Iruai, Shasta-Cascade Red 2022

Variety: Trousseau, Mondeuse, Blaufränkisch, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris        Chad Hinds started out as a chef, entering the world of work during the great recession of 2008-09. As a diversifying strategy, he started learning more about wine, then quickly aligned his thinking around the connections between natural food and wine. Chad finished a degree in enology before deciding in 2013 to create a winery, which he calls Methode Sauvage (“wild method”), initially focusing on finding a voice for Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc because he loves the grapes of the Loire Valley. As Chad’s interests and capabilities have grown, so has the range of wines he is producing as a sort of wunderkind of natural wines. In true gypsy form, the  winery has taken on a new name, which is now the identity of Iruai. This wine takes an Alpine inspiration with roots in both the Trinity Alps of northern California and the Shasta-Cascade range of southern Oregon. Considered a mythical winegrowing region even s