Pangloss Cellars at the Repris Tasting Lounge
Pangloss pours three labels of one house on the Sonoma Plaza, and the top flight comes off Moon Mountain: 49 blocks between 1,000 and 1,800 feet on six volcanic soils. Ninety minutes gets you four wines for $70.12
Why go
The sign carries two names. Repris is the parent, and Pangloss is a label under it alongside Texture.1 Pangloss buys across Sonoma from rugged sites and old vineyards.1 It turns up varietals like Chenin Blanc and Grenache that most of the county has stopped bothering with.1 Texture makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, still and sparkling, from the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley.1
Repris is the estate half, and Jim Momtazee's Moon Mountain Vineyard is where the geology gets interesting. Roughly seventy acres of vines sit between 1,000 and 1,800 feet in the Mayacamas, on a southwestern exposure.2 At least six distinct volcanic soils run across them.2 Underneath sit the Sonoma Volcanics: andesite, basalt and volcanic tuffs more than a thousand feet deep, laid down over three million years.2 They farm it as 49 separate blocks, mostly Bordeaux and Rhone varieties.2
They pour it in a restored 1902 building of about 4,000 square feet on the Sonoma Plaza.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Repris flight at $70, four estate wines off Moon Mountain. That is the one the vineyard exists for.1
- Order: the Pangloss flight at $40 if you want the odd varietals rather than the estate.1
- Order: the Heritage Site Experience at $85, or $60 for members, six wines from the Sonoma and Anderson valleys over ninety minutes in the private cellar room behind the bottle wall, up to eight people.1
- Avoid: arriving with six or more and expecting to improvise. That size is seated by arrangement and a 20 percent gratuity is added on the day.1
What locals & experts say
- Jim Momtazee, proprietor of Repris, on what he set out to do:
I embarked on this journey with a mission to be a faithful steward of the historic Moon Mountain Vineyard and to produce exceptional wines. Repris is the product of that mission, an effort to craft wines of place and purpose, representing the distinctiveness and charm of this special property.
3 - The operator, on the Repris flight:
Discover four estate wines from Moon Mountain Vineyard, each a vivid expression of place.
1
Good to know
- Open daily by prior reservation, with slots at 10:00, 12:30, 2:15 and 4:00, and each experience runs ninety minutes.1
- They take walk-ins when there is room.1
- Small plates are available alongside the flights, made by the house kitchen.1
- Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, New Year's Eve and Day, Easter and the Fourth of July.1
Verdict
could-visit — Jim Momtazee's seventy acres sit on andesite, basalt and tuffs a thousand feet deep, mostly Bordeaux and Rhone varieties on a southwestern exposure in the Mayacamas. Below the estate flight, $40 buys Pangloss, sourced from rugged sites across the county and pouring Chenin Blanc and Grenache that most of Sonoma has given up on, and $60 buys Texture's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Slots run four times a day and walk-ins are taken when there is room. Nobody outside the house has tasted these in print, and the one award the site claims names no year.