Fluent Wine Company

Fluent Wine Company was founded by Rob Harrison with his first vintage produced in 2018. This is a rare Napa Valley producer that does not make red wines; two wines are produced each year, a Sauvignon Blanc from St. Helena and a rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon. Meeting with Rob brought back memories of our first meeting with Dan Petrowski many years ago when he was just starting his brand, Massican. The few producers who focus on white wines in Napa Valley are to be commended, going against the grain based on passion with the desire to carve out their own niche in a landscape dominated by red wines. There was a period, like with red wines that Napa Valley as a whole was pushing the envelope on ripeness and higher alcohol white wines. But that trend seems to have dissipated somewhat in favor of still fully ripe whites but showcasing more restraint and varietal characteristics which are often lost due to over ripeness. And that is refreshing.

Rob was born and raised on a lemon orchard in the northern part of San Fernando Valley in southern California. When he was 11, a road was put through his family’s property; as a result, they moved to a nearby residential subdivision. He remembers losing that connection to the land he built when he was a child. Embracing swimming, he earned a scholarship to to the University of Utah. When he started college he realized his heart wasn’t in swimming, so he called his father who provided some simple real life advice, “get a job”. Rob began working part time at Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley; here he met Cara Schwindt a sommelier who became his mentor along with some of his co-workers. He remembers before starting his shift she would often lead the staff on wine tastings. It was at these tastings that Rob remembers he realized his palate leaned definitively old world.

He graduated with a degree in Telecommunications and after graduation worked in a related field while still working shifts at Steins Erikson. After the 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Park City he moved to San Francisco and took a position at the Four Seasons, but business was slow due to the dot com bubble bursting. He moved to Hyatt for their Management Training program. Then in what would change the course of his career, in 2003 his sister Erin moved to Napa Valley and began working as trained chef at Meadowood Resort. One day at the resort, Erin spoke to Bill Harlan and mentioned her brother was looking for work; she referenced Rob’s 1.5 years at Hyatt. Bill said, “I want to talk to him”.

Harlan hired Rob in 2004; he began overseeing banquets and catering including events promoting membership to the Napa Valley Reserve. Rob recalls the diversity of wines at these events including a number of wines from Bordeaux First Growth wineries; as a result he was exposed to a wide range of premium bottlings. While at Meadowood he met the owners of some of Napa Valley’s most iconic wineries; some of them would tell him at times, “you know Rob, you have a pretty good palate, have you ever thought about starting your own wine brand?” Whenever they would tell him this, he would remember a common saying in the hospitality industry, “never go into alcohol, its a lot work”.

One of his colleagues at Meadowood also encouraged him to start a wine brand; they partnered, with Rob overseeing the brand and his partner financing the business. After it was decided to keep the brand small rather than scale it for much larger growth, Rob took over full ownership. Total annual production of his Sauvignon Blanc is approximately 250-300 cases a year. He considers Jon Conover (Cade, PlumpJack and Odette Estate) one of his mentors. Jon told him never make more than 2,500 cases a year because at this larger production the winery will own you, rather than you own the winery.

When considering which white variety to produce, he decided upon Sauvignon Blanc based on the fact that some of his favorite local wines from this variety are from Sonoma County including age worthy wines from Kistler and Williams Selyem Winery. And some of his favorite international Sauvignon Blancs are from Gaja, Langhe Alteni di Brassica and from Didier Dagueneau. He noticed a void in the market for Napa Valley Loire Valley styled Sauvignon Blanc; plus this is this style of Sauvignon Blanc that he most enjoys drinking.

Winemaker Joe Harden has crafted every vintage; Rob met Harden when Joe was making some of the To Kalon wines for Robert Mondavi. Rob asked Joe if he wanted to be a part of a ‘side project’. Joe’s response was that he would only be interested in making age worthy Sauvignon Blanc.

The name, Glass Cat for the Sauvignon Blanc is from an L. Frank Baum novel; in one of the books, a magician and his wife are completely in love but are living in poverty. During a walk one day along a nearby road the magician discovers a transparent glass cat with ruby heart, pink brain and emerald-green eyes. He picks it up and brings it back to his wife and proclaims the object is now their most cherished possession. He wife reminds him they have a rodent problem and a glass cat is not going to help solve that problem. Being a magician, he breathed life into the cat. But unfortunately the cat had no interest in chasing mice; this cat ended up leaving the couple, roaming the world, reserved and aloof.

Rob chose the name Fluent to represent the brand, referencing his interest in hiking. For outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy wildlife, the confluence of rivers is often where animals congregate. And being fluent in something, such as the wine industry, is a challenge that anyone who has a passion or obsession for, will continue to pursue for the rest of their life.

Select Wines
Sauvignon Blanc
The Fluent Wine Company Sauvignon Blanc is always aged in 20% new French oak barrels with the remainder in neutral Chardonnay barrels. Joe introduced Rob to the Panek Vineyard in St. Helena. This vineyard has been the source of their Sauvignon Blanc every vintage. Regardless of vintage, the winemaking remains the same. The grapes are primarily picked based on acidity with a window usually in or around the 3rd week of August. The grapes are whole cluster pressed and fermented using 5 different strains of yeast. Each yeast/lot is kept separately, all are fermented and aged in barrels, before the final blending prior to bottling. This wine is bottled in early June and then generally spends 2 years in bottle before release.

These wines tell the narrative of vineyard and vintage and are built upon the backbone of bright acidity. There is little deviation in the cellar; each vintage reveals its own story of their harvest decisions and that year’s weather. As a result, all the wines are highly distinctive with their own personalities.

The 2021 Fluent Wine Company Sauvignon Blanc Panek Vineyard, St. Helena; this wine is deep straw in color; the bouquet immediately offers a waxy character, beeswax, apple skin, lanolin, walnut, grapefruit, pineapple, yellow nectarine, kiwi, honeysuckle, lemon zest and thyme. It smells bright and alive three years post vintage. The entry is fresh, fully ripe and shows some inherent herbal characteristics of this variety but without any greenness or grassiness. Smells fresh and vibrant (or what Rob calls playful) four years post vintage. Its flavors include golden apples, kiwi, pineapple with a light note of piña colada, yellow peach, pomelo and lemon grass. The texture is silky and soft – sporting a creamy mouth feel. Its weight is counterbalanced nicely by a noticeably fresh but a softer styled acidity. In terms of both flavor and texture, this is a rich expression of the variety. The finish lingers with layers of flavor and a lasting sweet/tangy character with some herbal notes including of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf. Brightly lit. Its alcohol is 13.5%.

The 2020 Fluent Wine Company Sauvignon Blanc, Panek Vineyard, St. Helena. Its acidity is perceived similarly as the 2021 vintage. This wine is medium gold in color; the attractive bouquet sports aromas of pineapple, mandarin/tangerine, a honeyed but not sweet character including of beeswax, citrus blossom, nectarine, a minerally and a light herbal character including of kaffir lime leaf. These wines are built to age, this vintage in particular. Smells fresh, lively and energetic. This is one bouquet you don’t want to pull away from. The palate is richly flavored offering pineapple, pineapple guava, golden kiwi, passion fruit, gooseberry and lime. This is an exceptional wine which still has loads of life ahead. If it was to be compared to a coiled spring, this wine is only partially uncoiled, holding still, plenty of energy as it ages gracefully. The energetic acidity is supported by a creamy, rounded and silky mouth feel. Rob calls this wine the opera singer, a nuanced and feminine expression of both the vintage and the year. And he is the first person we have ever heard mention 2020 vintage as a great year. But in this case, he is referring to his standout Sauvignon Blanc. It is 13.6% alcohol.

Rob calls their 2019 Sauvignon Blanc a petulant child; the harvest date was challenging to determine because temperatures kept fluctuating including periods of heat above 95 degrees. They were close on their desired acid profile, but were worried about sugars spiking. A pick date was set but then prolonged by Joe; by waiting the grapes reached a much more desired balance between acid and sugars. Unlike their other vintages, this wine was released early, in November 2021. In hindsight, perhaps this was a mistake, as Rob describes, “it wasn’t yet singing a song we wanted to hear”. Its character was like a sleeping teenager with lots of promise but devoid of motivation to get out of bed. By July of 2024 Rob began noticing this wine finally started to open and began to to fully express its character.

The 2019 Fluent Wine Company Sauvignon Blanc, Panek Vineyard, St. Helena is deep gold in color; the nose shows some light aromatics resulting from time in the bottle including bruised apple, a light tangy character that is union of both stone fruits, tropical notes and citrus. These scents include pineapple, yellow nectarine, grapefruit and lemon meringue. Rob calls this a Chardonnay lovers Sauvignon Blanc – but we will add, without the oaky and buttery components. The palate is riper than the previous vintages and is highly generous with its fruit profile. Lingers with a perceived sweetness of fruit including flavors of dried apricot, peach, golden delicious apples, mandarin orange and honeysuckle – a character that reminds us of pulling out the stamens in honeysuckle flowers and enjoying the resulting nectar. And a final and persistent note of toasted almond and hazelnut. This expression is ripe but showcases loads of vivacious acidity. Lingers richly flavored with a finish that keeps on delivering plenty of satisfaction. One can also feel some of its structural character which is more pronounced in this vintage than in previous vintages including a creamy and rounded character. This is a serious bottling versus some of the previous more ‘flirty’ vintages. Its alcohol is 14.2%.

Rosé
In 2020 an owner of a small vineyard along the southern part of Silverado Trail approached Joe and asked if he wanted to purchase his Cabernet Sauvignon for Fluent Wine Company. Rob and Joe told him, “no, but we would be interested in producing a rosé from your grapes, and we would harvest sometime in August”. The owner thought about their proposition and agreed. As many readers will already know, 2020 was a challenging year in Napa Valley due to significant wildfires and the subsequent smoke. With the decision to make rosé, they harvested the grapes well before the Glass Fire started. In hindsight, the owner was thrilled with his decision; as otherwise he would have lost his entire crop to smoke taint.

Unfortunately he later sold this vineyard, so Fluent Wine Company transitioned to making rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon in Lodi, from Joe’s family property, Harden Family Vineyards. This wine’s élevage is relatively quick, usually about 5 months in neutral French oak barrels. Almost as soon as they released their inaugural 2020 vintage, it sold out. They made more the next year from both the Napa vineyard and also from Lodi. In 2022 they fully transitioned to using Lodi grown grapes. They now produce around 500 cases of this rosé.

The 2023 Fluent Wine Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon, Lodi is 100% varietal; this wine is pale to medium copper in color; it smells fresh, lively, higher toned and is a union of red berries and citrus. These aromas include raspberry, wild strawberry, citrus blossom, ruby grapefruit, kumquat, dried rose petals, hibiscus, pencil shavings, cucumber infused water and dried herbs, most noticeable is of thyme. Wake me up; the palate is zippy, minerally and energetic from the start to finish. Its verve is built around a strong veracity of acidity; its flavors include not fully ripe raspberry, sour cherry, ruby grapefruit, currant, cranberry, pomegranate, lemon zest, lemon grass and a light but lingering note of tarragon/dill. The finish lingers fresh, mouthwatering and immediately invites another sip. In terms of pairing, take your pick of bivalves; our choice would be raw oysters. And Rob mentioned this wine also goes great with a juicy hamburger. This wine is a refreshing 10.8% alcohol, contains only 1.8 grams of sugar per bottle and 96 calories.

Each bottle of rosé is labeled with a QR code so one can pull up the vintage charts and additional information about the wine; starting in 2023 their Sauvignon Blanc also has a QR code.

In 2020 they planned on sourcing Pinot Noir from Joy Road near Occidental in neighboring Sonoma County but the grapes showed signs of smoke taint. Rob took this as a sign to continue to focus exclusively on Sauvignon Blanc and their single rosé.

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The Sauvignon Blanc is sold as three bottle sets. Each vintage has featured a different line sketch drawing from UK based illustrator Jonathan Gibbs. One of Rob’s partners in a real estate business connected him to Jonathan. The timing was good; it was in 2020 and Jonathan was retiring. Ultimately three labels were created, one represents the vineyard, another the cellar and the other the enjoyment of wine.

With an eye towards reducing materials and packaging, they use lighter weight glass bottles for all their wines; the inside of their three pack shippers are lined with compostable corn foam. And rather than sourcing the shippers from overseas; the company that manufactures them is based in Santa Cruz, CA.

The wines are sold direct through an allocation list with some limited distribution including to resort communities like Aspen, Park City and Sun Valley. And locally their rosé is poured by the glass at The Forum at Meadowood Resort; ACME Wines in St. Helena has been a strong supporter since their earlier release including helping them secure additional exposure in a Robb Report article. And the wines have been in the French Laundry at times.

For more information, to purchase wine or to join the mailing list visit: www.fluentwine.com