FROM VINEPAIR’S NEXT WAVE NOMINEE: ROSALIND REYNOLDS’ ANTICIPATED FALL RELEASE
- Damien Casten
- Aug 17
- 7 min read
Rosalind Reynolds & Emme Wines: Six New Wines from California's Rising Star, Coming Soon to Chicago with Candid Wines
If we are lucky, Rosalind will allocate more than 10 cases of each wine to Illinois. At most, we expect 20.
This spring, her Pink Lemonade sold out across Chicago in just two weeks — our largest allocation ever, gone before many buyers had a chance. It proved what insiders already knew: Rosalind isn’t just making wine, she’s reshaping California’s future.
Now, fresh off her nomination as VinePair’s 2025 “Next Wave Winemaker of the Year,” Rosalind is releasing six new small-lot wines. These bottles will sell out before they land. Contact your Candid Wines rep today to secure your allocation and show your customers why Rosalind Reynolds is recognized as one of America’s most promising young winemakers.
Priority always goes to the partners who helped establish Rosalind in the Chicago market. Once those commitments are filled, availability will be smaller still. If you want to join that group, for this and future releases, now is the time to act. Email us at orders@candidwines.com, or contact your rep today.
From Sonoma to Chicago: A Natural Wine Philosophy That Works
Reynolds' approach to natural winemaking goes far beyond trendy marketing. Her three-pillar philosophy—how you treat your vineyard, how you treat people, and how you treat the wines—creates wines that actually deliver on natural wine's promise of authenticity and expression.
"Natural wine is not a legally defined term, so I think it means different things to a lot of different people," Reynolds explains. "To me what it means is kind of a three-part thing: how you treat your vineyard, how you treat the people you work with, and how you treat the wines once they're in the cellar."
This means organic farming "to keep the vines as healthy as possible and to keep the land around it as healthy as possible," paying and treating workers fairly, and making wines "as minimal as possible" with native yeast, minimal or no sulfur, and "no fining, no filtering, and no other major chemical adjustments to the wine."
Her scientific background—plant genetics and biology—informs rigorous quality control, including her innovative 24-hour oxidation stability test. "If a wine tastes the same or better after 24 hours exposed to air, maybe it doesn't need sulfur. If it tastes worse, I'll add 15-20 parts to protect it."
The Fall 2024 Collection: Six Wines, Six Stories
We have a unique insight into these new releases thanks to a series of videos we filmed with Rosalind after the 2024 harvest when she was visiting Chicago.
2024 Skin Contact Colombard 'tell your sister i say hi'
Redwood Valley, CA • 150 cases • 11% ABV
Reynolds' most technically ambitious wine yet, combining two harvest dates and two fermentation approaches. An early September pick receives a protective four-day cold soak for texture without color extraction. Three weeks later, a second pick undergoes full 10-day skin fermentation for "sappy, intensely aromatic" character with dark orange hue.
"At blending, the two components were vastly different... Together, they complement and fill one another out," Reynolds explains.
Why it matters: This showcases Colombard—California's forgotten heritage white that still represents 8% of the state's total crush—in its most expressive form.
Rosalind told us:
"We call it my lesbian wine. I don't even remember how the name started, but it truly was an inside joke at one point between my friends, and someone decided it was a good idea to put on a label. I said, 'Sure, okay, I'll put it on a label, we'll see what happens,' and I released it. All of the other queer people I know that drink wine were like, 'Oh my God, this is the funniest name, you have to keep it.' So that name stuck, and the skin contact Colombard is forever known as 'Tell Your Sister I Say Hi.'"
2024 Carignan 'for you, anything'
Redwood Valley, CA • 120 cases • 12% ABV
From the same 80-year-old Ricetti Vineyard blocks as her famous Pink Lemonade rosé, but picked three weeks later for full red wine development. The warm 2024 vintage allowed hanging fruit to 23 brix—ideal for her "rich, warm Carignan" vision.
Rosalind told us:
"Anything that I pick from this vineyard, from Ricetti, and anything I think in general in California tends to always have this through-line of fruit in it, because to me California is just a very fruit-driven place, which is great. I've had Carignans that are from the south of France that are even more meaty and like brambly and sagey than anything I could possibly make in California, and that to me is also very cool. It's a very expressive grape—it expresses where it's grown really well and it expresses whatever kind of winemaking style you're trying to shepherd it into, I think."
2024 Zinfandel 'you're lucky you're so cute'
Redwood Valley, CA • 120 cases • 12% ABV
Harvested August 31st—three weeks earlier than 2023—this challenges everything you think you know about California Zinfandel. By picking when "some berries were sun-dried and beginning to raisin while others were still slightly pink and tart," Reynolds captures the variety's peppery, herbal character instead of the jammy style that dominates the market.
"My goal is to make that fresher, more peppery style Zin and show it to people," she explains. "When someone tells me 'I don't like California Zin,' I can say 'you don't like California Zin made in a particular way, but that's not what Zinfandel has to be.'"
On 2024 harvest timing: "In 2024, we saw a return to the hot and dry harvests of the last handful of years. While I was able to hang Ricetti's Zinfandel into late September in 2023 (a much cooler year), in 2024 we called the pick for the last day of August—a full 3 weeks earlier, which is indicative of how much more quickly harvest progressed in 2024 as compared to 2023. As is often the case with Zinfandel, some of the berries were sun dried and beginning to raisin, while others were still slightly pink and tart. For me, this is the perfect balance of ripe sugar with lean acidity, to maintain freshness and lift in the wine."
2024 Grenache 'we touch in silhouette'
Shake Ridge Ranch, Amador County • 90 cases • 13% ABV
From Ann Kramer's legendary Shake Ridge Ranch, this represents Reynolds' most age-worthy wine. "Ann's Grenache is the most stunning I've ever worked with—light in color, beautiful aromatics, but with a consistently strong tannic backbone that makes the wine very age worthy." Extended aging through summer 2025 has created a wine with immediate appeal and long-term potential.
On collaborative fruit selection: "Together we actually talked about—Ann tasted my wines and she was like, 'Look, you make really light, bright, beautiful wines. Why don't you take this plot from my vineyard, which is Grenache that was usually made into rosé, but I bet you can make a really pretty light red out of this wine as opposed to some of the other plots which are going to gain a lot more sugar or become high alcoholic bruiser wines.' And I love that with a grower when they're invested in what the final wine is going to be like, and so they're part of the decision-making process in terms of what fruit I'm picking and when I'm picking it and all of that."
2024 Syrah 'seas without measure'
Falcon Lane, Russian River Valley • 60 cases • 13.5% ABV
The most personal wine in the lineup, from Reynolds' own rehabilitated vineyard project in Graton. "Falcon Lane has been a long and slow labor of cleaning up and retraining abandoned vines. The 2024 harvest provided even more fruit and higher consistency than 2023."
Hand-harvested with friends over two September evenings, this ultra-limited Syrah tells the story of dedication, community, and gradual quality improvement.
2023 Merlot 'it's not a phase'
Nakai Vineyard, Russian River Valley • 120 cases • 13% ABV
The only wine from 2023's challenging cool vintage, this Merlot spent an extra year in bottle before release. Made whole cluster for freshness enhancement, it demonstrates Reynolds' mission to rehabilitate California Merlot's reputation.
"I think California Merlot is undervalued. I'm trying to make it popular again essentially by making it delicious and drinkable and getting people excited about Merlot," she states.
On "It's Not a Phase" wine name: "The name refers to the fact that Merlot itself is not a phase—it's here to stay, we're going to make it every year, you're going to drink it every year, you're going to love it, it's great. And then also it is a little bit of a callback to the idea of sexuality and being queer and how that's also not a phase."
Why These Wines Matter Now
Preservation of Old Vines and Heritage Varieties
Reynolds works with grapes that built California wine before corporate consolidation: Colombard (8% of state crush but largely invisible), Carignan from 1939 plantings, and early-harvest Zinfandel that shows the variety's European origins. If you are interested in preserving California's Heritage and drinking delicious wines, these are for you.
Rosalind (remember she trained as a scientist) will also explain the benefits of all the sequesterd carbon that old vineyards represent. Tearing them out and staritng new is just a waste of resources when it's not neccesary.
Authentic Natural Winemaking
While some natural wines sacrifice stability for philosophy, Reynolds combines minimal intervention with rigorous quality control. Her 24-hour oxidation test ensures wines that evolve beautifully rather than falling apart. As someone who puts people on par with process and terroir, her natural approach is sustainable in a genuine way.
Next Generation Leadership
Operating from Sebastopol's prestigious Pax facility alongside winemakers like Martha Stoumen, Patrick Cappiello, and Carlo Mondavi, Reynolds is a beacon for the natural wine movement's evolution toward technical excellence.
Chicago Exclusive Access
We will receive 10 to 20 cases of each of these wines. With her growing national recognition, illustrated by her VinePair nomination, these wines represent exceptional value and a rare opportunity for Chicago's wine community.
For Restaurants & Trade
Contact Candid Wines for allocation details and technical specifications.
For Wine Enthusiasts
Visit participating Chicago wine shops or contact Candid Wines directly for retail availability. All Together Now, 57th Street Wines, Webster's Wine Bar, The Wine Thief Provisions, Verve Wine, and Easy Does It have historically been great places to find Rosalind's wines.
"Wine, at its core, is about community. Countless hands are involved in every glass you drink—from the growers who planted cuttings three generations ago to the friends who help pick the grapes." — Rosalind Reynolds
The enthusiastic response to Pink Lemonade showed just how quickly her reputation has grown in Chicago. This fall collection proves that quality and philosophy can create wines worth celebrating—and worth securing before word spreads beyond our market.
Contact Candid Wines for allocation details while supplies last.
Rosalind Reynolds operates Emme Wines from Sebastopol, California, working with heritage varietals from organic vineyards across Northern California. Her VinePair Next Wave Award nomination recognizes her contributions to American winemaking's evolution toward quality, sustainability, and authentic terroir expression.
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