2022 Omen Red Blend Sierra Foothills 750 ml

This is a testament to the value coming out of California’s Sierra Foothills, whose generous sunshine and poor, mineral-rich soils put forth red grapes of deep and complex character. And that combination is pulling California’s best talent out of Napa and into the hills: Andy Erickson (Favia, Harlan, Screaming Eagle) makes his Rompecabezas red wine there. Helen Keplinger (Bryant Family, Kenzo Estate) is making multiple reds there, and Philippe Melka is producing some stunners, all in the same region.

We caught up with Omen proprietor Alexandre Remy in one of his iron-rich source vineyards in the Sierra Foothills, where he told us about how he forged a winemaking career. It was, in large part, because some winery interns in his native and tradition-bound France told him he couldn’t. He needed a winemaking degree, they said, and Alex was studying food science.

“The concept of a challenge is a true motivator for me,” he told us. “So I took my backpack and traveled the world, going country to country, learning winemaking from scratch, starting by washing equipment and pruning vines, and eventually managing an entire winery.”

California offers the kind of freedom that many European winemakers can only dream of—a playground, perfect for a freewheeling winemaker sick of European strictures. This is especially true in the Sierra Foothills, where excellent vineyards have been producing grapes for well over a century—but are still more or less unknown. 

The 2022 Omen Red Blend hails from the Fair Play AVA, whose granite-rich soils sit at over 2,400 feet of elevation. The blend of 50% Zinfandel, 40% Petite Sirah, and 10% Barbera spent nine months in medium-toasted oak barrels (30% new) before bottling.