Michael grew up in Colorado. After high school, he went to school in Northwestern Colorado. Being a farm boy, he didn't feel destined to become a doctor or a brain surgeon. He loved building and creating things with his hands. So engineering was the direction for him. With a mathematical brain where architecture and engineering weaved together. On a road trip with a bunch of buddies, they headed West for no other reason than to hit the ocean. You get a bunch of farm boys that show up in Huntington Beach, LA and it was quite overwhelming. We pull into Sequoia Grove in 1981, I was a junior in college, big hair, flannel shirts. Jim Allen welcomed us with open arms. Being farm kids, we all helped Jim establish and build the winery. WE worked like oxen. That evening his wife put together this beautiful spread under the stars out on the lawn. It was just like you'd see on tv. This Napa Valley life. I called my mom and said I just want to take one semester off. Take a little more dose of this California thing, I like it. Well, 37 years later, I'm still taking that semester off.
I didn't grow up with a wine culture. In Colorado, we grew a lot of barley for Coors beer. I grew up in a beer, whiskey sort of culture. Fine wine wasn't in my veins. Through the help of Jim Allen, my first job in California was established in a vineyard which is today Domaine Carneros. Back in those days, it was all pasture, all cattle. His mentor is André Tchelistcheff. Michael started working with him in the vineyard.
Fast forward a year or two, more of those dinners under the stars, enthralled by the Napa Valley lifestyle. Drinking wine. Trying wine. And he just got bit.
He was one of the first winemakers to take the combination of Rutherford valley fruit and combine it with the spicier, more intense mountain fruit. It became known as the cult wine without the cult price.
With his projects with Karl Lawrence and Sequoia Grove, he likely made wine from every square mile within Napa Valley. When it was time for him to go out on his own, he had a vision an idea and dream of exactly what he wanted to do. He knew which vineyards he wanted to continue working with - and the keyword is "continue". He knew his style. Very varietal-expressive. A polished wine. Not over opulent. Very focused, very varietal, very fruit-forward. The texture is rich but not aggressive.
Cheers to Trujillo Wine. We have been following Michael Trujillo's decorated winemaking career for years. When we found out he was launching his own wine brand we absolutely knew we wanted to feature him. Thank you for your support!
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