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Jupiter Wine Company 'Born to Lose, Live to Win' Bianchetta Trevigiana
Jupiter Wine Company 'Born to Lose, Live to Win' Bianchetta Trevigiana
Grapes — 100% Bianchetta Trevigiana
Region — Carneros, California
Tasting Notes — Pale gold with a quietly arresting presence. Saline, green almond, green apple, and citrus on the nose, with a whisper of funk that signals something genuinely alive in the bottle. The palate is lean, focused, and electric — citric acidity, mineral salinity, and that pleasantly bitter, nutty edge that Bianchetta's thick skins give up slowly. Clean, serious, and completely unlike any other white wine on the shelf. Salty, strange, and impossible to stop thinking about.
The Wine — 100% Bianchetta Trevigiana from a small, serendipitously planted coastal vineyard at the outer edge of Carneros, in direct view of San Pablo Bay — a site that was planted with this obscure northern Italian variety 38 years ago, almost by accident, and has been producing wines of startling character ever since. Bianchetta Trevigiana was once the grape of choice for Prosecco and Vermouth production in the hills around Treviso in the Veneto, but over centuries was largely displaced by the more predictable yields of Glera. When planted in lean soils near the sea — as it is here — it becomes, in Jupiter's words, "a vivid communicator of sun, salt, and earthen mineral flavors," producing wines that recall the noble coastal whites of Liguria made from this almost forgotten grape. This is almost certainly one of the only varietal expressions of Bianchetta Trevigiana being made in the United States.
Farming — Organically farmed. Jupiter sources exclusively from organic growers in alignment with their founding commitment: wines made from organically farmed fruit, with nothing added and nothing taken away.
Winemaking — All grapes foot-tread and macerated on skins and stems for 24 hours, then directly pressed into fiberglass. Fermentation began spontaneously with wild yeasts from the vineyard, with secondary fermentation completing naturally over winter and early spring. Aged for 10 months on all lees, then carefully hand-racked in late summer. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a small disclosed addition of 20 parts sulfur before bottling.
The Producer — Jupiter Wine Company was born during a pandemic phone call. Michael Richardson, a 30-year hospitality veteran, got a call from winemaker Thomas DeBiase asking if he'd like to make wine, build affordable housing, and do something that actually meant something. Michael was there the next day. Thomas DeBiase left New Jersey for Sonoma County in 2006, worked across winemaking, restaurant programs, and hospitality, and found his footing at the celebrated Idlewild Wines in Mendocino before casting off corporate wine for good. Their manifesto is unambiguous: the wine industry is built on the labor of immigrant farmworkers paid below living wages and denied basic working conditions. Jupiter's response is direct — 100% of net profits go to affordable housing solutions for the Latinx agricultural and hospitality workers who make wine country possible. Born to Lose, Live to Win is the most quietly radical wine in their lineup — a forgotten grape, an accidental vineyard, and a wine that has no business being this good. It is, in the best possible sense, a survivor.
Drink It With — Raw oysters, grilled sardines, fried whitebait, Ligurian focaccia with olives, aged sheep's milk cheese, or anything that benefits from a wine that tastes unmistakably of the sea.
Jupiter Wine Company 'Born to Lose, Live to Win' Bianchetta Trevigiana
Grapes — 100% Bianchetta Trevigiana
Region — Carneros, California
Tasting Notes — Pale gold with a quietly arresting presence. Saline, green almond, green apple, and citrus on the nose, with a whisper of funk that signals something genuinely alive in the bottle. The palate is lean, focused, and electric — citric acidity, mineral salinity, and that pleasantly bitter, nutty edge that Bianchetta's thick skins give up slowly. Clean, serious, and completely unlike any other white wine on the shelf. Salty, strange, and impossible to stop thinking about.
The Wine — 100% Bianchetta Trevigiana from a small, serendipitously planted coastal vineyard at the outer edge of Carneros, in direct view of San Pablo Bay — a site that was planted with this obscure northern Italian variety 38 years ago, almost by accident, and has been producing wines of startling character ever since. Bianchetta Trevigiana was once the grape of choice for Prosecco and Vermouth production in the hills around Treviso in the Veneto, but over centuries was largely displaced by the more predictable yields of Glera. When planted in lean soils near the sea — as it is here — it becomes, in Jupiter's words, "a vivid communicator of sun, salt, and earthen mineral flavors," producing wines that recall the noble coastal whites of Liguria made from this almost forgotten grape. This is almost certainly one of the only varietal expressions of Bianchetta Trevigiana being made in the United States.
Farming — Organically farmed. Jupiter sources exclusively from organic growers in alignment with their founding commitment: wines made from organically farmed fruit, with nothing added and nothing taken away.
Winemaking — All grapes foot-tread and macerated on skins and stems for 24 hours, then directly pressed into fiberglass. Fermentation began spontaneously with wild yeasts from the vineyard, with secondary fermentation completing naturally over winter and early spring. Aged for 10 months on all lees, then carefully hand-racked in late summer. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a small disclosed addition of 20 parts sulfur before bottling.
The Producer — Jupiter Wine Company was born during a pandemic phone call. Michael Richardson, a 30-year hospitality veteran, got a call from winemaker Thomas DeBiase asking if he'd like to make wine, build affordable housing, and do something that actually meant something. Michael was there the next day. Thomas DeBiase left New Jersey for Sonoma County in 2006, worked across winemaking, restaurant programs, and hospitality, and found his footing at the celebrated Idlewild Wines in Mendocino before casting off corporate wine for good. Their manifesto is unambiguous: the wine industry is built on the labor of immigrant farmworkers paid below living wages and denied basic working conditions. Jupiter's response is direct — 100% of net profits go to affordable housing solutions for the Latinx agricultural and hospitality workers who make wine country possible. Born to Lose, Live to Win is the most quietly radical wine in their lineup — a forgotten grape, an accidental vineyard, and a wine that has no business being this good. It is, in the best possible sense, a survivor.
Drink It With — Raw oysters, grilled sardines, fried whitebait, Ligurian focaccia with olives, aged sheep's milk cheese, or anything that benefits from a wine that tastes unmistakably of the sea.