MJ Lords is a family owned and operated premium boutique winery located in the heart of Sonoma County. Blending two generations of old-world farming and wine-making family traditions from Italy and the Azores, MJ Lords produces small batches of gourmet Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Our average annual wine production is 2000 cases. The majority of our production is our Pinot Noir, made from grapes from the Sonoma Coast of California and our Sauvignon Blanc is made from grapes from the Russian River Valley of California. In addition to our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, our production includes a Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and a limited production Red blend called Zendagio. Small production runs enable us to focus on bringing out the best flavor in each of our wines, resulting in the ultra-premium quality of each bottle.
E-mail: info@mjlordswinery.com
Matt Trulli - Operations Manager & Assistant Winemaker
Matt Trulli spent the first few years of his life living in the house of his great grandparents, the same house where some of their own Zinfandel blends, which are now legendary within the family, were created. From these family blends came some of Matt & Jared's techniques that they use today at MJ Lords to create their signature style. Matt was still very young when his family moved out of his great grandparents' house, but he knows it is from these roots, these family traditions, that MJ Lords Wine Cellars was truly born.
That early move took his family to Visalia, where Matt's father became involved in the hay business. From that point on, Matt, like Jared, was always living immersed in a family tradition of agriculture. "I spent most of my summers running around with Jared on my Grandfather Souza's Dairy farm," he recalls. "At a very young age, I just knew my heart belonged to farming."
"He always loved those kinds of things as a kid," Jared recalls about Matt. "Probably more than anybody else I know. Even when we were really young on the farm, he was always into that. When he was about 10 years old, he had these immaculate gardens with all kinds of vegetables and fruit. For someone that young, it was simply amazing!"
"I spent my entire youth in the farming industry," Matt explains, "whether it was raising cattle with my dad or farming hay and cotton with my uncle Gene Souza. From our roots in the old country to where our family is today, it's just a part of who we are."
While he recognized this fact early on, he knew it might take a while for his own path in agriculture to work itself out. "I knew right around the time I was 20 years old that my golden opportunity in farming just wasn't in the cards yet. I was convinced the time would come eventually, but the timing wasn't quite right."
Knowing he would eventually come back to the growing side of agriculture, in 1996 Matt embarked on a new career that would keep him in the agriculture industry, but this time working from a completely different side of it. Through his uncle John Souza, he began offering insurance products to farmers through a small organization called "The California Farmer", which further cemented his link to agriculture. In 1998, he relocated his insurance and investment practice to Sonoma County, and while he never lost sight of going back to what he loved, little did Matt know that his move to Sonoma would help lead to the creation of MJ Lords Wine Cellars.
It all began with an SOS call from Jared, who had decided to follow his passion and make his first wine. "In 2004 I let my younger uncle and co-partner Jared Souza talk me into helping him pick some Zinfandel fruit by hand so that he could make a little wine," Matt says. "Of course, when I received the call I was visiting with one of my clients, who ironically happened to be a Pinot Noir grower in the Sonoma Coast Appellation that would later become our primary source of Pinot Noir fruit. Suit and tie on, I spent several hours helping Jared pick this Zinfandel fruit." He had to leave part-way through the task to take care of a few other appointments, and when he stopped back by the vineyard, Jared was still hard at work. They finished the job together, and when all was said and done, they had enough fruit to make their own barrel of Zinfandel.
"It was here that I renewed my passion for farming," Matt recalls, "and it was here that I realized where my heart truly lay. In this small, Russian River Valley Zinfandel vineyard, the gears began to turn in my head, and ultimately Jared and I founded MJ Lords Wine Cellars because of it. It was on this day that our childhoods and upbringing began to come full circle for me. Since 2005 I have spent most of my weekends in two small Russian River Valley Vineyards that we lease, and it feels like I've come home. Nurturing the vines, pruning them, spraying them --- it's hard work, but it's where I belonged all along."
Jared M. Souza - Chief Winemaker
From 4 years in the US Navy to a stint with Matt working in the Life Insurance and Investments industry, Jared, like Matt, truly came full circle to return to his family's roots in agriculture. This time around, though, he's focused on winemaking, and he's using everything he's learned, from his grandfathers' home winemaking secrets to the skills he picked up as a Cellar Master, to make MJ Lords Wine Cellars one of the premier boutique wineries in Northern California.
After high school, unsure of what to do with his life, Jared joined the US Navy and spent the next four years touring all over Europe. Having spent his Boot Camp in the Great Lakes region of Michigan, Jared was convinced that California was the only home for him, but his travels in and around France, Spain, Italy and Greece opened his eyes to the sheer variety of winemaking styles across the pond. They even inspired him to try making his own "pit wine" onboard ship, and while his attempts weren't successful, they planted a seed, and as he puts it, "I've never forgotten the lessons learned in those early failed attempts, and from that point forward, I constantly thought about making my own wine."
After an Honorable Discharge from the Navy, Jared came back to California and joined Matt in the Insurance industry as they started their first business together, M. Trulli and Associates, Inc. While studying for his insurance license, Jared took a job working part-time as a still operator at a distillery. Those seeds planted by his first winemaking attempts began to sprout, and soon Jared was learning everything he could from the winemaking staff at the distillery, where he eventually became Cellar Master. "Pretty much as soon as I walked in there," he explains, "I fell in love with wine, and I knew that's what I wanted to do."
He decided to take a plunge and arranged to harvest grapes for his first home winemaking attempt (his first attempt onshore, that is!). With a little help from Matt, the grapes were picked, and they turned them into their first barrel of Zinfandel. After a little prodding from Matt and some fine-tuning of their own unique style, Jared is now the head winemaker for an operation that, looking back on it all, seems like it was meant to be. "Like so many other ventures in our family, MJ Lords Wine Cellars is a family operation," he says, "and my wife, four children, and Matt's family are really looking forward to working together in the coming years as we dedicate ourselves to producing the finest wines."