Absentee Winery
Surfing Fermentation to Make Refreshing Apple Wine
story by Holly Madrigal
photos by Nik Zvolensky
The sea changes each day, every moment. The surf that pulls you in might be serene and calm as you wait for the break. Or it could be rough and erratic, requiring all your attention to catch the next ride. Focus is necessary but so is letting go—the magic happens when you are in the flow.
Avi Deixler was drawn to the Mendocino Coast in part so he could surf. When the waves are good, he’s out on the water. When they are not, he’s making wine. A transplant from Point Reyes, Avi moved north in search of a more flexible schedule and escape from the blindingly high cost of Bay Area living.
Once here, Avi’s life centered around two resources the rugged Mendocino Coast has in abundance: waves and apples. “My friend Aaron Brown, who is a fellow cider maker, cultivated a network of abandoned orchards around Sonoma and Mendocino counties,” he shares. “One of them happened to be in Fort Bragg, just a few minutes from my house, so it just made sense for him to pass the care of those trees on to me.”
In 2014, Avi was working in Napa in the wine business. After the harvest, his friend got hold of a bounty of apples from further north. “So we juiced them, I shaved three oak barrels and bottled it up. I added a little bit of frozen juice before I left to make it sparkling. It was good. But I was supposed to go to France to learn more so I left one barrel here while I was gone,” Avi remembers with a smile. “I didn’t have enough time to bottle it so I took off. While I was absent, the fermentation continued on its own. When I returned I tasted it and it blew my mind ... Absentee Wines was born! It was my absence, and my trust in the process, that made it so amazing.”
Avi’s passion for fermentation brought him to the wine industry. “I was fortunate enough to travel the world learning about wine,” he says. “I made a friend in Australia named Florent. He came from Burgundy but we met in Australia and became friends. He came to Napa to work for a crazy prestigious winery, Screaming Eagle. I was working at Rudd Estate at that time and Florent sponsored me to work for a year in Burgundy. I arrived in spring and did the harvest, pruning, and wine-making. We learned from each other.”
While in Burgundy, Avi traveled the country and visited different wineries. “I found a really remarkable person in Anjou in the Loire Valley. His son is named Baptiste Cousin. Baptiste used a corner of his dad’s cellar for his own wine,” Avi remembers. “He makes really good, thoughtful wines. He was able to be a bit punk rock about it but still keep the essence of the work. That guy was super informative. The more I met people making wine with this ethos—that was fun and inclusive and natural and not fear-based—the more it helped me conquer the fear of natural fermentation and aging that was instilled in me as a young assistant winemaker.”
Back in California, Avi studied the importance of wood barrels. Working closely with a cooperage, he learned the art of toasting the wood and shaving the barrels to expose a fresh surface. “I have these skills with the barrels. So much of the dynamic and character in a wine is done by the wood, the exchange of wood and liquid. It doesn’t taste good without that magic.”
Avi describes how wood barrels influence his apple wine. “The soil has all this flavor to impart from terroir, but so does wood. The flavor and essence come from the interaction with the barrel. When I was learning winemaking I did not have access to the vineyard to make changes with the pruning, the water, and subsoil. So I learned to adjust flavors in the barrel.” The juice stays in the barrels for three or four weeks for the initial fermentation, then goes through malolactic fermentation. “There is diverse culture living in there so it takes a while for all the microbes to get their share,” he explains. “There are not as many sugars turning to alcohol. I have an understanding of limiting oxidation from my days in conventional wine. So a barrel is a good option because it’s closed to free-flowing air but still lets enough oxygen in through the fibers of the barrel to keep the culture inside aerobic, living.”
Avi’s focus on the barrels reflects his interest in natural wine making, an approach that avoids chemical interventions. “I realized there was a certain essence of winemaking that I was interested in capturing. That is why I leaned into natural winemaking processes. I like wines made by a careful, talented hand. I got burned out in the wine business and so when the opportunity arrived my then-partner Natasha and I decided to move north.“ Many California regions that now grow wine grapes were originally planted in apples, like Sebastopol, Alexander Valley, and Anderson Valley. “Once we moved up here it seemed a natural evolution to transition to apple wine. The processes are the same: fruit, ferment, preserve, drink,” Avi reflects.
Once he relocated, Avi reconnected with a number of farmers he had known earlier in his career. “There are orchards and ranches way out in the hills with these antique varietals in them. I have made relationships with orchard owners. Historically the orchards were tended but now they have been able to grow a bit feral. That legacy is what makes it so rich. That’s how I like it,” he adds with a smile.
Avi is grateful for his network of forward-thinking farmers and chefs on the Mendocino Coast. “I’m a cook at heart, food is my passion,” he says. “So when I had the chance to take my knowledge of wine and shift it to apple wine, it let me live here in a more authentic way. Living here has allowed me to learn how to surf and to create an apple wine that is the result of all of my knowledge in fermenting to this point in time.”
Avi has a wine production space in the forest, not far from the sea. It’s dimly lit and stacks of barrels fill the cool interior. “Some of this wine has spent time on the skins. The Pink Pearl apple wine for example. It has this rose color. I added this juice to red wine barrels to enhance the hue. Apples offer similar aspects as grapes—tannins, color, flavor—from the skins. I believe there are those same factors in apple juice. I’m trying to have fun with it.” He pours a glass of the Pink Pearl and the rouge glow sparkles with light effervescence.
“People in wine can sometimes look down on those who make cheese, or other products. They get a bit high and mighty. I’m bringing all my grape wine skills to apple wine, and I believe there is a market for it. Apple wine has the same level of flavor complexity with a connection to this place. I’m working with restaurants in San Francisco who want to do food and apple wine pairings.” Local natural wine enthusiast Nathan Maxwell Cann describes Absentee Wines like this: “It doesn’t taste like cider, or wine, or anything you’ve had before. It’s raw, alive, and stubborn as the trees it came from. You don’t drink it — you meet it.” When he’s not conducting the fermentation process in his apple wine cave like an obsessed orchestra conductor, Avi is surfing. Out on the ocean, he watches for that next wave, the next break, always seeking that flow state that he brings to his apple wine fermentation, capturing the taste of this wild coast for you to enjoy.
Absentee Wines are available at Fog Bottle Shop, The Brickery at Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino, and Maritime Cafe in Elk.