An exciting new producer and immediate DRINK Staff Favorite! Ashanta is Chenoa Ashton-Lewis and Will Basanta's Californian Natural Wine project. 

Chenoa’s family has been farming grapes in California for 3 generations - since the 1970's when Chenoa’s grandparents planted a vineyard atop Sonoma Mountain. In 2017, this 50-year-old family legacy was critically endangered when the Nun’s Fire ravaged the property. But from hardship comes new beginnings: Having learned of some surviving vines, Chenoa and Will drove up from LA in 2019 to harvest the fruit and salvage the vineyard. The resulting wine — an experimental co-ferment — marked the birth of Ashanta, and set the tone for their deeply personal, mission-driven project.

The couple made their first commercial vintage in 2020 in natural wine pioneer, Tony Coturri's Cellar. They took on Coturri as a mentor and share his uncompromising philosophy — zero-zero production (no SO2 additions), unfined, unfiltered, and fermented with native yeast. The couple now employs various unique techniques, even forage some grapes, and have resurrected additional sites after wildfires. 

Dry cherries with earthy undertones. Lifted acidity. Light-medium bodied.