"Organic, old-vine, Sauvignon Blanc from steep south-facing slopes in the Yorkville Highlands. Intense daily sunshine with strong cooling winds coming off the ocean every afternoon provides exuberant fruit with plenty of tension.
A slight deviation from the usual styling of this wine for 2024. This is because I don’t really force the grapes to be anything in particular and don’t necessarily have a desired outcome for them(besides being very good). 2024 was a hot and fast vintage. For the first half of the harvest season we were picking as quickly as we could. Sometimes two vineyards in the same day. Everything seemed to be ripe at the same time. Flavors seemed to be lagging behind sugar(potential alcohol) and we allowed several vineyards to come in a degree higher than in the past. In prior years, Thirst Trap has been an infusion, a steeping of whole clusters in their own juices. But the ripeness and potential power of the wine this year seemed to yearn for a more classic extraction to achieve a better balance. Whole-clusters of Sauvignon were fermented in tank with progressive foot-treading releasing a little bit more juice into the ferment each day. Pressed after 10 days on skins and stems and aged in barrels for a year."
- Brent Mayeaux. Stagiaire
Stagiaire
Brent Mayeaux launched Stagiaire in California in 2018. Originally from New Orleans, where his family worked in the restaurant business, Mayeaux first pursued a career in mechanical engineering in Central America before finding his way back to food and wine. His curiosity into how wine is made led him overseas to work harvests and cellar jobs with producers in Australia and France.
In Australia, he worked with Gareth Belton of Gentle Folk. In France, he spent time with Philippe Bornard in the Jura, then worked with Catherine Dumora and Manu Duveau during the 2018 growing season in Auvergne. These experiences gave him a practical education in the vineyard and cellar, and the confidence to start making wine on his own terms back in California.
Stagiaire began in Santa Cruz, where Mayeaux managed a small amount of vineyard land and made wine from fruit he farmed himself alongside purchased grapes. In 2020, he lost access to his original cellar and moved production to a shared facility on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. The added distance from his vineyards made farming and winemaking increasingly difficult to manage together, and after the 2022 vintage, he stepped away from managing his own vines to focus on working with growers.
Brents approach in the cellar is adaptive and exploratory, guided by the fruit available each year rather than a specific house style. The wines are made using zero-zero principles, utilizing native yeast fermentations, no fining or filtration, and no added sulfur. The name Stagiaire means apprentice in French, a fitting choice for a winemaker whose path has been shaped by learning from others and continuing to figure things out for himself. The only real constant has been his willingness to evolve and change as the project develops and life's circumstances take form. Brent recently left Treasure Island and has settled in Sonoma where the proximity of cellar, vines, and his home means that he will be able to return to a more hands-on approach in the vines as well as provide a welcomed sense of work/life balance.
Brent’s willingness to look beyond California’s usual priorities and work with what the state’s vineyards have to offer, rather than what the market expects, is what makes this project special. In a scene still heavily shaped by expensive fruit, established varieties, and polished winemaking, his wines take a more open-ended approach, embracing the quirks of individual vineyards and vintages without trying to force them into a predetermined style. The result is a project that feels distinctly Californian, but operates on its own terms.
