Gamling & McDuck | Napa Valley, California

THE CONNECTION:
Over a decade ago Gabrielle Shaffer and Adam McClary met here in Minnesota while working in the local wine biz -Gabe for The Wine Company at the wholesale level and Adam in the local restaurant scene here in the Twin Cities. Between a shared passion for wines of the Loire and loud music they fell hard for one another. Soon pet names followed and Gabe became “Gamling” and Adam “McDuck”. Wine runs deep in these two and before long they decided to give up their great jobs and Uptown lifestyle to move out to Napa and juggle jobs and school and harvest internships and farming… Four years later all that work culminated in Loire inspired but Californian sun-soaked, handcrafted wines and they have gone from strength to strength ever since.

10846419_805918739451452_1094838112613241137_nTHE PRACTICE:
Between her respect for deliberate winegrowers and terroir driven wines that capture their gifted sense of place, Gabrielle fit right in at The Wine Company. Today Gabrielle spends her workday as the Head Viticulturalist at Stagecoach Vineyard where she minds 200 distinct blocks subject to many variables and microclimates -like a boss! Fitting because she is the boss. When she isn’t tending world class grapes bound for 80 other wineries, she applies her Midwestern work ethic and UC Davis education to her own wines sourced from the best plots across the region ideally situated to Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc. Over the years working together Gamling has imparted all she knows to McDuck and now the partnership does most everything together.

Over the years working together Gamling has imparted all she knows to McDuck and now the partnership does most everything together.

296609_244639362246062_308593059_nTHE WINES:
Sourcing is paramount when you are place based winemakers who do not possess their own vineyards so Gamling & McDuck are vigilant about their fruit and tend their source material per sustainable farming. In the cellar, they utilize cool fermentations to retain all the nuance they strive to ripen on the vine. Fermentations spark to life thanks to native yeasts introduced at the crush from the bloom on the grapes themselves -making these wines all the more the round result of their terroir. Moreover Gamling & McDuck eschew any additions and manipulations. This is real wine made by real people who “play excellent film soundtracks in the cellar…” Adam once explained “…all methods intent on weaving typicity and narrative into the astral helix of their wines.”

THE OFFERINGS:
CHENIN BLANC | MCDUCK RED | CABERNET FRANC

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