Licorne Méchante Le Phoque Plongeur

About Licorne Méchante Le Phoque Plongeur

Licorne Méchante Le Phoque Plongeur is an “old meets old” style of Califonian wine with a skin-contact edginess. Bright and aromatic with dried fruit, fresh bread, and herbal notes.

About Populis Wines

Populis Wine is a collective effort between two friends to produce wines that are fun and straight-up crushable. The collective was born when Shaunt and Diego returned to California from apprenticeships abroad and realized that there was/is a huge void to fill when it comes to finding USA wines made naturally from organically grown grapes. California is known for its healthy and progressive food and farming scene—it’s about time that the wines followed suit!

Diego Roig: Diego was practically born with a glass of wine in his hands. Raised in California by a family of grape growers and winemakers (with roots dating prior to Prohibition), it was not uncommon to hear him ask for wine (watered back, of course!) at the dinner table. His parents regularly obliged and a career in the wine industry was born. Fast forward to now, and he has had the opportunity to learn from Bob Cabral (Williams-Selyem), Vanessa Wong (Peay Vineyards), Andy Walker (UC Davis), Kevin Fontaine (Charles Joguet, Chinon, France), Colin Ross (Seresin, Marlborough, NZ), Didier Barral (Domaine Léon Barral, Faugères, France), Giusto Occhipinti (COS, Sicily) and Philippe Valette (Domaine Valette, Macon, Burgundy), among others. These experiences and countless days spent tending vineyards and tasting wines from all over the world (this time, sans water) have helped shape his belief that the best wines come from soils and vineyards farmed without synthetic chemicals and with the utmost respect paid to nature. Furthermore, grapes grown in these vineyards have no need for commercial yeast strains or chemical additives to manipulate flavor other than the smallest amount of sulfur to protect them during bottling, ensuring the truest expression of place and time.

Shaunt Oungoulian: During Shaunt Oungoulian’s first vintage working in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County, he observed and reflected upon the innumerable biological and chemical processes occurring within each tank, barrel, bottle, and glass and was drawn into the world of wine. In order to deepen his understanding of this churning world beneath the surface, Shaunt decided to enroll in UC Davis’s Viticulture and Enology program. While studying at UC Davis, a few classmates introduced him to a number of ‘natural’ wines that had a huge influence on his tastes and goals as a winemaker. Shaunt began to contextualize his research and coursework through a non-interventionist lens and found this approach to be much more intellectually satisfying and fulfilling. After graduating from Davis, Shaunt left for France to pursue this reductive style of winemaking with various apprenticeships. He was fortunate to work under Philippe Valette in Mâcon and Julie Balagny in Fleurie. Both of these vignerons are extremely technically knowledgeable but remain fiercely non-interventionist in their cellars and vineyards. They demonstrated to him that in order to make truly expressive wines, one must be able to embrace tradition and innovation at once, a lesson that continues to guide Shaunt’s winemaking/winegrowing philosophy to this day.