An Eye-Opening Visit to Marian Farms in California

Our team adventured to Fresno, CA last weekend on a trip with Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole to discover the secret behind the beauty of the Bar Agricole spirits. Well, we should have guessed it and in fact, it should have been no surprise at all! It starts with the quality of the raw materials. 

We met a long time collaborator of Thad’s, Gena Nonini, proprietor of Marian Farms and a third generation Italian American farmer who immediately gravitated to biodynamic farming principles when she took over the family farm in 1990.

Our minds were blown when we learned that Gena biodynamically farms 140 acres of grapes, citrus, almonds, and pecans with a team of 4 people. Her dedication to biodynamics is incredibly inspiring. In her words the philosophy ‘spoke to her heart' and she dove in without reservation.

Gena is farming some of the healthiest looking 75-100 year old Thompson, Palomino, and Muscat vines we’ve ever seen. Half are used to make raisins and the other half are destemmed, crushed, and fermented. All fermentation is wild, and distillation is performed by Gena on a copper pot still fabricated by Christian Carl GmbH that Gena sought out and purchased in 2005.

We were not surprised to learn that Christian Carl is the same stillmaker used by Hans Reisetbauer, another distiller we greatly admire as crafting some of the finest distillates in the world. After having converted her farm into the first Demeter certified vineyard in the United States, Gena later sought Demeter certification of her still and became the first producer of Demeter certified spirits in the United States. 

In Thad’s words, these are true site-specific farmstead spirits. The Brandy, a project that started in 2005, uses only a single ingredient throughout the entire process, the grapes themselves. Nothing added until the final proofing down with well water from the property. Furthermore, the base of all the other products Thad and Gena make together is a grape distillate made in house from the same old vine vineyards and native yeast fermentations.

The curaçao is made from Gena’s own Demeter certified orange peels macerated in the same base spirit with only the addition of Demeter certified sugar sourced from outside the farm. The Gins are made by maceration and distillation of juniper, citrus, and botanicals grown on the property (always fresh, never dried) in the same base spirit, proofed down with well water from the farm, and rested before release. None of the distillates are ever chill-filtered (a process that strips spirits of their natural oils), leaving the resulting spirit full of flavor, esters and texture that are sorely missing in so many spirits on the market today. 

In summary, it is no accident that the entire line from Bar Agricole spirits continues to impress us every time we taste them in a line up with similar products. They are uncompromising in quality, densely packed with flavor, and best enjoyed neat. 

• Demeter certified Biodynamic farming for 30 years, the first in the United States

• Demeter certified Biodynamic production facility, the first in the United States

• onsite well for water 

• sandy loam soil 

• 100 year old vineyards

• making their own grape spirit for maceration beginning with native fermentations

• macerations of citrus and botanicals are all fresh, within 24 hours after harvest 

• use of single Christian Carl copper pot still 

• not chill-filtered, leaving behind more flavor, esters and texture 

• vintage dated releases