Wine Stripped to the Bare Essentials
La Clarine Farm is one of California's most quietly influential natural wine projects — a biodynamic farm and winery in the Sierra Foothills founded by Hank Beckmeyer and Caroline Hoel, two self-described refugees from the music business who left their bands to make wine they'd actually want to drink. [^171^] [^174^] At 2,600 feet in El Dorado County, they farm 2 acres of head-trained, low-to-the-ground vines in a melange of grape varieties — Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, Negroamaro, Cabernet Sauvignon — and source additional fruit from organically farmed sites within a 5-mile radius. [^172^] [^179^] Their wines are co-fermented, ambient-yeast, additive-free expressions of a region that is still discovering what it can do. [^172^]
From Half Japanese to the Sierra Foothills
Hank Beckmeyer left his band — Half Japanese, if you know the reference — to make wine in the Sierra Foothills with his wife Caroline. [^171^] Both had worked in the music industry, and their time in Germany (where Caroline made cheese and Hank played music) shaped their approach to craft and agriculture. [^172^] They eventually desired to set out on their own with a parcel they could develop in a series of projects. The Sierra Foothills offered affordable access to such property, so in 2001 they relocated to California, planting vines in El Dorado in 2002 and beginning commercial winemaking in 2007. [^172^] [^177^]
The project began with a simple idea: try a few things, and if people liked it, keep going. [^174^] They started with goats — at one point tending over a hundred head — and Caroline made La Clarine Farm cheeses for three years before the focus shifted entirely to wine. [^172^] The name "La Clarine" comes from the small bell worn by goats in the French Alps — a nod to their early farming days and the transhumance tradition of moving livestock between mountain pastures.
Beckmeyer's background in music — particularly the experimental, DIY ethos of Half Japanese — informs everything about La Clarine. The label is driven by a love for experimentation, a sense of playfulness, and a refusal to take wine too seriously. [^172^] "Such verve shows through as the wines seem to match the character of the couple — quietly jovial with an easy going whole lot of interest," one writer observed. [^172^] This is not a winery that follows rules. It is a winery that makes wine the couple wants to drink, and hopes you want to drink it too.
Today, La Clarine farms 5 hectares biodynamically and spontaneously ferments everything with nothing added. [^178^] The result is naturally alive wine — bright, honest, and stripped to the bare essentials. [^178^] They have become a touchstone for the Sierra Foothills natural wine community, influencing producers like Gros Ventre, Dirty & Rowdy, and Donkey & Goat who have all sourced fruit from or been inspired by their approach.
"The overall approach includes ambient yeast without additives. The label motivations include exploration of what grapes do well in the region — a fairly new path of discovery for the Foothills in general."
— Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews
Head-Trained, Low to the Ground & Biodynamic
La Clarine's home vineyard is a study in minimalism. Two acres of head-trained, low-to-the-ground vines — Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, Negroamaro, and Cabernet Sauvignon — planted close together, requiring less water and less overall tending. [^172^] [^179^] The smaller vine profile means the plants are self-sufficient, drawing what they need from the decomposed granite and volcanic soils of the Sierra Foothills without irrigation or heavy intervention. This is farming "stripped to the bare essentials" — a practice inline with their overall philosophy of letting the land speak. [^172^]
The vineyard is farmed biodynamically — 5 hectares total, including the home farm and partner sites. [^178^] Biodynamic preparations, compost teas, and careful observation of the lunar calendar guide their work. But the approach is not dogmatic. Beckmeyer and Hoel draw inspiration from a wealth of interests: their background in music, their passion for cheese making, their study of cultural influences from Germany and France. [^172^] The goal is not to replicate Burgundy or the Rhône in California, but to discover what these grapes — and this land — can do when left to their own devices.
For fruit they do not grow themselves, they source from organically farmed sites within a 5-mile radius — vineyards whose farming practices the pair can get behind. [^172^] Key sources include Cedarville Vineyard and the famed Sumu Kaw Vineyard — both high-elevation sites in the Sierra Foothills that provide Mourvèdre, Albariño, and other varieties. [^170^] [^173^] The 55% Mourvèdre, 21% Grenache, 14% Counoise, and 10% Tannat blend comes from three organically farmed sites in El Dorado County — a wine that captures the breadth of what the Foothills can offer when multiple terroirs are combined. [^167^]
The winemaking is equally minimal. Everything is spontaneously fermented with ambient yeast. No additives — no commercial yeast, no enzymes, no tannins, no acid adjustments. [^172^] [^178^] The home vineyard grapes are often co-fermented — Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, and Cabernet all crushed together into what Beckmeyer calls a "wonderfully ambiguous red." [^172^] This co-fermentation approach is rare in California, where most producers separate varieties by block and blend after fermentation. For La Clarine, the blend happens in the vineyard, not the cellar.
2 acres of head-trained, low-to-the-ground vines — Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, Negroamaro, Cabernet. [^172^] Smaller vine profile = less water, less tending, more self-sufficiency.
5 hectares farmed biodynamically. [^178^] Biodynamic preparations, compost teas, lunar calendar observation. Working with the land's natural rhythms rather than against them.
Everything spontaneously fermented. No commercial yeast, no enzymes, no tannins, no acid adjustments. [^172^] [^178^] "Naturally alive wine — bright, honest, and stripped to the bare essentials."
Home vineyard grapes co-fermented into "wonderfully ambiguous reds." [^172^] The blend happens in the vineyard, not the cellar — a radically old-world approach in a new-world context.
Quietly Jovial & Experimentally Playful
La Clarine Farm occupies a unique space in the California wine landscape. It is not a big, branded winery. It is not a trendy urban natural wine project. It is a husband-and-wife team on a hillside in El Dorado County, making wine they want to drink, farming the way they believe is right, and letting the rest take care of itself. [^174^] Their approach is defined by a sense of playfulness — "a fairly new path of discovery for the Foothills in general," as one writer put it. [^172^] They are not trying to make the next great Cabernet. They are trying to understand what Tannat, Tempranillo, and Negroamaro can do in decomposed granite at 2,600 feet.
The wines reflect this experimental spirit. The Amber Blend — a unique combination of direct-pressed Petit Manseng and skin-fermented Grenache Blanc — is a deliciously textural orange wine that proves the Sierra Foothills can do skin-contact whites with the same finesse as Jura or Friuli. [^168^] The Albariño — sourced from high-elevation vineyards — is "quite dry and crisp in style, a no-nonsense, light-bodied wine" with aromas of apricots and fresh figs, tart flavors like peach skin and lime. [^173^] The Mourvèdre — from Cedarville and Sumu Kaw — is 100% Mourvèdre from two of the Foothills' most distinctive sites, made with the same ambient-yeast, no-additive approach. [^170^]
Beckmeyer's experimental drive is rooted in curiosity, not contrarianism. He wants to know what works in this region, what varieties thrive, what techniques express the terroir most honestly. The Sierra Foothills has a winemaking history dating back to the Gold Rush of the 1800s, but even so, what vines do best in the unique soils and microclimates is a newer question. [^172^] La Clarine is part of the answer — a small, stubborn, joyful project that proves you don't need a famous AVA or a big budget to make wine of character and honesty.
The couple's character — "quietly jovial with an easy going whole lot of interest" — is the project's true signature. [^172^] They are not trying to be famous. They are not trying to scale. They are making wine, tending goats (a smaller herd now), and living the life they chose when they left the music business for the Sierra Foothills. That authenticity — that sense of a project built on personal taste rather than market research — is what makes La Clarine Farm one of California's most genuine natural wine producers.
Home Vineyard Red — Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah & Cabernet, Co-Fermented
"Hank Beckmeyer and Caroline Hoel grow 2 acres of head trained, low to the ground vines in a melange of grape types including Tannat, Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, and Cabernet. In their Home Vineyard blend, the grapes are cofermented into a wonderfully ambiguous red." [^172^] The Home Vineyard Red is La Clarine's signature wine — a field blend of everything they grow, crushed together, fermented with ambient yeast, and bottled with nothing added. It is a wine that defies categorisation: not quite Rhône, not quite Bordeaux, not quite anything except itself. The Tannat provides structure and tannin, the Tempranillo adds earth and spice, the Grenache brings red fruit and warmth, the Syrah contributes pepper and depth, and the Cabernet lends a backbone of cassis and graphite. Together, they create something ambiguous and wonderful — a wine that tastes like the Sierra Foothills at 2,600 feet: wild, rocky, sun-drenched, and utterly unique. It is the purest expression of the La Clarine philosophy: stripped to the bare essentials, co-fermented in the vineyard, and made to be drunk with good food and better company. ~$28–$32.
The La Clarine Range
La Clarine Farm produces a small but diverse portfolio of natural wines from their 2-acre biodynamic home vineyard in El Dorado County and partner sites within a 5-mile radius in the Sierra Foothills. [^172^] [^179^] All wines are spontaneously fermented with ambient yeast, with no additives of any kind. [^178^] The range includes co-fermented field blends from the home vineyard, single-varietal expressions from high-elevation partner sites, and experimental cuvées that explore what the Sierra Foothills can do. [^172^] Prices are approximate and in USD.