The wine industry wants to churn out wine that is easy and quick to produce.
What we’re doing is different.
Mashup by Left Bend is a collaboration between
winegrower Richard Hanke and winemaker Gary Robinson.
Richard and Gary met and became friends while cycling the backroads throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. As they delved into wine together and enjoyed the stunning beauty of well-aged wine, they noticed a couple of trends in the wine world — the goal of most commercial wineries is to release wines quickly, which improves profitability. At the same time, most consumers drink wine shortly after purchasing it, and never experience the depth and interesting flavors of a well-aged wine.
From these trends, the idea to craft a multi-vintage blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah was hatched. In 2010, the year Left Bend was founded, they established a solera, a set of barrels used for aging and blending year after year, in perpetuity. Their vision then, and today, is to release wine that has been aged for smoothness, aromatic complexity and balance and to add fresh fruitiness and acidity to each version through the addition of a newer vintage. And, it just so happens that Santa Cruz Mountain fruit has the perfect acidity and tannin structure to make a wine for long term aging.
Richard and Gary also share a love for music, from jazz to alternative to blues. The combination of their musical interests even inspired the name, Mashup.
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A graduate of Purdue University, Richard believes that some of his school’s famed agricultural expertise has officially rubbed off on him. Richard has been immersed in the Santa Cruz Mountains wine scene since he began helping Gary with Left Bend’s second harvest in 2011.
In 2019, Richard began the development of Redwood Grade Vineyard on Mount Madonna, a well-known peak near the southern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains between Gilroy and Watsonville. The vineyard sits at an elevation of 1,500 feet and overlooks Watsonville, Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. The first harvest from Redwood Grade Vineyard will be in 2022, marking the start of a new chapter in the evolution of Left Bend.
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Gary found his way to the wine business with a backyard vineyard in Los Gatos, California. He soon immersed himself in winemaking by making wine in his garage for several years, studying enology and viticulture at UC Davis and working harvests at local vineyards and wineries.
While Richard develops Redwood Grade, Gary has set out on his own new winemaking adventure. Moving from his home of 18 years in Los Gatos — where he began making wine from his backyard vineyard — to Crested Butte, Colorado, where he has opened a new winery to continue the Mashup project. Fruit from the Santa Cruz Mountains is crushed in California before Gary transports it to the Crested Butte winery to complete fermentation, pressing and aging in the solera.
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Hunter is a Jack Russell Terrier, born in November of 2020. Jack Russell’s are natural hunters, and Hunter pulls his weight on the team by finding gophers in the vineyard. When he’s not searching for rodents, he loves riding through the breeze in the Kubota RTV. Hunter greets every guest with a few barks, but is very friendly after a welcoming sniff. Although, he is not sure about men with beards–will require more sniffs to make sure nothing is hidden in it.
