Arbios Cellars/Praxis Cellars is a small Sonoma County family wine business. Bill Arbios makes the wine; his wife, Susan handles much of the rest. Bill has never done anything except make wine professionally. He graduated from UC Davis in 1973 and enjoyed a successful career with many prominent wineries including Lyeth, Fieldstone and Jarvis over the last 38 years, but he felt somewhat restricted working for large wineries and yearned for his own roots.
With the creation of Arbios Cellars in 1993 and Praxis Cellars in 2000, his dream of expressing his vision and creating something lasting was realized. Arbios Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is their flagship wine and the four Praxis wines are priced for more "everyday" drinking. Praxis is the root of the verb "to practice," as in to practice one's craft, as a doctor or lawyer would practice medicine or law. Bill tries to experiment a little with his winemaking techniques by varying the grape sources, the clones, the fermentation and the barrel choice.
The Lagrein grapes are from a single vineyard on the Central Coast - about halfway between Paso Robles and Santa Maria. The vineyard is 6 miles inland and at an elevation of 1800 feet. Similar conditions to its ancestral growing conditions in the Italian Alps - Alto Adige. The wine is aged in French oak for 18 months.
During a trip to the Italian Alps, Bill became fascinated by this wine. He first tried Lagrein while on a hunt to see the remains of Utzi, the Alpine Ice Man and oldest natural mummy (Susan was an archaeologist in her younger days). Pronounced Lah-GRAYHN or Lah-GRINE, this cool climate red varietal is a 500 year-old cross between Teroldego and Pinot Noir. The cross was likely made to create an early ripening red wine for taverns along the trade routes through the Alps. This vineyard was planted 20 years ago as the climate was good for the grape varietal. Most of the grapes had been sold off for blending rather than to make Lagrein. Praxis is most likely the largest producer of American Lagrein! This is a very dense wine to be enjoyed with hearty foods like venison sausage or wild boar.
