The Absent Steward
In a former dairy barn on the Mendocino Coast, Avi Deixler makes wine by not making it — letting native yeasts, raw oak, and time do the work he refuses to control. From dry-farmed Poor Ranch fruit to abandoned apple orchards, Absentee is California natural wine at its most honest: big, oaky, alive, and stubborn as the trees it came from.
From Point Reyes to Dairy Barn
Avi Deixler is a San Anselmo native who discovered wine after his undergraduate years in New York. He first worked at a winery in Oregon, then travelled to Australia, Napa, and France — learning to drive a forklift, ferment in barrels, and prune vineyards along the way [^61^]. In Burgundy, he worked a full year sponsored by his friend Florent, who had arrived from Australia to work at Screaming Eagle. Avi did the harvest, pruning, and winemaking, absorbing the rhythms of a region where wine is culture, not commerce [^49^].
But the conventional wine world burned him out. He watched head winemakers in labs guessing at chemical additions — "If we add this, then it could be like this" — and realised they didn't know. "I saw wine make itself without cultured yeast; there was never a good enough explanation for why to add it" [^61^]. In the Loire Valley, he met Baptiste Cousin, who made "really good, thoughtful wines" while being "a bit punk rock about it." That encounter helped Avi conquer the fear of natural fermentation instilled in him as a young assistant [^49^].
In 2016, Avi returned to his childhood stomping grounds in West Marin and established Absentee Winery inside a former Gallagher Dairy barn on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road — the only registered winery in the North Marin Wine District [^61^][^65^]. He sourced grapes from Poor Ranch in Hopland, Mendocino: a sixth-generation, dry-farmed, organically certified ranch with 10–40 year old vines in sandy soils [^51^]. The name "Absentee" came from his first experiment: he left a barrel of apple wine fermenting while he travelled to France, and returned to find it had made itself — "my absence, and my trust in the process, made it so amazing" [^49^].
"If anything is a good thing, it came from the vineyard; if anything gets messed up, it's because of me. So many people will say, 'I drank that whole bottle and I didn't get a headache.' And I'm like, 'I didn't do anything. I just didn't do something.'"
— Avi Deixler
Poor Ranch, Abandoned Orchards
All Absentee fruit comes from Poor Ranch in Hopland, Mendocino County — a sixth-generation ranch that has been organic since the 1970s. The vineyard is dry-farmed (no irrigation), head-pruned, and planted in sandy soils to 10–40 year old vines of carignan, syrah, petite sirah, zinfandel, and the nearly-extinct abouriou [^51^][^58^]. The ranch forgoes trellising and other invasive methods, letting the vines grow as they have for decades with minimal human interference.
In 2024, Avi relocated north to the Mendocino Coast, expanding into apple wine production from abandoned orchards around Fort Bragg. His friend Aaron Brown, a fellow cider maker, cultivated a network of feral, untended orchards with antique varietals — "historically the orchards were tended but now they have been able to grow a bit feral. That legacy is what makes it so rich" [^49^]. Avi now splits his time between surf and fermentation, working out of a dimly lit barrel cave in the coastal forest where the cool, stable temperature is ideal for slow, natural fermentation [^49^].
Poor Ranch, Hopland, Mendocino County. Sandy soils. Dry-farmed, head-pruned, no irrigation. 10–40 year old vines. Organic since the 1970s. Carignan, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Abouriou. Plus coastal apple orchards in Fort Bragg — feral, antique varietals, untended for decades.
Former Gallagher Dairy barn, Point Reyes-Petaluma Road (2016–2024). Now a forest barrel cave near Fort Bragg, Mendocino Coast. Raw oak barriques — French and American — that Avi shaves himself before each fermentation. Sealed barrels rolled every few days for gentle extraction. No temperature control, no pumps, no additives.
Barrel-Rolled, Raw & Unafraid
Avi is his own cooper. He learned the art of toasting and shaving barrels from a close relationship with a cooperage, and every barrique is refreshed before each new fermentation — exposing fresh wood surface to interact with the juice [^49^]. Whole clusters go into raw oak, the barrels are sealed and rolled every few days for gentle extraction, then pressed and returned to the same barrel for a year of aging [^51^].
The process is deliberately slow. Native yeast fermentation takes two months — longer than cultured yeast — because "there is diverse culture living in there so it takes a while for all the microbes to get their share" [^49^]. Malolactic fermentation happens naturally in the barrel. The juice stays in wood for three to four weeks for primary fermentation, then continues aging. Avi limits oxidation through the barrel's natural porosity — closed to free-flowing air but letting enough oxygen through the wood fibers to keep the culture aerobic and alive [^49^].
No sulfites. No cultured yeast. No fining. No filtration. The labels simply say "California red wine" — Avi refuses to declare specific varieties because "to do that you have to declare all your weights and measures, and I'd rather have the freedom to blend where I need to" [^61^].
The Cooper's Hand
"So much of the dynamic and character in a wine is done by the wood, the exchange of wood and liquid. It doesn't taste good without that magic. When I was learning winemaking I did not have access to the vineyard to make changes with the pruning, the water, and subsoil. So I learned to adjust flavors in the barrel." Avi's self-taught cooperage is the secret engine of Absentee's distinctive profile — raw, oaky, and unmistakably alive [^49^].
Surf, Apples, & the Wild Coast
Avi moved to the Mendocino Coast for two things the region has in abundance: waves and apples. When the surf is good, he's on the water. When it's not, he's making wine — or rather, letting wine make itself while he prepares for the next swell [^49^]. This rhythm defines Absentee: not an absence of care, but an absence of control. The magic happens when you are in the flow — focused but letting go.
The apple wine project began in 2014 when Avi was working in Napa and a friend brought a bounty of apples from further north. They juiced them, shaved three oak barrels, and bottled it with a little frozen juice for sparkle. Avi left one barrel behind when he went to France. When he returned, the absent barrel had transformed into something extraordinary — and Absentee Wines was born [^49^].
Today, Avi makes both grape and apple wines from his coastal forest cave. The Pink Pearl apple wine — with its rose colour from skin contact — is aged in red wine barrels to enhance the hue. "Apples offer similar aspects as grapes — tannins, color, flavor — from the skins. I'm trying to have fun with it" [^49^].
"It doesn't taste like cider, or wine, or anything you've had before. It's raw, alive, and stubborn as the trees it came from. You don't drink it — you meet it."
— Nathan Maxwell Cann, natural wine enthusiast
The Absentee Range
All wines are made from organically farmed, dry-farmed, hand-harvested fruit. Whole-cluster fermentation in raw, shaved oak barriques. Native yeasts only. No sulfites, no fining, no filtration. The barrels are sealed and rolled every few days for gentle extraction, then pressed and returned to the same wood for a year. Avi does not declare specific varieties on labels — "California red wine" is all you'll see — preferring the freedom to blend across carignan, syrah, petite sirah, zinfandel, and abouriou as each vintage demands [^51^][^61^].