Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Papillon fills the glass with an unmistakable dark crimson, a flash of neon purple and a ruby rim. Tears move glacially and the wine opens with aromatics of boysenberry jam, violets, chocolate covered blueberry and hints of Cara Cara rind, graphite and brioche. The entry and mid-palate are bright throughout with considerable weight—tones of cassis, blackberry and baking spices flourish. Enveloping texture, chalky, drying tannins and an enduring finish bows out the wine.
History of Orin Swift
The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995 when on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”. During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself, he founded Orin Swift Cellars in 1998; Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.
About the Label
The label features the beautiful juxtaposition of a gorgeous word, ‘butterfly’, cast against the harsh and gritty hands of a friend and fellow winemaker.
Phinney’s Papillon label is inspired by contradictions. While walking through a vineyard with his three-year-old daughter on his shoulders and thinking about what to call his next wine, a butterfly flew by and his daughter exclaimed, “Look, a papillon!” Phinney was flummoxed as to where she had picked up the French word for butterfly.
It was on his mind to create a label featuring tattoos on someone’s knuckles. “Papillon has eight letters so the idea clicked. I love the juxtaposition of this beautiful French word on these really gritty hands,” says Phinney, who used one of his grape growers as a hand model.
“He’s the nicest guy and a third generation old school farmer, which is exactly the look I wanted,” says Phinney, who asked his friend Greg Gorman to photograph the label in black-and-white.
The label is as memorable as the wine itself.
