Jus Jus Day NV

Jus Jus: Day is a lightly fermented sparkling verjus made from organic Chardonnay sourced from Hawkeye Ranch in Redwood Valley, Mendocino County, and organic Muscat Blanc from First Generation Farmers in Contra Costa, CA. Fermented in the pét-nat style using only wild yeast, it reaches just 3.5% ABV — roughly one-third the alcohol of a typical sparkling wine. No sulfites or preservatives are added at any stage.

The project is a collaboration between Julia Sherman, creator of Salad for President, and Martha Stoumen, a Sebastopol-based natural winemaker who founded her own label in 2014 after eight years of apprenticeships in Tuscany, the Mosel, and Sicily, followed by a Master's in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. Fermentation takes place at a shared facility in Sebastopol where native yeast is the standard for all producers under that roof.

Hawkeye Ranch sits at 722 feet elevation in the upper Russian River drainage of Mendocino County. The vineyard is certified organic, Fish Friendly Farming Certified, and dry-farmed on Pinole Gravelly Loam soils. The Chardonnay vines are the rare Martini clone, planted in the 1970s. Redwood Valley's large diurnal temperature swings — often 50 degrees between day and night — preserve acidity in the fruit, making it well suited to this style.

Verjus is juice pressed from unripe grapes early in the growing season, traditionally used in French cooking as a substitute for lemon or vinegar. Jus Jus takes that base juice and lightly ferments it with wild yeast, trapping CO2 in the bottle to create fine, champagne-like bubbles. The result sits in a category of its own: no longer straight verjus, but not classifiable as wine in any conventional sense either.