The Chic Guide: What is Terratorium?
Ben Matthews, Co-Founder & Winemaker at Terratorium: We are a small winery, based in Sonoma, but all our customer interaction is online. We decided to pivot away from creating a brick and mortar winery in Spring 2020 during the early days of the Covid-19 Pandemic. We saw how many people were buying wine online, enjoying that process, and thought it presented an opportunity for us to connect with our consumers in a different way. This model allows us to invest more in wine quality while keeping our bottle prices more in a range we personally could afford. Our goal is to make craft artisan wine more accessible and less intimidating. We want more people to experience the “wow” factor of great wine that we have been fortunate enough to experience drinking amazing wines.
The word “Terratorium” is the origin for the French term terroir- or the phrase describing the how vineyard environment impacts the flavors of the grapes.This name represents our goal of exploring new and unique terroir. We believe great wine is made in the vineyard and that there are many exceptional vineyards for Terratorium to explore.
The Chic Guide: What’s the inspiration behind it?
Matthews: First, we are super passionate about making wine. We love this craft and the connection with nature that is at the heart of winemaking. We are driven to make wines that we personally would love to drink as long-time wine fans.
Part of our mission is creating a space, through our digital communication and in-real-life events, that bring the craft of winemaking into people’s lives more often. Visiting wine country/small independent wineries is wonderful, but most consumers’ relationship with wine is looking at big brands on the grocery shelf. Often times they are confused by the shelf and just stick to a wine they know. For us this is tragic and we want to change that by creating a local brand that offers more opportunities for local consumers to have a relationship with an independent small winery. There are so many COOL wines that you’ll never find in a mass distribution because it isn’t feasible to scale.
We are just at the start of this journey for Terratorium, but intend to be active in local events within the independent small business community in Cincinnati. Our hope is that we can contribute to the wonderful local culinary and cultural community Cincinnati has developed over the years.
The Chic Guide: Who’s behind it?
Matthews: I’m the President, Co-Founder, and Winemaker. We also have Cameron Laurent who serves as Vice President, Co-Founder, and Winemaker; and Jim Duane who is Vice President and Consulting Winemaker.
The Chic Guide: What types of wines do you offer?
Matthews: For our first release we offer two wines, but they are almost sold out:
Anderson Valley 2019 Chardonnay – This is a crisp, lean and vibrant wine that is not an overly “oaky or buttery” Chardonnay. Instead we used specific winemaking techniques to showcase the citrus and tart apple flavors with mineral and floral aromas on the back palate. This is a perfect wine for summer.
Our other wine is a 2018 Alexander Valley Cabernet Franc from the T-T Ranch. This single-vineyard wine is a smooth, juicy, and fruit driven red wine. Since Cab Franc is the parent grape of Cab Sauvignon it has many of the same flavors aromas— mixing fruit and herbaceous elements. However, Cab Franc tends towards more of a medium body wine and red fruits in its flavors. I joke this is the best fire pit wine for crisp fall nights.
More information on our Current Release can be found on our wine pages.
We also have Four new wines we are processing for Harvest 2021:
- Santa Lucia Highlands (Tondré Grapefields Vineyard) Dry Riesling
- Sierra Foothills Rosé of Grenache (Starfield Vineyards)
- Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
- Cabernet Franc Alexander Valley (T-T Ranch)
In winter 2021 we will also be releasing our Santa Rita hills Pinot Noir from Dierberg Vineyards.
The Chic Guide: How does ordering work?
Matthews: Just got to our website -> Select the “Wine” page -> Select your wine(s) and quantities -> Add to cart and check out with any major credit card. We receive the order and process it with our fulfillment center.
Wines typically ship via UPS in 2-4 days and take about 4 days on average to get to Cincinnati. Since this is alcohol, we are required to have UPS obtain a signature from an adult 21+. If you are not going to be home we suggest shipping to closest UPS Store near you and then you have five days to pick up the wine at your convenience.
The Chic Guide: Can you explain more in your connection with Cincinnati and how you’re bringing Napa Valley to the Queen City?“
Matthews: I live in Cincinnati full time. Terratorium took root here as a company here and throughout the end of 2018 and in early 2019 we developed the brand with local friends and advisors. A local designer, Tommy Sheehan of TommyINK, has done all of our branding work for Terratorium. This city is our “home market” even though we make wines in Sonoma, CA. We originally planned to create an Urban Winery here in Cincinnati and were in the process of moving forward with that project in March 2020… when the whole world shifted. We took a few months to regroup and decided to launch Terratorium in this new digital-brand model and haven’t looked back. We still may have a future operation in Cincinnati, but right now we couldn’t be happier with the business model we have established and see a lot of potential for Terratorium. We feel confident that we can bring something new and different to the growing Cincinnati wine community with our small brand.
I travel out to California several times a year to work on the winemaking side of the business with my partners. Teamwork makes the dream work and we have a great network of growers, winery staff, and advisors to help us bring the best wines to Cincinnati and other states across the country.
The Chic Guide: What makes Terratorium unique?
Matthews: We are relentlessly focused on making stunning wines that don’t come with the unapproachable perception that sometimes consumers have about the wine world. Said another way we want our wines to surprise you and our brand to invite everyone in to enjoy how cool wine can be. At the end of the day we are three guys who really love making wines that we can nerd out on and our consumers would not hesitate to open on any given Friday night with friends or loved ones.
We are not tied to any one vineyard and all of our wines are from different American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)… or different grape growing regions. That means we can source grapes for each of our wines that showcases the best way that vineyard influences that grape. We don’t make uniform wines, but instead try to surprise people with unique flavors they may not have tasted if they have never had craft wine before. Our approach is to take wine flavor profiles people are used to and turn that 15/20 degrees so they get something that is unique but still familiar. Our Cabernet Franc is a great example of this, as a grape that is not as well known as Cabernet Sauvignon, but showcases many of the same flavors “Cab Drinkers” love.
We also are committed to being a resource for empowering people with wine knowledge as we continue to grow. We are committed to sharing openly about our wine practices and philosophies so people can understand what they are drinking and enjoying.
The Chic Guide: Is there anything new on the horizon?
Matthews: Harvest 2021 is actively underway and we are making four new wines that will be releasing later this year and next.
We profiled each new wine and in our recent blog post about Harvest 2021 plans.
We also are launching a Wine Club later this year. We just opened a pre-registration for those interested. Club members will get:
- First Access to new wine releases,
- Discounts, exclusive offers
- Convenient regular shipments of our wines.
- And more as we grow!
The Chic Guide: Where can readers go to learn more and follow along?
Matthews: Follow us on Social Media and Subscribe to our Newsletter! You can sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our homepage on www.terratoriumwines.com. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
