Iruai Wines- California Poulsard 2022

Iruai Winery (“ear-oo-eye" … the artist formerly known as Methode Sauvage) was started in 2013 by Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds in Berkeley, CA as a gypsy natural wine project, before laying down roots in the mythical Shasta-Cascade mountains of Siskiyou County.

Trading in the urban winery hustle for the vigneron life, we are exploring avant garde vineyard planting and rehabilitation techniques using the permaculture methods laid out by Masanobu Fukuoka, while formulating our own “chaos organics” method of re-enchanting the land. Truly unlike anywhere else in California, Western Siskiyou County feels like a cross between Switzerland and Montana, cut with a rain shadow from Mount Shasta that divides it starkly between high mountain prairie and dense alpine forests.

Although Trousseau is clearly the Jura's most celebrated export, Poulsard is a side quest worth taking. Like Morris Day to Prince, Donovan to Bob Dylan, Silvanus to Dionysus, or nutella to peanut butter: Poulsard is on its own trip. The tang and funk are paramount, carrying wild berries through the mycelial bounty of the forest floor. Bright and lively fruit breaking down any pleasure inhibitors — Kool-Aid Man-like — and starting the juicy revolution. Poulsard is the Jura's hidden track, its easter egg, its secret stash . . . welcome to the speakeasy of transcendent yum. 

Wild Berries . Orange Zest. Bouquet Garni . Red Kool-Aid

FOOD fresh sourdough and chèvre 

Type: Red
Producer: Iruai 
Varietal: Poulsard
Country: United States
Region: California
Farming: Organic