grapes: organically farmed grenache 
tasting room sample for my review
81 cases produced

Narrative: “Like Capri Sun for adults,” says Natalie. The grapes had two weeks of carbonic maceration. Fun to taste the Grenache carbonic from this year fresh from the tank, to be bottled in two weeks.

Appearance:  Rhubarb, brownish tinge,

Aroma: Bubble yum bubble gum, strawberry jolly rancher sweet tart, so fruit forward, such a beautiful wine in the nose, 

Palate: Full of fruits and florals, mountain strawberry, rhubarb, tart cherry, sage, bold tannins, 

Pairing: Very nice with the smoked procuitto, great with the mushroom brie, the bright acidity cuts through the creamy brie and brings out great fruit, especially when it is atop a cranberry cracker, worked really well with the apricot stilton, 

2022 Wildflower Winery “Wheeze the Juice” Carbonic Grenache, Alamo Creek Ranch, SLO

2021 Wildflower Winery “Good Intentions” Sangiovese, Mira Laguna Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley AVA

ABV: 12.5%
SRP: $30
Grapes: organic Sangiovese
tasting room sample for my review
53 cases 

Website Narrative: “An intention is an aim or plan or the healing process of a wound. Our wines are made with good intentions and this Sangiovese will surely be good medicine for you! 1/3 destemmed, aged in neutral French oak for 9months. Native yeast fermented and unfiltered with only minimal effective sulfites before bottling.”

Appearance:  Raspberry, mauve rim

Aroma: Oregano and tomato leaf, wild raspberry, violet, forest floor, black current tea, cherry, black pepper, sage, as the wine opens it becomes very expressive, 

Palate: Tart cherry, eucalyptus, eucalyptus, oregano, fresh basil, tomato leaf, interesting herbal elements in the wine, nice lingering finish, 

Pairing: Fabulous with the green olives, the salt cured olives bring out such lovely sweet fruit in the wine, great pizza, very nice with the pepper salami, and the Italian hard cheese, and the peppery bread sticks

 

2021 Wildflower Winery “Domani” Syrah, Mira Laguna Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley AVA

ABV: 13.5%
SRP: $30
Grapes: organically farmed Syrah
tasting room sample for my review

Website narrative: “Syrah from the picturesque Mira Laguna Vineyard in Santa Ynez Valley. Organically farmed vineyard, 80% whole cluster foot stomped and on skins for 16 days, into neutral oak, native yeast fermented and unfiltered with only minimal effective sulfites before bottling.”

Appearance:  Garnet, very cloudy, muddy, mauve rim

Aroma: Blueberry, blueberry pie, blueberry compote, stewed fruit

Palate: Blueberry, tart blue fruit, boysenberry, 

Pairing: Fabulous with the apricot stilton, very nice with the creamy Roquefort, 

Also from the barrel: Grenache dessert style wine! So yummy! I look forward to this when it’s in the bottle!

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