2023 Osa Major Somer’s Vineyard Mission

Grape Varietal: Mission

Country: USA

Region: Lodi, California 

The Wine: Osa Major is the one-woman project of Bay Area winemaker Emily Fernwood, who founded the label in 2020 after years of harvest work across California, Oregon, Australia, and New Zealand, with a commitment to low-intervention winemaking, organic farming, and the recovery of California's overlooked and historic vineyard sites. The Somer's Vineyard Mission is grown from head-trained, dry-farmed vines planted roughly fifty years ago in Lodi, likely propagated from cuttings tracing back to the Spanish mission plantings that gave the variety its name, which is a direct thread to California's pre-Prohibition religious-based winemaking past. Fernwood vinifies it with minimal intervention, allowing the wild, largely unmanaged character of the site to speak without interference. 

The 2023 Somer's Vineyard Mission is a translucent, light-bodied expression of one of California's oldest and most undersung grapes. It opens with aromas of dried fig, sun-warmed herbs, and dusty earth, lifted by a whisper of rose hip and dried cherry skin. On the palate, it is lean and quietly tannic, with a gentle grip, low alcohol, and a dry, savory finish that lingers with more depth than its pale color suggests.

Pairing: Lamb flatbread with sumac and torn mint, a plate of aged Manchego with quince paste, slow-roasted tomatoes on griddled sourdough with olive oil, or an impromptu lunch of cured meats and pickled peppers eaten at a wooden table somewhere warm.