Liquid Farm's founder, 15+ year industry veteran Jeff Nelson's mission is simple and compelling: To support local viticulture and honor our love for old world wines that have naturally high acidity and which are not masked by modern day manipulations.
Liquid Farm makes terroir-driven, cool-climate Chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills AVA in Santa Barbara County. They choose to work with vineyard sites in this area as it is home to some of the most unique & ancient Chardonnay-loving sandy loam and diatomaceous earth soils in North America. Additionally, Liquid Farm aims to produce wines reflective of classic styles and regions: blending each small lot to produce consistent expressions and a "house style" rather than focusing on vineyard designated or clonal-specific wines. Each barrel offers a unique expression and it is the goal of the to identify each individual barrel and blend specific profiles together to produce the most complex, highest quality wine possible while showcasing the diversity of the grape used. For the first four vintages (through 2012) Jeff worked with longtime friends, and winemaker/owners of Dragonette Cellars, Brandon Spark-Gillis and John Dragonette to craft their signature style. During this time Brandon's brother-in-law, James Sparks, was honing his skills as a winemaker and officially became the full time winemaker for Liquid Farm beginning with the 2013 vintage, at which point this minuscule wine project began hitting its stride.
In order to further carry out their mission, they adhere to hand-picking early, native yeast fermentations (including natural malolactic), gentle pressing, minimal to no use of oak, and bottling unfined/unfiltered. Moreover, in an effort to lower their carbon footprint, they leave every bottle "naked" (no capsule) or use a soft biodegradable wax, much like beeswax. They also close all of their bottles with a biodegradable DIAM cork.
