Lapis Luna

It is worth saying up front: Lapis Luna is a brand, not an estate. It was created in 1999 and relaunched in 2018 by Andrew Nelson, with a supply agreement with the Paulis, a substantial grape-growing family in Mendocino County. The fruit comes from the North Coast and from Lodi, and the winemaking is led by Nicole Walsh.

The most recognisable thing about the house is on the label, and it is four hundred years old. The illustrations come from copperplate engravings of the early seventeenth century: in 1624 the poet Herman Hugo published Pia Desideria —"pious desires"— an emblem book whose images are the ones dressing the bottles today.