Cruse Wine Company was founded by Michael Cruse, a Petaluma garagiste on a mission to improve California sparkling wines. A one-time university microbiology student whose earliest wine jobs were at Sutter Home and Merryvale Vineyards, Cruse is a self-taught maker of sparkling wines that rival Champagne. He’s also a proponent of a complicated “natural” style of winemaking known as pétillant natural, a French method in which the sparkling wine is bottled while still fermenting. In 2016 The San Francisco Chronicle named him Winemaker of the Year. Cruse makes still and sparkling wines. He also makes single vineyard, single vintage California sparkling wine under his Ultramarine label.