Vineyard · May 9, 2026
The Impact of Regenerative Farming
We've decided how we're farming, and it changes the answer to most of the questions in earlier posts. Here's the why and the what.
The Journal
Notes from the build.
From the vineyard, the cellar, and the road to first vintage.
Method · May 6, 2026
How the House Starts
Ebullient is a sparkling house, not a sparkling wine house. Cider has been the longer endeavor here, and the first release will likely be a méthode ancestrale cider, not a wine. Here is the orchard side, and why it matters that this house starts with apples.
Method · Mar 23, 2026
Ebullient, Our Opportunity in Wine
We are building the American sparkling house in Missouri, the birthplace of American wine, and after a year of soil work, site study, and two decades of planning, here is exactly how we intend to do it.
Vineyard · Dec 18, 2025
Site Selection: Topography the First Line of Defense
Soil chemistry is half the story, the other half is shape of land and air/water movement, and getting the layout right before you plant is the most powerful tool you have.
Place · Nov 23, 2025
Benchmarking
How does a fractured limestone hillside in Freeman, Missouri stack up against Champagne, Burgundy, and the Mosel? Parcel by parcel, the data is more interesting than I expected.
Place · Nov 21, 2025
Terroir Part 2: The Nutrients
From calcium's structural grip to sulfur's crossroads role in amino acids and fungicide alike, a nutrient-by-nutrient breakdown of what feeds a sparkling wine vineyard.
Place · Nov 2, 2025
Terroir: Soil, Site & Climate
Terroir is the sum of place, and if you learn to read a soil report paired with topography, you can anticipate style, acidity, and disease pressure before you plant a single vine.
Vineyard · Oct 15, 2025
Competition in the Vineyard
Botrytis, rachis necrosis, Japanese beetles, grape berry moth, and Missouri's climate itself, every season is a fight, and every fight leaves something in the bottle.
Place · Oct 3, 2025
Missouri and Our Opportunity for Grape Growing
Missouri sits at a crossroads of climate, culture, and geography, and Gottfried Duden noticed it two hundred years ago. The opportunity now: a revitalized Midwestern American wine frontier.
Family · Sep 26, 2025
Sparkling Wine, Interesting Times
A cellar stock-take, a 1996 Mumm Cuvée from Napa, a year full of reasons to open bottles, and news that the Missouri sparkling project just got real acreage.
Vineyard · Sep 24, 2025
A Year Growing Grapes in Western Missouri
Ten backyard vines, a season of extremes, and a raccoon raid straight out of Pearl Harbor, this is what the first year of growing grapes for sparkling wine in Western Missouri actually looks like.
Family · Aug 22, 2025
Wine in My Blood
Wine has threaded through my family for as long as I can remember, from Two-Buck Chuck to Dom Pérignon to my grandmother's over-oaked Chardonnay, and somewhere in those bottles I started learning what it means.