Team C&J
Don and Sharon attributed their love of wine to their repeated European trips when the dollar conversion rate was strong in the mid-90s. Their repeated trips to some of the world’s best winemaking regions introduced them to a drink and a culture that would leave them captivated and more than a little curious as to whether they could replicate the quality they found throughout Europe.
Like so many other boutique winemakers, Don and Sharon started making wine as a hobby. The couple read all of the books they could find on winemaking, modern versus traditional techniques, and grape growing in California before they started experimenting with winemaking in 2000. What started out as a hobby quickly snowballed.
In 2005, five years after their grand experiment, Don built a winery at their New Haven, California property, and the couple turned their hobby into a new career.
are a labor of love for the couple, and they manage all aspects of the Humboldt County tasting room, the winery, and the bottling themselves. If they have a particularly busy season, they enlist the help of a few friends who volunteer their time until the crush of the crowds slow, especially during the summer months when they see a noticeable uptick in wine lovers from the state’s warmer regions who are looking to beat the heat.
The Moonstone Crossing tasting room also serves as a community hub of sorts. Locals regularly show up with shareable food dishes for one another, sip wine and take pride in supporting this Trinidad small business. But, if you think Moonstone’s fans are mostly relegated to local community members, you would be wrong. The winery has been awarded several gold medals at the California State Fair wine competition for their ‘Midnight Caress’ and ‘Wish Upon a Star’ red blends.
‘Midnight Caress’ is a blend of cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and petit Verdot, while ‘Wish Upon a Star’ is a blend of Italian and French grapes with sangiovese, aglianico cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon.
Don and Sharon are dynamic winemakers who aren’t afraid of working with some of California’s unsung grape varieties. Their current white wine offerings feature a falaghina, albarino, vedejo, malvasia bianca, chenin blanc, and riesling. On the red side, they work with sangiovese, barbera, zinfandel and old vine zinfandel, cabernet franc, syrah, petit sirah, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, carignane, nebbiolo, aglianico, pinotage. They also make three blends: Rhone-style, Bordeaux-style, and Super Tuscan-style blends.
Grapes are sourced from vineyards across Northern California, from the warmer climates of Napa Valley and Amador County to cooler Sonoma County and Mendicino.
It’s great to see winemakers open to working with some of these off-the-beaten-path grapes while still pursuing experimentation rather than resting on the tried and true varieties that consumers expect from California wine like cabernet, merlot, zinfandel, and chardonnay.
Amador County’s climate is classified as a warm grape growing region, but one that doesn’t quite reach the sustained 100-degree temperature days that you find in many parts of Napa Valley. The grapes in Amador County receive heat earlier in the day than their neighbors to the west in St. Helena, and temperatures quickly dissipate thanks to the cool mountain breezes from the Sierra Foothills.
It’s not uncommon for the temperature to swing from 95 degrees to 60 degrees overnight.
Amador, which is primarily known for its old vine zinfandel, some of which were first planted in the mid-1800s, is also hospitable to barbera, sangiovese, viognier, and syrah, in addition to cabernet franc.
If you’ve read any of our wine reviews, you know we love a good California cabernet franc, and if you judge by California’s grape market conditions, we’re not alone. According to wine critic Karen MacNeil, cabernet franc grapes are now the most expensive grapes for winemakers to purchase in California, which is interesting when you consider most wine lovers associate California with cabernet franc’s progeny, cabernet sauvignon.
The Moonstone Crossing cabernet franc is everything we love about cab francs. The nose is a boutique of earth, mineral, and vegetal aromas: chalk, white pepper, olive, bell pepper, and faint strawberry. And the palate has balanced notes of subdued cherry, strawberry, wet gravel, chalk, bell pepper, petrol, and the soft spice of white pepper.
This wine was barrel-aged for 23 months in French oak, and the result is a deliberately soft palate that is wonderfully layered and complex.
With it getting harder and harder to find great value-priced wines that are also good quality wines, Don and Sharon are making wines that the wine market needs.
Micro wineries like Moonstone do not have access to the same distribution channels as their larger counterparts. Moonstone Crossing wines are currently available at local wine shops and grocers in and around the Humboldt area, but from what we can tell, not through any online retailers. If you want to purchase these wines, your best bet is at their tasting room.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Moonstone Crossing tasting room in Trinidad is only open Wednesday through Sunday during the winter months (January – May). June through December, the tasting room is open seven days a week.
USA
Sierra Foothills
13.8
Don Bremm & Sharon Hanks
62–68°F / 16–20°C
Burgundy
2 Hours
Now to 2025
Moonstone Crossing
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