The wine comes from a 0.8 hectare parcel of unirrigated Chenin Blanc planted in 1981. The family-run farm is located in the heart of Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County, and is now run by the 4th and 5th generations. The vineyards are organically farmed. Marty's admiration for his friend and mentor, Leo Hansen of Leo Steen Wines, led him to release Chenin Blanc and to this wonderful vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. The name of the wine, Kierkegaard, comes from the Danish philosopher, thinker and existentialist Søren Auber Kierkegaard, and pays tribute to Hansen, who is originally from Denmark. The wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts in old barrels and aged for 11 months.
The production volume is two barrels of puncheons and ten barrels of barriques. Alex Pitts, who was an assistant winemaker for the Scholium Project, a pioneer of the California nature movement, became independent and teamed up with Martin Winter, who studied brewing at Leo Steen and was a sommelier at the three-star Michelin restaurant Meadowood in Napa, to establish the brand in 2012. In 2019, they were selected as Winemakers to Watch by the San Francisco Chronicle, a national newspaper in the United States, and are the most dynamic young duo right now. Their motto is to make high-quality, unique, "California-like" wines while minimizing human intervention and striving to maximize the individuality of the vineyards. Using their own network, they not only cultivate organically, but also find old vines with their own roots that have not yet been noticed and fields that are not irrigated, and brew using only indigenous yeasts to fully reflect the flavor and individuality of the grape varieties in the wine. "Maître de Chai" is a French word (mainly Bordeaux) that means winemaker. Now they are independent and can make a living just by managing their own winery, but when they first started "Maître de Chai", both of them worked as winemakers and assistants at other wineries. In the midst of such difficulties, they had a mentor who gave them the opportunity to work in the cellar and shared his knowledge of winemaking and cultivation with them, and this is the brand name that expresses their gratitude, in the sense that they are who they are today because of that. In other words, "Maître de Chai" is the job title that led Alex and Martin to enter the wine industry, and it is their origin. The label features an illustration drawn in 1883, showing Libertas, the Statue of Liberty in Roman mythology, and a grizzly bear, the symbol of California, toasting each other. California adopted the grizzly bear as its state flag in 1911, so this painting was made before that. The side of the barrel depicts a sailing ship and a worker holding a hoe that reached the American West Coast after a long journey during the Gold Rush (1848). The original illustration had the word "Eureka" on the side of the barrel, meaning "Found!", and the sides of the wooden wine crate had "Mission," "Pineau," "Riesling," and "Zinfandel" written on them, respectively. However, as the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Administration did not approve the design, the word "Eureka" was removed, and the side of the wooden crate now lists the grape varieties actually used in the wine.