We view smallness as a virtue. It's only through our smallness that we are able to understand in such a personal way each of our vineyards and the distinct personality expressed by every single barrel of wine in our cellar. Each of our wines is a unique gem from undiscovered, tiny parcels that we seek out within California's finest vineyards. We make every wine from berry to bottle by hand with as little intervention as possible.
Coterie Cellars is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Kyle and Shala Loudon. The winery didn't begin with a fortune or a family legacy, although Shala's grandfather was a cooper and her family has vineyards in Italy. The winery was conceived to be nurtured from the ground up at a carefully measured pace with a focus on the highest craftsmanship at every turn. As Winemaker, Kyle oversees all aspects of the wine programs. Kyle holds a BS degree from Purdue University, has studied viticulture and enology at UC Davis, and is especially grateful for the guidance he has received over the years from outstanding and influential winemakers. As Accounts Manager, Shala brings a client focus from several years at Williams-Sonoma.
The formative years of our winery took place while we were part of a coterie of winery workers for two highly regarded wineries in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here we began making a number of wines under the guidance of these and other winemakers, and establishing relationships with outstanding vineyards. After learning how to work best with these vineyards over several vintages, we created one of the smallest wineries in California beginning our journey with the vineyards we had come to know and love.
Our letterpress-evocative labels reflect the spirit behind how we make our wines. Letterpress is a printing method of special craftmanship and history that results in a pleasing tactile quality. Our labels feature a simple grape cluster as a testament that it's the fruit that will always shape and inspire our winemaking. The six grape berries are a nod to the Gang of Six, with whom we made some of our earliest wines before Coterie Cellars.
Coterie Cellars is pioneering the movement of small wineries into urban areas in the South San Francisco Bay Area. Situated abeam Willow Glen just south of the San Jose downtown, our winery is centered between some of the best vineyards in the world as well. Napa and Sonoma are just two hours north, the Santa Lucia Highlands are an hour and a half south, and the foothills of the Sierra Mountains are just two and a half hours northeast. What's more, if you're one of the millions of people that live among the urban communities of Silicon Valley, you're likely just a few minutes from us.
View our list of 2009 wines
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