Grape Escape: Eric Baugher Bottles Inaugural Golden Vintage of Deaurātus

October 25, 2024 – Talk about a high wire second act. After making highly acclaimed wines at Ridge Monte Bello for close to 30 years winemaker Eric Baugher has launched his dream brand. 

In partnership with his longtime associate winemaker at Ridge, Shun Ishikubo, Baugher recently shared the bottled versions of two wines from the inaugural vintage of Deaurātus Wines. 

The name is Latin for Golden. It’s not going to be confused with anything else, least of all with Ridge. 

A Santa Cruz native, Baugher started at Ridge in the lab as a chemist in 1994, but admits he was interviewed by pretty much everyone in the company at the time. It was a bit unnerving, but they wanted to make sure he fit into the tight knit culture of the place, which was still very much the realm of Paul Draper, who is now winemaker emeritus at Ridge. 

By the very next harvest, 1995, he was making wine and hasn’t stopped. Ridge went through many changes, some good, some not, but the wine remained the same. The vineyards spoke with a clear voice, even when Mother Nature shouted loudly. 

Ishikubo, who was born near Okinawa and began his career as a Sochu distiller, joined Ridge in 2008. Baugher describes him as an absolute dream cellar companion: his penchant for cleanliness and precision suited Baugher’s equally scientific way of analyzing wine chemistry, and the two became fast friends. 

Circumstances at Ridge in 2020 presented an opportunity for them to pursue new opportunities, namely the chance to make wine in Napa. Baugher was tasked with cleaning up two vintages of Merus wines before making the 2021s, and Ishikubo tackled Kuletto. Both are Foley brands. The Napamoon was soon over, though, and the two departed to focus on their own brand. They also began making wine for Gali Vineyards in Watsonville. 

In his quest for terrific fruit that would make distinctive wines, Baugher found Michael Michaud in Chalone. With a deep love of Grenache Blanc going back to his Ridge days, he was thrilled to discover Michaud was growing it. 

“I could not believe the vineyard when I saw it: steep white sandy hillsides and no water,” says Baugher. “It was like a moonscape.” He was even more thrilled to taste Michaud’s Chardonnay and pretty much begged Michaud for the fruit for 2024. They also scored some very rare Melon de Bourgogne, another varietal Michaud has, along with Grenache and Syrah.

For the first vintage of Deaurātus Wines, the two sourced Chardonnay from Gali Vineyard and aged it in Kentucky oak. This was always the not-so-secret sauce in Ridge wines. 

“It reminds me a bit of the Estate Monte Bello Chardonnay,” says Baugher, which is why Ridge commissioned the Gali’s to plant more acreage for their program. Ridge later decided it didn’t want all this fruit after all. The wine business is not a kind one. 

Ridge’s loss was certainly the Gali’s gain, and in 2023, Baugher and Ishikubo made a Chardonnay that will delight followers of Ridge. And at a very reasonable price point of $40. 

This golden glowing wine is a salted caramel waiting to melt in your mouth. It is rich and buttery like lemon bars, with tropical fruits like mango and pineapple showing up as the wine warms in the glass. There is nothing like Kentucky oak to provide a butterscotch-caramel flavor and texture without being too heavy.

My favorite, though, is the 2023 Michaud Vineyard Grenache Blanc from Chalone, with its exotic floral nose that also offers kiwi, yuzu, and mango, and then turns to candied pineapple, Cara Cara orange and tangerine. It is concentrated and persistent and the acid is just fantastic. They fermented this wine in stainless steel until it reached 10brix, and then put into barrel to finish. What a gem. 

Baugher knows how much Ridge wine lovers dig Zinfandel, and they will not be in the least bit disappointed with the Dry Creek Zinfandel from Sonoma’s Tzabaco Rancho Vineyard, which has 60-year-old head trained vines planted on a mountainside property on St. George rootstock. 

The concentration is apparent in the iron-rich, spicy nose that hints of Kansas City’s finest BBQ. It proves surprisingly peppery on the palate, actually tingling the lips with its abundant spice. We all thought pork ribs would be divine with this wine. Ishikubo shared that Zin is notoriously finicky in the cellar, and can easily get stuck in the fermentation process, so it needs to be constantly watched to maintain a consistent temperature, of 85 to 90 degrees. 

Cabernet Sauvignon is the heart of Ridge Monte Bello, so Baugher knows a thing or two about Bordeaux varieties, and how to make them really shine. The 2023 Adelaida Hills Cabernet Sauvignon from the Gillian Rose Vineyard in Paso Robles, is super shiny, oozing black olive, cedar, cassis, white pepper, and a pleasing hint of thyme and tarragon. The tannins are superbly melty with dark chocolate and coffee on the finish. These two have a golden touch when it comes to tannins. 

Then it was off to the cellar with a thief to taste through all the 2024 wines, among them the Melon de Bourgogne, which was a stunning hit of tropical and citrus in equal measure, driven by an electric streak of acid. 

The 2024 Chardonnay and Grenache Blanc from Michaud Vineyard are definitely riper and carry more fruit than the 2023 vintage, which is to be expected. These two like to pick when they taste the flavors they are after, and not before. Also impressive was the Michaud Grenache-Syrah co-ferment, which Baugher describes as the joyfulness of Grenache combined with the darkness of Syrah. It’s already killer, with its peppery plum core. 

Baugher knows his way around Napa vineyards and was lucky to score some seriously great Mt. Veeder fruit. We tasted a co-ferment of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot that left us wishing for a thesaurus. It’s such a complete wine even now, just barely to dryness, that one can only ponder its potential trajectory once it settles into its oak cocoon. So, too, the Mt. Veeder Merlot by itself is showing lovely character and a structure that will develop handsomely.  

It is easy to see why these two winemakers are so excited to share their passion with the world. Ishikubo is actually off to Japan on a sales trip. He’s also being featured in a documentary about the first Japanese winemaker in California, Kanaye Nagasawa, who emigrated in 1865, later building the Fountaingrove Round Barn and Winery in Santa Rosa, where he planted a vineyard with cuttings from France. The remains of the old winery were lost in the Tubbs Fire of 2017. Nagasawa also planted vines from those French cuttings at Monte Bello in Cupertino. There’s talk of expanding the documentary and making a movie about his life. One hopes that comes to fruition. 

Meanwhile, the two Deaurātus Wines 2023 whites are available for purchase online now. Baugher and Ishikubo plan to bottle the 2023 reds by year’s end. They’re considering selling futures on the 2024s, which would be an amazing way to acquire some truly special stuff before Japan snaps it all up. 

Visit DeauratusWine to purchase. It’s a golden opportunity to be on the threshold of a dream.