La Onda

  • Sierra Foothills, California, United States
La Onda
  • Wines taste alive when they come from vines surrounded by life, terroir that speaks loudly and winemaking that doesn’t get in the way.” - La Onda

La Onda is a project dedicated to making living wines of distinctive character. Though it literally translates to “the wave”, La Onda is also slang for “the vibe”, and Dani’s wines are all about capturing this sense, the essence of a time and place. Using low-intervention methods, native fermentations, neutral oak, and minimal sulfur, he does nothing that could obscure the terroir.

Dani currently farms four acres of own-rooted vines in the Sierra Foothills, split between two slopes at 1,900 and 2,500 ft elevation. The vineyards are wild, a true collection of vines, granite, red clay, insects, bees, herbs, flowers, berries, thistles and hungry animals. The farming is chemical free, without irrigation, without tillage and demands tons of work by hand and hand tools.  The grapes are harvested by making several passes through the same vineyard sections over the course of weeks, slowly building fermentations with ripe grapes.

A few wines are produced from these vineyards and an additional four from other organic and/or biodynamic vineyards farmed by friends. The winemaking is very simple: all the wines are either foot-stomped and left to ferment, foot-stomped then pressed or immediately pressed whole-cluster. There is no de-stemming, no additives and juice/wine is almost always moved by gravity flow rather than by pump. Wines are left to age in barrel for as long as they need and then bottled unfined/unfiltered before further bottle aging.

BOWLER E-Zine Issue 2 | Q1 2021: Granite Connections: Itata and Sierra Foothills - A conversation with Dani Rozman of Onda Brava and La Onda
Image Producer PRODUCT Description Country / Region

DB5183-19
Organic
La Onda Cabernet Sauvignon "Blanc de Tinto" North Yuba
2019
Cabernet Sauvignon
Blanco de Tinto is made with 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from North Yuba. Dani harvested the grapes into small boxes to avoid grapes breaking...
United States

DB5953-18
Organic
La Onda White Blend "Amor Amarillo" North Yuba
2018
Semillon
Semillon~Sauvignon Blanc from North Yuba, CA. The Semillon sits directly above the Sauvignon Blanc on the same slope where the vines are...
United States

DB9205-19
Organic
La Onda Cinsault/Carignan 'Marea en Flor'
2019
Cinsault
Cinsault~Carignan from Preston Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley AVA of Sonoma County. This organically farmed site is noteworthy for it's...
United States

DB9205-20
Organic
La Onda Cinsault/Carignan 'Marea en Flor'
2020
Cinsault
Cinsault~Carignan from Preston Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley AVA of Sonoma County. This organically farmed site is noteworthy for it's...
United States

DB9204-17
Organic
La Onda Syrah 'Soledad' North Yuba
2017
Syrah
100% Syrah from the rocky, high-elevation granite slopes of North Yuba. These low-yielding vines are own-rooted and 40+ years old, all...
United States

DB3836-16
Organic
La Onda Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon "La Mala" North Yuba
2016
Red Bordeaux Blend
Syrah (50%), Cabernet Sauvignon (50%) from two mountainside parcels in North Yuba. These low-yielding vines are own-rooted and 40+ years...
United States

DB4498-20
La Onda Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot "Aguafiestas"
2020
Red Bordeaux Blend
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from Smith Vineyard in Grass Valley, Sierra Foothills. This is an organic, dry-farmed site, with 40+ year old...
United States