Our journey into winemaking
We work with coastal and high elevation vineyards within Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley and Napa Valley which capture the elegance and purity of cool-climate Northern California fruit. Our wines are made with minimal intervention, highlighting texture, freshness and balance, a glimpse of the dynamic time and place of vintage and vineyard.
Our journey into winemaking has been driven by our shared love of drinking vintage champagne and white Burgundy. Early in our dating years we spent every third Monday of December with a dear friend who hosted “Champagne Holiday,” sharing vintage Krug, Salon, and Cristal, memorably opening a 2000 Clos du Mesnil to celebrate our engagement.
While working as Sommelier at Michelin 3-Star The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa Valley, the chef de cuisine and sous chef suggested that Alexis consider dating a recent hire, Matt, a young winemaker working nights to pay for grapes to make his first wines. Alexis remembers tasting his first Chardonnay out of barrel in 2012, and then sharing an old Krug Champagne on one of their first dates. Alexis and Matt began Brick & Mortar with just 84 cases of Pinot Noir two year later, and continued to study and taste the wines from Burgundy and Champagne that truly inspired vineyard choices and style for their own wines. Discovering Krug Collection, Dom Oenotheque, Ramonet and Coche-Dury while working together at Michelin three star The Restaurant at Meadowood guided us to produce Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and sparkling wine from exceptional sites in Northern California. Matt and Alexis have a shared love of Champagne and the sparking wine process, and the wines of Burgundy, their style and tradition as a framework for what they produce.
The decision to lean into sparkling came naturally to us.
Champagne has been a key part of our love story from the beginning, there to help us celebrate milestones, and a region we have explored often, for research and pleasure. As Matt began experimenting with the traditional sparkling method he found that his meticulous style, scientific background, and appreciation of precision are perfectly suited to the craft of fine sparkling wines.
Our single-vineyard sparkling wines are made in the traditional method champenoise style, and thus showcase each specific site in the most precise way possible. We pick early to preserve the fruit’s integrity, use very specific oak to add weight and to balance acidity. Through extended lees aging, typically up to 48 months we are able to add complexity, and round out each wine. The result is wines that hold freshness and depth, purity, and power, in perfect balance.
Matt’s extensive experience with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, along with his long-standing relationships with select coastal vineyards above the fog line in Napa Valley, Sonoma Coast, and Mendocino County have made this evolution seamless. The challenging climate of these sites enables our fruit to ripen to maturity, showing great texture and character, while keeping sugars naturally low.
We founded brick & mortar in 2011 and co-run the winery. Our all-lowercase name serves as a metaphor for our foundational philosophy highlight the vineyard with minimal intervention, and run a winery that is down to earth, yet high performing. We firmly believe this philosophy embodies authenticity at its core.
We created our first sparkling wines in 2015; today 50% of our production is sparkling, and that number stands to grow. In 2019 we brought all of our sparkling wine production in-house, a rarity in California for the small producer, and have since invested in equipment specially designed for the sparkling wine process. As we’ve grown we have learned to age our wines longer, both sparkling and still. We reserve 1/3 of our sparkling wines, The Foundation, to age on the lees for 10 years before a second release. We’ve been excited to produce age-worthy sparkling wines from Northern Californian vineyards.
Beginning in 2020 we made the decision to dramatically reduce our production of single vineyard wines so that we could elevate quality. We started using new oak and whole cluster fermentation in our Pinot Noirs, and 100% new Damy puncheons for Chardonnay. We began aging our wines for 24 months in barrel and 12 months in bottle prior to release.
transparency, relationships, sustainability, community dictate our every decision.
This holistic, intentional approach applies equally to both the process and the final result, whether it’s seeking organic vineyards or more sustainable materials, working with local independent businesses, or giving to environmental causes through our membership with 1% For the Planet. This philosophy is reflected in how we live, how we work, what we make. It’s all the one. Honest, hard-working, and intentional. The reflection of our wines.
