Erin Mitchell: Unturned Stone
https://www.unturnedstonewine.com,@unturnedstonewine
Graton Rancheria, Miwok, Northern Pomo land – Mendocino and Sonoma, California
About
A thirty-year veteran of the wine industry, I have worked in the retail and wholesale sales arena and made my own wine with my husband, Randy Czech, since 2010. I got my start as a sales associate in the gourmet foods department of Macy’s in 1994 and then went on to become the first woman to lead the team at McCarthy and Schiering Wine Merchants in Seattle, WA. I owe most of my knowledge and training to the mentorship of Dan McCarthy who taught me to identify wine blind and gave me the confidence to assert myself in an industry that was then largely male dominated. In the 2000, as one of the founding partners of Triage Wines, I helped introduce natural wine to the Pacific Northwest and began working closely with Louis/Dressner Selections. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2010, I have continued this relationship as a sales representative for Farm Wine Imports. Randy and I started Unturned Stone in 2010 largely as a passion project. Since then, it has grown into a 1000 case/year production that spans seven different vineyards in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. We are not dogmatic, nor do we make wine by numbers. We make decisions in the winery based on taste and are dedicated to making delicious, low intervention wines from grapes grown in what we feel are some of California’s most exceptional vineyards.
Social Justice and Environmental Restoration Statement
Unturned Stone is a two-person operation with one silent partner and no employees. We make our wine in a friend’s winery where we do all the winemaking ourselves. In the vineyards, we trust our growers to treat their workers responsibly and pay them a living wage.
We only buy organically farmed fruit from vineyards in Sonoma and Mendocino that are within 70 miles of the winery in Windsor. We are taking steps to make our packaging more carbon neutral by using FSC certified paper for our labels and American glass.
We are a woman and LGBTQ owned company. We believe that the best way to create inclusion in the wine industry is by dispelling the myth of exclusivity. We price our wines fairly and work with distribution partners who make the wines broadly available to restaurants, retailers and grocery stores.
We are big believers in social welfare and make regular donations to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, KPFA and KEXP.