Shannon Family of Wines

Meet the Producer

Clay Shannon is the name of the winery, but he is also the founder and owner of the estate and winery, along with his wife Angie Shannon. Clay began his career as a vineyard manager, farming the wine regions of California. In 1996 he decided to set out on his own to establish a progressive, pioneering winery and ranch in Lake County, California. Now owner of Shannon Family of Wines, his passion is simple, “Grow the best fruit possible, while preserving the land for future generations”.

The Lake County appellation is in the North Coast mountains of Northern California at an altitude of 1,800-2,400 feet and the vineyard includes over 2,000 acres of mountain property, roughly half of which is under vine and farmed as regeneratively organic. This unique location has many different microclimates and benefits from rich volcanic soil, altitude, slope, the 18 mile long Clear Lake (the second biggest in California) and temperature variations, not to mention the abundance of wildlife that frequent the vineyards. They have nearly a thousand sheep on site and with the philosophy that everything starts with the land, they don’t follow the flock, they put them to work, using the sheep to mow, cultivate, weed and fertilise, playing a pivotal role in their regenerative organic farming practices.

A Note on Sustainability

Shannon family is committed to an earth‑first approach to farming and winemaking. It is one of the largest 100% certified organic mountain grown vineyards in the US. Both the vineyard and the winery are Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing and in 2021 they received the “California Green Medal Environment Award” which recognises their commitment to sustainability and effort to protect the environment.

The CCOF Organic Certification complements their regenerative farming practices. Soil health is key and they have integrated a flock of sheep that clean the vineyards, remove the excess canopy, and reduce the need for chemicals, while providing natural fertilizer. They have eliminated all herbicides and fossil fuel-based fertilizers and fungicides. All waste is composed into fertiliser or mulch. Drought tolerant rootstock is used and grape varieties that require less water have been planted as well as incorporating some dry farming techniques all to help conserve water. 60% of the property is not under vine and reserved for unplanted wildlife corridors open to migrating animals and protecting sensitive nesting area.

Alongside regenerative farming, Shannon Family of Wines work hard to reduce the carbon footprint in their operations with reductions in energy consumption and increased use of solar energy, reduction of waste going to landfill and increased recycling. Bottle weights have been reduced and all cork is 100% natural renewable. Their bottling line wraps pallets exclusively with Smart Plastic's Eclipse stretch film which bio-assimilates back into the earth, leaving behind zero microplastics. It is also 100% recyclable.