{"id":2622,"date":"2025-10-30T12:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2622"},"modified":"2025-10-30T12:16:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:16:42","slug":"winemaker-interview-series-jeff-gaffner-of-saxon-brown-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2622","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker Interview Series &#8211; Jeff Gaffner of Saxon Brown- August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Black-Kite-Jeff-Gaffner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Black-Kite-Jeff-Gaffner-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Gaffner\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Black-Kite-Jeff-Gaffner-235x300.jpg 235w, https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Black-Kite-Jeff-Gaffner.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><\/a>On Wednesday, August 6, 2025, we had the opportunity to once again interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saxonbrown.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Jeff Gaffner<\/u><\/strong><\/a>, the winemaker and owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saxonbrown.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Saxon Brown Winery<\/u><\/strong><\/a>. We covered three 2022 vintage Chardonnays, three 2022 vintage Pinot Noirs, a 2022 vintage GMS red blend, and a 2022 vintage Zinfandel. You can learn all about what is new with Jeff, the Saxon Brown winery, and these wines in this post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits that Jeff shared in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We asked Jeff to refresh our memory on starting his own winery. Jeff launched Saxon Brown in 1997.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is named after his favorite female literary character, from Jack London&#8217;s &#8220;Valley of the Moon.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He started it to focus on small single vineyard bottlings reflecting his preference for elegantly structured, well-balanced, and age worthy wines. Jeff calls Saxon Brown his R&amp;D brand. It allows him to take winemaking risks and experiment with ideas that he wouldn&#8217;t try with his clients&#8217; production.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Over time, Jeff expanded Saxon Brown\u2019s vineyard-focus with small offerings from both established and emerging vineyard sites, including Durell, Gap&#8217;s Crown, and Roberts Road (Sonoma Coast), Hyde (Carneros-Napa), Green Acres (Carneros-Sonoma), Ferrington (Anderson Valley) and Rosella\u2019s (Santa Lucia Highlands) vineyards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jeff enjoys critical acclaim as consulting winemaker for artisan labels including Stephanie by Hestan (Napa Valley), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine.php?winery=2255\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Black Kite Cellars<\/u><\/strong><\/a> (Anderson Valley), Vincent Christopher (Sonoma Coast), Modicum (Napa Valley), &amp; ETRE Wines (Sonoma Coast).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This &#8220;Fighting Brothers&#8221; wines are named for his two sons, Jason and Tyler, who\u2019ve managed to blend their many differences into something approaching harmony.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These are Jeff\u2019s entry level wines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Pinot Noir is a blend of three vineyards. Jeff says that the Roberts Road Vineyard offers feminine qualities to the blend, while Durell offers an earth tone, and Gap\u2019s Crown brings in cherry flavors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Zin is a blend of southern Sonoma sourced field blend of grapes that are picked and co-fermented together.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The barrels and cooper for all the Saxon Brown wines are exactly the same. So, that variable is neutral. This helps preserve the refection of the vineyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Green Acres Hill is a section of the Sangiacomo Vineyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ETRE (is translated as &#8220;to be.&#8221;) As Jeff says, &#8220;my reason to be.&#8221;<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This wine and brand are a tribute to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saxonbrown.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Tracey Walker<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tracey is the glue that keeps Saxon Brown together and keeping Jeff organized so he can concentrate on making wine.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This wine is the Chardonnay version of Fighting Brothers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This Chard is a blend of four vineyards. Durell, Green Acres, Roberts Road, and Catarina Vineyard which was the second ranch to become part of the Sangiacomo family&#8217;s estate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Gap&#8217;s Crown Pinot Noir is a blend of Clone 115 from up high in the vineyard and 777 clone.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The GMS comes from Phil Coturri&#8217;s &#8220;Steel Plow Vineyard.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is new and on the horizon?<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jeff is making a Chenin Blanc from Freestone in 2025. There will be 75 cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jeff has made a Cote Rotie styled Syrah wine called &#8220;Cordell Bank&#8221; from the 2019, 2021, and 2022 vintages.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jeff uses 5-7% Viognier in the blend.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The wines have a cold marine influence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These wines are currently under Saxon Brown, however, will eventually have its own label.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Below is a summary of all the impressive wines that we covered with Jeff. The links are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering these wines, you find a few of them via your favorite wine shop or fine dining restaurant. The rest are available for order via the Saxon Brown website or even better, you can request them by e-mailing Tracey at <a title=\"Saxon Brown Wines\" href=\"mailto:Tracey@saxonbrown.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">Tracey@saxonbrown.com<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Saxon-Brown-Logo.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2623\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Saxon-Brown-Logo.gif\" alt=\"Saxon Brown Logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Green-Acres-Hill-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Chardonnay &#8220;Green Acres Hill Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Carneros) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 94.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">2) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Durell-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Chardonnay &#8220;Durell Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Coast) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 94<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">3) <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-ETRE-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Saxon Brown 2022 Chardonnay &#8220;ETRE&#8221;<\/a> <\/strong>(Sonoma Coast) $38 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">4) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Fighting-Brothers-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Pinot Noir &#8220;Fighting Brothers&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Coast) $60 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 92.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">5) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Roberts-Road-Vineyard-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Pinot Noir &#8220;Roberts Road&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Coast) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">6) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Gaps-Crown-Vineyard-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Pinot Noir &#8220;Gap&#8217;s Crown Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Coast) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">7) <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-GMS-Red-Blend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Saxon Brown 2022 Red Blend &#8220;GMS&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> (Sonoma Valley) $60 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 92.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">8) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Saxon-Brown-2022-Fighting-Brothers-Zinfandel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saxon Brown 2022 Zinfandel &#8220;Fighting Brothers&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Valley) $50 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You can find reviews of past and future Saxon Brown wines that we cover on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine.php?winery=2800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Saxon Brown KWG winery page<\/u><\/strong><\/a> on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! \u2013 Ken<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, August 6, 2025, we had the opportunity to once again interview Jeff Gaffner, the winemaker and owner of Saxon Brown Winery. We covered three 2022 vintage Chardonnays, three 2022 vintage Pinot Noirs, a 2022 vintage GMS red blend, and a 2022 vintage Zinfandel. You can learn all about what is new with Jeff, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1246,1443,1544,13,34,1457,3160,3161,2049,3162,1541,2517,11,1540,123,3165,12,1201,1187,3163,2549,1893,1444,1120,2070,70,3164,43,31,1256,126,8,6,240,1292,39,1288],"tags":[1024,1445,1551,3153,491,1047,3154,3155,3159,1468,3151,3150,2525,1455,3158,1475,2342,3146,1509,3148,1763,3144,1447,3167,1508,507,3156,492,2523,1876,1635,373,1446,2522,1124,268,3157,3147,633,3152,3145,3166,1272,523],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anderson-valley","category-black-kite-cellars","category-carneros","category-chardonnay","category-chenin-blanc","category-durell-vineyard","category-fighting-brothers","category-freestone-vineyard","category-gaps-crown","category-green-acres-hill-vineyard","category-grenache","category-jeff-gaffner","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-mourvedre","category-napa-valley","category-phil-coturri","category-pinot-noir","category-red-blend","category-red-wine","category-roberts-road-vineyard","category-sangiacomo-vineyard","category-santa-lucia-highlands","category-saxon-brown","category-sonoma-coast","category-sonoma-valley","category-sonoma-wines","category-steel-plow-vineyard","category-syrah","category-viognier","category-virtual-wine-tasting","category-wine-ratings","category-wine-recommendations","category-wine-reviews","category-wine-tasting","category-winemaker","category-zinfandel","category-zoom-wine-tasting","tag-anderson-valley","tag-black-kite-cellars","tag-carneros","tag-catarina-vineyard","tag-chardonnay","tag-chenin-blanc","tag-clone-115","tag-clone-777","tag-cordell-bank","tag-durell-vineyard","tag-etre","tag-etre-wines","tag-ferrington-vineyard","tag-fighting-brothers","tag-freestone-vineyard","tag-gaps-crown-vineyard","tag-gms","tag-green-acres-hill-vineyard","tag-grenache","tag-hestan","tag-hyde-vineyard","tag-jack-london","tag-jeff-gaffner","tag-modicum","tag-mourvedre","tag-napa-valley","tag-phil-coturri","tag-pinot-noir","tag-roberts-road-vineyard","tag-rosellas-vineyard","tag-sangiacomo-vineyard","tag-santa-lucia-highlands","tag-saxon-brown","tag-saxon-brown-winery","tag-sonoma-coast","tag-sonoma-valley","tag-steel-plow-vineyard","tag-stephanie","tag-syrah","tag-tracey-walker","tag-valley-of-the-moon","tag-vincent-christopher","tag-viognier","tag-zinfandel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2625,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions\/2625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}