"Call them what you like – desire lines, social trails, cow paths, pirate paths, kemonomichi (beast trails), chemins de l’âne (donkey paths), Olifantenpad (elephant trails)–each represents the natural course of evolution, of user experience over design, a cumulative creation of collective intelligence. Desire lines are unofficial routes, formed over time as the people traversing a space reject the designated paths in favor of a path all their own."
When Emily and Cody Rasmussen moved to California in 2011, newly married and ready to set their own life course, they dove head first into wine. Cody ended up as the Assistant Winemaker at the beloved Bedrock Wine Company, and they made their first Desire Lines vintage in 2014. The winery has been a passion project founded on finding their own course in California, and showcasing some of their favorite vineyards in the state. Each single vineyard bottling features a drawing of the vineyard the wine comes from, a tribute to the vineyards, farmers and terroir that are core to the Desire Lines project.
Emily and Cody have worked tirelessly amongst some of our absolute favorite, organically farmed California vineyards—the 100+ year old bush vines at Evangelho in Contra Costa County, the mountain Syrah fruit of Shake Ridge and the 50+ year old Riesling of Cole Ranch just to name a few. In the cellar they utilize hands off, minimal intervention winemaking to really let the fruit and terroir shine.
We are so happy to have Emily here at Vintage Berkeley on Vine street for a tasting on May 12th. She’ll be pouring their beautiful Cole Ranch Riesling, the Evangelho and Winds of Change red blends, along with two beautiful Syrah’s from Shake Ridge and Griffin’s Lair!
Come meet Emily and taste the wines critic Antonio Galloni called “one of his most exciting discoveries”!