About KERNEL

The wines came to be in summer of 2013, when a desire to explore site-based sparkling wines in Carneros led to an exemplary Pinot Blanc vineyard and an exemplary Chardonnay vineyard, which led to a clutch of barrels fermenting away in the corner of the cave at a friend’s winery high atop Atlas Peak in Napa.

A kernel is something small which contains the critical instructions for something larger. Not something the user directly interacts with but the underpinnings to the entire system.  In computing, the kernel is the root set of instructions that operate behind the interface, out of view but critical to the machine's function. Likewise, in an agricultural sense, “kernel” is a small thing which contains all the necessary elements to grow into a larger and more complex organism. So, the wines themselves can be thought of as containing the elements or instructions within them to grow meaningful, resonant human connection and to communicate their place of origin as well as the hands of the people that touched them along the path from grapevine to bottle.

Sparkling wine’s potential to speak to the unique place where the grapes were grown is still being fully realized. Wines which bring verve to any meal or occasion, which encourage conviviality and animated discussion, which start or strengthen meaningful relationships, these are the wines which we admire and which we strive to deliver.