Making wine is not only about winemakers - it's about vision, creativity and team effort.

After talking and visiting with many vineyards up and down the west coast for over a year and a half, tasting their wines and meeting the people behind the bottles, the choice for Wines That Rock was an easy one. The Mendocino Wine Company brought so many strengths to the table including great tasting, award-winning wines, respect for the planet through true environmental leadership and a support team that fully understood the direction Wines That Rock wanted to take. The Mendocino Wine Company leads the industry in environmental leadership, and has lead by example with sustainable farming practices, earth friendly packaging, carbon neutrality and 100% green energy, so much so that they recently were awarded the 2009 Governors Economic and Environmental Leadership Award.

Comments from Mark Beaman - Winemaker at Wines That Rock:

Making Rolling Stones' Forty Licks Merlot:

"For the Forty Licks Merlot, I wanted to work with a wine that captured the essence of what the album was about. Forty Licks, it's forty tracks covering the Rolling Stones from the 1960's to just a few years ago, and it's really a statement of timeless classic rock. Merlot is a variety that captures that in a sense as well. Merlot has been around for a very long time. Some of the most expensive bottles in the world out there right now are Merlot as well. So with the Merlot, I wanted to capture the essence or the attitude of the variety grown here in Mendocino County. Certainly a lot of flavors of black cherry, a bit of mint, and some apricot in there, so some interesting fun things, and certainly a little bit of cedar on the end of the whole wine. A great wine for us and a lot of fun."

Making Woodstock Chardonnay:

"So for the Woodstock album Chardonnay really made a lot of sense because the soundtrack contains a mixture of music. There's soul, rock and roll, and psychedelic that's going on - a little bit of everything. It was a revolution. So it made sense to go with Chardonnay because here in Mendocino County we have great expression of the land through Chardonnay. Some other areas, they make Chardonnay that's very mute, it doesn't have a lot of expression, so they tend to throw a lot of make-up at it in the form of oak or malolactic fermentation which creates a strong buttery character. Around here, we just let the fruit shine and make very pure wine. I get a lot of Asian Pear Apple flavors out of this, certainly some tropical fruits in there as well and some great acid on the finish of this wine. It makes me think of bottled sunshine - really the idea behind this wine."

Making Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon:  

"On the other side, the Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. Cabernet Sauvignon made a lot of sense because it needed to be a wine that was haunting, and when I say haunting I want to think more of not just the cassis flavors that shows through the blackcurrant streak, and a little bit of chocolate that's in there as well. But there's going to be other things that you probably never recognized before that are in this wine just because it's so jam-packed with complexity, like the album it can take and transport you to different places. If you paired the wine with that, I think it's going to take you to some wonderful vistas."