The patient journey to “Pursue the Possible” at Pulido~Walker has been guided by a tenacious commitment to excellence, a striving for perfection of every element in single-vineyard designate wines. The ancient apothecary weight on the Pulido~Walker wine label is inscribed with the seasonal symbols of alchemy. This Old World instrument of precise measure expresses our family’s ardent determination to craft extraordinary wines authentic to the unique terroir of our three exceptional Napa Valley estate vineyards.
Under the watchful eye of our winemaker, Thomas Rivers Brown, we chose three remarkable vineyard sites where the natural alchemy of geography, soil, climate, and clone yield a wine greater than the sum of its parts. Wines that bear our label exemplify what is possible when one pursues the very best at every step. This is our compass, driving every decision we make.
Estate Grown & Bottled
From the outset we envisioned working with the best blocks in the finest vineyards, which we patiently sought out. The journey from the inaugural release of our 2010 vintage to building Mending Wall Winery in 2014 to establishing all estate vineyards by 2019 has enabled Pulido~Walker to control every aspect of Quality, Quality, Quality (Q3) from vine to bottle. This Q3 obsession yields exceptional single-vineyard wines from diverse and distinctive locations in the Napa Valley: our Estate Vineyard on Mt. Veeder in the western Mayacamas Mountains, Melanson Vineyard located on Pritchard Hill in the rugged mountains east of Oakville, and our Policy Estate Vineyard on the valley floor on State Lane in Yountville. Each is a grand cru site producing authentic, superb wines.
In each vineyard, we carefully thin our vines several times throughout the growing season, leaving only the very best clusters for hand selection during harvest, which results in lower yields than are typical. At Mending Wall Winery Thomas Rivers Brown’s winemaking technique takes a non-interventionist approach crafting natural wines that reflect their unique terroir—rich, savory, and complex—with rounded tannins and long finishes that are approachable young yet built for decades-long cellar aging. The small and intense clusters are gently handled, carefully sorted and de-stemmed—never crushed—and then cold soaked for flavorful extraction. The wine from each vineyard block and clone is separately fermented in small lots. During winemaking synthetic yeast, sulfur, acid, and enzymes are forbidden and the choicest lots are bottled without fining or filtration. Pulido~Walker wines are barrel aged in 100% French Oak from the finest Old World cooperages.
Proprietors
Mark Pulido and Donna Walker, both trained as pharmacists, also grew up in pharmacy families, and this early common experience is integral to the Pulido~Walker “Pursue the Possible” philosophy. Their scientific background and career experience make Mark and Donna precise, inquisitive, and patiently detailed: they know that long-term thinking, perseverance, and attentive observation yield results worth waiting for. From the beginning, Mark and Donna have had the commitment and endurance—never mind the conviction to their principles—either to bottle only the very best lots or to completely reframe the experiment.
Although they had 2008 and 2009 vintages in barrel, Mark and Donna postponed the launch of their winery to investigate what new vineyards and a new winemaker could contribute in terms of quality. Experts concurred that these early vintages were very good, but Mark and Donna insisted that Pulido~Walker had to be better than very good. It had to be extraordinary.
