Spring 2023

Picasso once said that every good painter paints what he is. And that’s the translation of this wine—it’s all good. This Gruner Veltliner expresses itself as a peppery, energetic, thirst-quenching sip. Your perfect sidekick for an evening spent plugging into your own personal creative outlet. 

Das Gute grapes are cultivated among wind-blown silt soil on steep loess terraces, nestled between the rivers Danube and Krems, which store heat from the day only to release it back to the vines at night. The result? Uniquely vivid, fruity, fresh flavors. Stainless steel fermentation keeps things electric and packed with crunch when you uncork. 
 
Upward Projects exclusive collaboration with Weingut Berger. Weingut Berger is certified Fair ‘N Green: farmed to the latest organic guidelines and biodiverse with drastically reduced CO2 emissions. 

This lip-smacking, soul-satisfying wine needed a label that did it justice. So we collaborated with up-and-coming Phoenix artist Gino Belassen to dream one up. Gino’s work is grounded in storytelling—his desire to subtly communicate a tale, thought, or feeling through playful and sometimes irreverent means. For the Nevermind bottle, he taps the push-pull of wonder, infatuation, passion, and lust for a visual portrayal that complements the pulsating flavors in each bottle. 

 The fruit is sourced from volcanic, gravel, and sandy-clay soils—a trifecta of old-vine terroirs that imbues the wine with a unique character and scents of laurel, juniper, rockrose, and pine. 

Each Cinsault grape was picked for freshness and minerality, early-morning whole-cluster pressed, and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel.

Upward Projects exclusive collaboration with Domaine Preignes Le Vieux. Domaine Preigns Le Vieux farms naturally sans pesticides or herbicides. Each plot of vines on the property is considered its own micro-terroir, with a unique cover crop plan adapted to the performance of the vines.

Nature is kind of an OG when it comes to artistic expression. So we chose this bottle of vibrant, perfumed Barbera-Nebbiolo, which is named as an ode to a breathtaking peak in the Cottian Alps. This Super-Piedmontese wine embraces the deep color and everyday drinkability of Barbera, but is bolstered by the high-toned, structured, incredibly aromatic complexity of Nebbiolo. 

Piedmont claims a classically continental climate with long hot summers and (in the best vintages) favorable weather deep into fall.  The mix in soils brings vivid acidity and seamless finesse to every sip. Hand-harvested, stainless steel fermented, and aged in large format neutral oak barrels. 

Upward Projects exclusive collaboration with the Sperone family of Franco Serra. Since the early 20th century, the Sperones put heart and soul into wines that represent the remarkable terroir of the Langhe. Fourth generation brother and sister, Andrea and Francesca, passionately carry that torch forward. 

Just as an artist’s palette needs to be set up with hues that support the vision, this delish old-vine wine’s depth and structure is also supported by a cast of complementary players that make it deep, enveloping, spicy and satisfying. Composed of 64% Carignan, 26% Petit Sirah, 4% Mataro, 4% Cinsault, and 2% Alicante Bouschet, this wine is fermented in stainless steel to preserve each varietal’s unique characteristics. It’s then aged for almost a year in a mix of French and American oak—mostly neutral with a bit of new oak to lend some spice. 

Contra Costa, Spanish for ‘opposite shore,’ is an American Viticultural Area directly east of San Francisco Bay, within the greater Central Coast AVA. Here, the unique free-draining soils lead to concentrated berries with thick skins, firm tannins, and exceptional structure.

Upward Projects exclusive collaboration with Three Wine Company. Matt Cline of Three Wine Company has significantly identified and preserved historic vineyard sites in Contra Costa County. Some, planted as long ago as the 1890s, managed to survive phylloxera, prohibition, and urban creep, leading to some of the finest Zinfandel, Carignan, and Mataro-based wines ever produced in California.