Eco Terreno house spotlight
Food Network's FoodQuest films Eco Terreno in Alexander Valley with founder Mark Lyon, the biodynamic farm behind this 2019 Cuvee Tierra.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2019 Eco Terreno Cuvee Tierra Alexander Valley across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $21.15 and the average is $23.79. Our slash is $21.00.
2019 Eco Terreno 'Cuvee Tierra' Alexander Valley (98NC)
Mark Lyon's biodynamic Right Bank-leaning blend, 98 NC, an Alexander Valley red you can open at twenty-two dollars.
The 2019 Cuvee Tierra is 36 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 percent Cabernet Franc, 24 percent Merlot, and 10 percent Petit Verdot: violets, chocolate-covered strawberry, black cherry, clove, and black olive, now $21.
A biodynamic Alexander Valley blend from a Sebastiani veteran
Mark Lyon spent decades as lead winemaker at Sebastiani before founding Eco Terreno as a Demeter-certified biodynamic and CCOF organic farm on the Russian River side of Alexander Valley. Morning Petaluma Gap fog keeps acidity. The 2019 Cuvee Tierra is 36 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 percent Cabernet Franc, 24 percent Merlot, and 10 percent Petit Verdot. The Tasting Panel found violets, earth, dried herbs, chocolate-covered strawberries, black cherries, and cloves, then blackberry, red plum, cinnamon, vanilla bean, savory spice, and black olives on ripe chalky tannin. This is the bottle that argues a certified biodynamic Bordeaux blend can still be a Tuesday red at twenty-two dollars.
The house
Mark Lyon founded Eco Terreno to farm Alexander Valley without chemicals. Bees, chickens, and cover crops are part of the cellar argument.
The wine
Right Bank-leaning blend with Cabernet Sauvignon for the spine. Fog-cooled fruit, chalky tannin, black olive and violet.
The scores
98 NC on this listing. Tasting Panel: violets, chocolate strawberry, clove, black olive, drink now or cellar a few years.
The drinker
Cherry and violet first. Serve 60 to 64 F. A short air. Ribeye or mushroom stew.
Violet and chocolate strawberry, then olive, clove, and chalk
The Tasting Panel opened on violets, earth, dried herbs, chocolate-covered strawberries, black cherries, and cloves. The palate is ripe and chalky: blackberries, red plums, cinnamon, vanilla bean, savory spice, and black olives, soft enough to drink now with enough intensity to sit a few years. Sommeliers Choice found black cherry, raspberry, and eucalyptus on a later medal note.
An even Sonoma red year that let Lyon pick plot by plot. Fog off the Petaluma Gap kept freshness while Alexander Valley sun ripened Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Drink now through the later 2020s.
Violet, chocolate strawberry, black cherry, blackberry, plum, clove, dried herbs.
Medium to full, chalky tannin, Cabernet spine, Right Bank flesh.
Black olive, cinnamon, vanilla. Serve 60 to 64 F. A short air.
Fog, biodynamic fruit, a blend built for violet and olive
Lyon Vineyard sits in a small Alexander Valley hamlet along the Russian River, blanketed by morning fog. Cuvee Tierra is the house's Right Bank-inspired blend, Cabernet Sauvignon for line, Franc and Merlot for perfume and flesh, Petit Verdot for the dark edge. Biodynamic farming is not a slogan here. It is how the fruit gets into the tank.
Demeter and CCOF certified. Mark Lyon still makes the wines.
Serve 60 to 64 F. A short air. Steak or a mushroom pot.
A Sebastiani winemaker who built a living farm
Eco Terreno exists because Lyon wanted bees, soil, and Alexander Valley fruit in the same argument.
Lyon's decades at Sebastiani were spent on Alexander Valley fruit. This label is that knowledge on his own ranch.
The farm runs chickens, a bee garden, and cover crops instead of a chemical program.
The 2019 Cuvee Tierra is that farm in a blend: violet, olive, chalk, twenty-two dollars.
Steak, mushrooms, and a little smoke
This blend wants browned beef and a mushroom pot. Black olive and violet already live in the glass.
Two plates. One butter-basted steak. One mushroom stew. Both can take Tierra tannin without flattening it.
Serve 60 to 64 F. A short air. Cabernet or all-purpose stems.
Butter-Basted Ribeye
A hard crust, butter, and thyme. Cuvee Tierra's steakhouse landing.
Why it works: Fat and char cushion Cabernet tannin while browned beef pulls cherry, clove, and olive through the glass.
View Recipe for butter-basted ribeye (opens in a new tab)
Hearty Mushroom Stew
A slow mushroom pot for Franc perfume, olive, and the 2019's chalky close.
Why it works: Umami rounds tannin. Earth and herbs in the bowl echo dried herbs and violet.
View Recipe for hearty mushroom stew (opens in a new tab)Put this Cuvee Tierra in the cart
Mark Lyon, biodynamic Alexander Valley, 98 NC. Twenty-two dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is the Eco Terreno red for a table that wants violet and olive, not a heavy oak slogan.
