Megan & Ryan Glaab
USA
Megan & Ryan's Wines
- USA
- 8 wines
- 4 styles
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Your avant-garde California dream team
- Ryan and Megan aren’t your typical Wine Country Cabernet duo. They’re after the best-kept secrets in the Valley — seeking old heritage vineyards with rare, underrated Italian grapes like Vermentino and Aglianico. A bit rebellious? Maybe. Absolutely worth it? Definitely.
- And they have the expertise to do it with combined experience at Torbreck, Sine Qua Non, Marcassin, Pax, Peay and their own brand, RYME Cellars. They’ve dreamed of expanding with another brand, aptly named Verse, to take on even more opportunities to work with unique fruit from the best growers.
- Thanks to Angel support and the COVID Relief Fund, Megan and Ryan were able to keep their operations going in 2020 and start their next Verse to make the wines they truly love and share their unique vision with the world.
Megan & Ryan Glaab's Story
Megan and Ryan Glaab have been lauded as California’s most innovative young winemaking team. In a landscape predominantly planted with well-known grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot noir, it’s difficult to find vineyards growing lesser-known varieties, but the Glaabs have never been ones to shy away from hard work. The Glaabs love any chance to “expand the consumer perception of what good California wine is,” and see their innovative winemaking as an opportunity for education and storytelling. Even more so over a glass from their cellar — their unique wines inspire plenty of conversation.
“We aren’t afraid of a ‘weird project’ and aren’t afraid of sweet wines, sparkling, sherry, using amphora, or doing a little skin maceration. Name it, and we’ve probably tried it.”
Finding the Passion
Megan and Ryan both found their love for winemaking through food. Megan’s father was a successful chef, and she started considering a degree in enology when she was 15, while serving at her family restaurant. Armed with the insight that only discovering your passion at a ridiculously young age will give you, she found an enology program at the University of Adelaide. To her mother’s dismay, she wanted to study winemaking on the other side of the world.
“When I found Adelaide, my dad was super supportive. My mom was hesitant because she was certain I’d fall in love with someone in Australia and never come back, so her condition was ‘do NOT fall in love!’ But I did.”
Ryan’s love of food was unique in his family ? he sought out hole-in-the-wall restaurants and unique flavors whenever he was allowed to choose, which was usually a birthday dinner. While pursuing a degree in medical bioengineering, he found part time jobs in restaurants. It only took a short while for him to become enamoured with the science of wine and beer. He transferred to Fresno State and graduated with a degree in enology and a desire to travel the world, and he knew just where to start.
Finding Each Other
After Ryan’s graduation and prior to Megan’s senior thesis, both landed harvest jobs at the fashionable Torbreck winery in Australia's Barossa Valley. In Torbreck’s cellar, they made Rhône-inspired wines and plans to see the world together, by hopping hemispheres to work two harvests a year. It was the romantic flying winemaker life that both had dreamed of while cramming for chemistry and geography tests in school. While waiting for Megan to finish her senior thesis, Ryan went back to California to spend a season working with Manfred Krankl of Sine Qua Non. Joining the team was a rare opportunity to help craft the most creative and sought-after wines in the state.
A year later, they met in Sonoma County and continued working with Rhône varieties. Megan found a spot at Peay, and down the road Ryan worked at PAX. The pair was excited to kick off their world winemaking tour with something close to home, focusing on varieties that piqued their interest, and operating at a scale that was hyper-focused on quality. Everything was going according to plan, except Megan and Ryan were both way too wonderful to work with. They ended up being offered full-time positions with Peay and PAX, cut their travel plans short, and began plans for their own wine brand.
RYME
In 2007, for the inaugural vintage of RYME Cellars, the Glaabs made fifty cases of Aglianico — a dense rarely planted outside of Southern Italy.
“We love idiosyncratic wines, and Algianico is one we still focus on at RYME. It’s a grape that is aromatic, spicy, massive and brooding. It has high tannin, and ages forever! One day, we would love to see hundreds of thousands of people drinking it.”
Megan and Ryan focused on small lots of obscure Italian grapes as their brand and reputation grew. Their portfolio soon contained two Vermentinos, Ribolla Gialla, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Aglianico, Chardonnay, and Pinot noir. Sharing winery space with some of their closest friends who also had wine brands, and receiving lots of press, the Glaabs were living the dream!
Finding Naked Wines
When they had found the comfortable limit to how much wine they could produce for RYME, they had to pass up opportunities to work with excellent growers and unique fruit. They dreamed up the brand Verse as a way to expand their offerings, but then COVID hit and their tasting room had to shut its doors, brutally impacting sales.
Through a friend, they found the COVID Relief Fund. After working with Naked Wines to keep RYME operating smoothly during a tough time, they wanted to keep the relationship going. With Angel support, Megan and Ryan were able to start an additional brand, Verse, and continue exploring the vineyards of Northern California. To say thanks, the Glaabs are bringing Angels wines that would otherwise only be found at a tiny tasting room in Forstville.
Megan & Ryan's Archangels
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Besides wine, I'm a passionate wanna be foodie! I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen- of course with a glass of NW to keep my company. I love all of NW wines especially anything from Stefano di Blasi, Dave Harvey, Rabbitt and Spaghetti, the Michauds, Karen Birmingham, Stephen Millier, Daniel Baron, the Phillips, the Glaabs, the Dashe's.. the list is endless! From the great PNW with love, LaDonna ALWAYS needs more wine!
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Take a fish boating with some wine
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Live each day as if it were your last and enhance every dinner with a glass of wine. Cheers!
Megan & Ryan's Activity
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Fruit forward with an easy dry finish. Very nice varietal im not familiar with. Like a Viognier blended with Sav Blanc, but richer. Very refreshing, and amazing peach color!
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(latest reply 1 week ago)
Light, easy and tea leaves! To me, the fruit hangs back… giving it an earthy nature. I like this style. Went perfectly with my portbello and veggie flatbread.
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(latest reply 1 week ago)
This is yet another wine from the vintner that more than held up previous promises. Decanting mattered, and I took about 40 minutes. Served with a spicy and fennel flavored cured meats, a variety of olives, fresh baguette, a medium soft truffle cheese, an aged cheddar and a creamy goat cheese. Served at about 65 degrees (room temp in my apartment), the complexity of the wine was fun.
The kind of heavy mouth feel that is more the hallmark of a young Cabernet Sauvignon but a lighter taste. Eating with a variety of nine different tastes (and then in different orders) is my favorite way of evaluating a new wine.
I admire vintners who work with small-terroir grapes because it takes knack combined with skill to make a desirable taste. And it is that very small-terroir that allows us to understand the soil and sun and moisture imbuing the grape.
As an aside, I appreciate that Meg and Ryan use different bottles for different wines. I also get a kick (pun intended) out of the unusually prominent kicks in the bottles. The Pinot Noir is darn near a weapons-grade bottle.
So subtle and fun to discover it
s characterics… didn’t really pair well with my vegan options… much better for me in its own.
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(latest reply 2 weeks ago)
Was fun to drink side by side with HERS… surprisingly bold… orange essence… on its own not my favorite, but absolutely delicious with spicy asian broccoli. Thumbs up for food pairing!
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(latest reply 2 weeks ago)
I'm no longer a "Naked Angel" only because I just don't drink as much wine as I used to. (Age/health reasons.) I still have a closet full of wines from Naked though and I pulled yours out the other night just to have a glass with my dinner. It was SO good I saved it to share with my neighbors the following night. Omg. It was luscious. I'm a big pinot noir fan, living up here in the Willamette Valley. In fact, I was a chef for one of the wineries here for several years. High praise for this wine. Smooth and flavor-packed. It made me want to get my membership reinstated with Naked Wines.
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(latest reply 2 weeks ago)
Full bodied, with good fruit flavor. This was good to sip on and with food. Enjoyed with scalloped potatoes and roasted broccoli.
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(latest reply 2 weeks ago)
Lawrence Jefferson
Angel
Megan & Ryan Glaab VERSE Alegria Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel 2021
1 month ago
Order when in stock!
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(latest reply 2 weeks ago)
A special nod to our Vermentino in Jancis Robinson's recent article on Italian varieties in California by Alder Yarrow! Honored to be included!
"...a rapidly proliferating group of devotee winemakers and growers have been grafting, planting and producing a wide variety of Italian grape varieties throughout the state of California, and the results of their efforts are now far too good to ignore."
Want to try our expressions of Vermentino?! Grab our Verse His and Hers Vermentinos in your next box!
Megan & Ryan Glaab VERSE HERS The Bench Vineyard Vermentino 2023
Megan & Ryan Glaab VERSE HIS The Bench Vineyard Vermentino 2023
