The Solar Fortún Estate:
Founded: 2010 by the López family
Vineyard location, elevation and grape varieties:
- Valle de Guadalupe - 1,000 ft - estate vines - (Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre, Syrah). The site is dominated by sandy soils with a small amount of clay. Organically farmed.
Winemaker: Enologist Santiago López Viana (Mexican born, trained at UC Davis, lives in Valle de Guadalupe)
Region and grape source: All grapes are estate grown in Valle de Guadalupe approximately 18 miles from the Pacific. They currently have 18.5 acres under vine
- Solar Fortún is a family owned and operated winery that was officially established in 2010 and planted 3 years prior in 2007. Coming from a background in theoretical and natural physics, (both of Santiago's parents are professors of physics at the university in Ensenada), the plan for this estate was methodical and precise, with no consideration left unattended.
Notes:
- Fully sustainable, (and idyllic to the point of being completely transportive) the only non-renewable resource they use in their operation is the fuel that runs their tractor. As the harvests, and almost all the work in the vineyards is done by hand, it doesn't get used much!
- All grapes are estate grown in an organically farmed vineyard site approximately 15 miles from the Pacific in a part of the valley called Francisco Zarco. The confining walls are so tight at this point that they create more of a canyon than a valley. This creates a unique micro-climate where the temperature differential between the mountainsides and the valley floor generates a nearly constant breeze eliminating the risk of cluster rot or powdery mildew. This cooler climate also plays a role in the high natural acidity of these wines and their very prevalent floral components.
Total production: 18.5 acres under vine, 10 wines, 4,000 cases
2024 Aureo - Solar Fortún
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
After coming strong out of the gates with their first release of this wine in 2023, the 2024 is masterpiece, (let’s hope it wasn’t beginners luck!) with the aromatics dialed way up and the mouthfeel even more crystalline and precise. In this vintage he harvested the Viognier slightly later and the Marsanne slightly earlier having learned from the results of the previous vintage. The 2023 was excellent but this is really phenomenal. For a pair of grapes that get very little recognition, this is the kind of wine that could easily shift the narrative.
350 cases made
Drinking window: Upon release - 5 yearsVintage:
2024
Blend:
50% Viognier, 50% Marsanne
Producer:
Solar Fortún
Winemaker:
Santiago Lopez - Mexican
Vineyards:
Valle de Guadalupe, ejido de Francisco Zarco - Estate vineyards in a tight valley with sandy soils of decomposed sandstone and some red clay. Vines were planted in 2020 at an elevation of 1,100 ft.
Winemaking:
Hand picked from organically farmed estate vineyards in Valle de Guadalupe. Fermented in stainless steel tanks for 2 weeks and then racked for aging. 70% of the wine went back into stainless steel and the remaining 30% was aged in Acacia barrels for 3 months. No corrections, light sulfites at bottling.
Sulfites: 35 ppm
Farming:
Organic, sustainable
Alcohol:
12.5%















