Alban Vineyards

Alban Vineyards was founded by John Alban at a time when a California winery devoted solely to Rhône varieties was thought unworkable. After a master's in enology at UC Davis and apprenticeships in France, he spent years propagating the Viognier, Roussanne, Grenache and Syrah vines that California then barely grew. Alban's 1991 Roussanne was the first varietal Roussanne from the United States, and the estate went on to supply much of the planting material behind the state's Rhône movement. In 2005 John Alban was made an honorary citizen of Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu.

The estate vineyard lies in Arroyo Grande on California's Central Coast. Blocks with distinct soils are bottled as named wines, and the land is farmed as a closed loop: no fertilisers or pesticides, and a resident flock of sheep grazes the cover crops from harvest to budbreak. Alongside Viognier, Roussanne and Grenache, the range includes Lorraine, Reva, Seymour's and Pandora. Reva is 97 to 100 per cent Syrah from sandy and chalky soils, aged three and a half years in barrel and bottled unfined and unfiltered.