Stagiare "Sequences and Series" Santa Cruz Mountains Cab Sauv 2023

Press 4 Red • April/May 2026 Direct Press Selection

Brent Mayeaux named his project Stagiare — French for intern or apprentice — after his time working for wineries in France and Australia. He came back to the US in 2018 with the goal of finding his own vineyards to farm in California. Though de rigueur in France, this is nearly impossible in California because of the staggering costs. For a while he did manage to only make wine from sites that he farmed, but he was driving all over Northern California to do it, and the logistics became exhausting and unsustainable. Now he goes the route of most winemakers in California, purchasing fruit from sites that meet his standards and have unique terroir that comes through in the wines. For the moment he makes the wines on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, which is not as fabulous as it sounds; more like if some of the warehouses between Bushwick and Maspeth were on Roosevelt Island.

Sequences and Series is Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Cruz Mountains, and you will quickly be able to tell this is nothing like Cabernet from Napa. "It's from a very cold site from a very cold year," Brent says. "After waiting as long as possible to harvest, we picked it in late October, and the wine barely clocks in at 12% alcohol. Vines are in super rocky thin volcanic soils and produce very little fruit." It tastes very Alpine to me, almost more like Mondeuse than Cabernet. There is a nice brambly, blackberry quality, however, and it's got a lean, energetic profile that is the opposite of the torpid Napa Cabs that have dominated the conversation for too long. As with all of the Stagiare wines, zero sulfur or anything is added. "If we have good grapes, why add anything to them in the cellar?" says Brent. Stagiare is on the cutting edge of the California natural wine scene, and this wine is a great example of why. Jonathan Kemp