Bearing Witness. To a Place in Time.
It has been almost four decades of bearing witness on Capa Vineyard. Each year captured in liquid and framed in a bottle. A record of place and time.
It has never been about growing or making a perfect wine. It has always been about crafting a true one. A wine that tells the story of the weather that came before, decades of soil-building, nurturing a biodiverse environment, and the celebration of life.
Capa Vineyard Pinot Noir comes from the home vineyard. Yes, the vineyard was named after my dog. He was with me through the winery’s startup, my constant companion for sixteen years, and now rests at the top of the vineyard that bears his name.
But Capa, the dog, was named for Robert Capa, the photojournalist who understood that truth can’t be revealed from a safe distance. He moved toward uncertainty, danger, consequence, and the human moment before it disappeared. His photographs were raw and unflinching, asking us to look closer.
Vineyards and wine are not as immediate as documentary photographs. They reveal meaning only after the fact. Each vintage is a document, a record of fog and sun, wind and soil, bloom and harvest, sheep in the rows, and hands making decisions that can be judged only years later. We do not get to retouch the season.
Did we choose the right cover crop? Did we prune the vines to carry the right amount of fruit for the season ahead? Did we pick at the right time? So many decisions are little more than educated guesses, guided by experience, instinct, and hope. All we can do is farm to the best of our ability, listen closely, and try not to get in the way.
Capa Vineyard has never been a place of certainty. It asks us to take risks and have faith: to farm organically, biodynamically, and regeneratively; to trust Pinot Noir in a place that does not make the same wine twice; to let the vineyard speak even when the vintage is not convenient.
A photograph fixes a moment. Wine releases one slowly. This bottle is Capa Vineyard in 2019, not an idea of the place, but the place itself, revealed through fruit, stem, skin, soil, patience, and time.
Rob Sinskey
