I first tasted Argot at a large Sonoma County Vintners tasting six years ago. All the wines were impressive, but the two stand-out wines back then were Simpatico Ranch Chardonnay and Bastard Tongue Pinot Noir.

Justin Harmon founded Argot in 2007. In the early years, he focused on Sonoma Syrahs, Chardonnays, and Pinot Noirs, before branching out to Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in recent years.

"I liked the idea of working in an area whose story hasn’t been written yet."

“I came out to California in 2005 to be a harvest intern,” said Justin. “I was in my mid-twenties and had a background in chemical engineering. But I’d fallen in love with wine before that, in Chicago, where I grew up. I started out just making wine in my parents’ basement. In 2006, I found a custom crush facility to make a little of my own wine. Then Vinify opened in Santa Rosa in 2007, where we make the wines now. That year, I bought my first ton of fruit. I got licensed, started an LLC, and made 50 cases of a Syrah from Bennett Valley. I liked the idea of working in an area whose story hasn’t been written yet—that was Bennett Valley. In 2008, I added a Chardonnay and then a Pinot the following year.”

In May this year, I met with Justin and his wife Beth at Vinify to taste his new releases as well as every vintage made of Bastard Tongue.

"I wanted to make something special."

“In 2011, I wanted to expand to make another Pinot, something special. So, I started making calls and looking for grapes. I first found Steiner Vineyard, and we still work with them for Pinot and Chardonnay. Then I got an offer for some fruit from an awesome vineyard in Fort Ross-Seaview. It’s a well-known vineyard, but I’m not allowed to mention the name. I blended fruit from these two vineyards to make the Bastard Tongue for the first time in 2011 and liked the name so much that I stopped my model of changing names every year. The name Argot came about when I was reading a wine book and came across the term, which means a shared language of anything. I found a reference in Cornell University’s library stating that Argot is ‘but a bastard tongue grafted on the mother stem.’ On the back label of Bastard Tongue is a quote taken from Goethe’s Faust: ‘perseverance...rarely fails of its purpose.’ If you look closely, the number ‘24’ is also embossed on the label. This is another Faustian reference. The number 24 is the pact Faust made with Mephistopheles for 24 years. This represents the single vineyard designate soul that was sold to make Bastard Tongue. In my pursuit to make the greatest possible Pinot Noir, I knew this had to be a blend of these two vineyards.”

Apart from selling his Pinot soul in 2011 to make the Bastard Tongue, that same year, Justin met his wife, Beth, who was working at Vinify.

“We got married in 2015,” said Beth, who now manages the sales, marketing, and communications side of the business. “The 2013 Bastard Tongue was our wedding wine.”

Since 2011, the vineyard sources for Bastard Tongue have changed, depending on what makes the cut each year. “The thing about making Bastard Tongue is there are no rules,” said Justin. “Steiner Vineyard always makes the blend. We focus on the Swan clone. The rural legend about the Swan clone is that it is three different clones, but the one at Steiner is particularly special with very small bunches. When it hits the right ripeness, it is like pure Pinot Noir candy. We’re looking to make bigger, richer wines, but we want earthiness and spiciness too. As for winemaking, the Bastard Tongue gets 2/3 to 100% new oak and a long elevage—20-22 months nowadays.”

Despite the challenges of 2020, Justin managed to craft an impressive Bastard Tongue.

“2020 was the earliest harvest ever for us,” he commented. “We were dealing with clear (smokeless) skies leading into Labor Day. We picked everything we could before that weekend. The fruit we were able to get off the vine before the Labor Day heat that year was amazing.”

Argot is available in 17 states, Denmark, the UK, and Canada. Unashamedly rich and opulent, Justin Harmon’s wines are also layered, beautifully nuanced, and weave in a myriad of earth and savory accents to tame all that decadent fruit. These come highly recommended.