The nose opens dark and steady, with blackberry, black currant, and plum skin leading the way. Then it starts to show more detail: clove, anise, licorice, and a little smoky underbrush character, plus a faint bittersweet note that reads somewhere between cocoa nib and toasted oak. It smells plush, but not syrupy—more polished than pushy.

On the palate, this lands in a very satisfying middle ground: medium-high in body, silky in texture, and structured enough to keep the fruit from wandering off in sweatpants. Blackberry and currant fruit sit at the core, while savory spice, dark chocolate, and a touch of smoke fill in around the edges. The tannins are medium-grained, the finish has real length, and the overall impression is generous but composed. This is not a bruiser. It’s a Mendocino red with some shoulders and some manners.

Ettore’s vineyards sit in Sanel Valley near Hopland, in the southern end of Mendocino County, on the western benchlands of the valley at about 500 to 600 feet above sea level. The site gets early morning sun, while nearby mountains help moderate the hotter part of the day with shade and cooling breezes. The soils are described by the winery as mostly gravelly, benchland loams, which helps explain the wine’s combination of ripe fruit, shape, and a slightly firm, grounded finish. Southern Mendocino runs warmer than many people assume when they hear “Mendocino,” and that extra heat gives Bordeaux varieties a real chance to ripen without losing all sense of balance.

About the Winery

Ettore Winery is a relatively new California project, but it does not come from a beginner’s brain. Founder Ettore Biraghi grew up in Varese, in northern Italy, and built his early wine career in Switzerland before turning his attention to Mendocino. He first encountered Hopland and the Sanel Valley in 2015 and saw a place where organically farmed fruit and a more restrained, Old World sensibility could make real sense together.

But the story does not belong to Ettore alone. The winery’s winemaker is Sofia Rivier, an Argentine-born agronomist and enologist whose path runs from Mendoza to Switzerland to Mendocino County. She joined the project in 2018, bringing both technical precision and a strong vineyard-first perspective to the work. Ettore’s own team materials describe her as working closely with Biraghi to develop the wines, while other recent coverage notes that she manages the Ettore wines day to day and also serves in a vineyard leadership role. 

That division of labor helps explain the wines. The estate vineyards in Sanel Valley are organically farmed on gravelly benchland soils, in a warm inland corner of southern Mendocino shaped by elevation, mountain influence, and cooling air. Rivier’s background seems especially relevant here: she has spoken through her bio and profile material about understanding terroir, seasonal conditions, and technique as parts of the same conversation, which tracks with the winery’s overall style—clean, site-conscious, and disciplined without feeling stiff.

So while Ettore Biraghi provides the founding vision and cross-border perspective, Sofia Rivier is clearly central to how that vision becomes actual wine in the glass. The result is a winery that feels genuinely collaborative: Italian roots, Swiss polish, Argentine and European training, Mendocino fruit, and a steady commitment to organic farming. That is a pretty strong team on paper, and thankfully it tastes like one too.