One way to edge into the California wine business? A checkbook and a dream, the former bigger than the latter. But there’s also a way in through pure sweat equity — working your way up through the ranks at small wineries.

Today’s great California wineries aren’t just about great wines. They are also about turning out great assistant and apprentice winemakers. The current golden era is fostering a roster of talent with their own projects. Here are several endeavors born out of other wineries’ cellars:

Aluvion

Chenin Blanc is enjoying a resurgent moment in California. In part, that means yet another second chance for the alluvial Clarksburg appellation outside Sacramento, known among insiders since the 1970s as a stronghold for Chenin. Clayton Kirchhoff knows Clarksburg as few do: He grew up there, after his father moved the family from Nebraska and “went from growing corn to growing grapes,” mostly for Bogle.

“I grew up hating vineyards,” Kirchhoff told me, and yet he still ended up in Napa on a succession of jobs. Today he’s the assistant winemaker at Napa’s White Rock Vineyards, but his own small Aluvion label is an homage to that Clarksburg legacy. Aluvion includes a nearly all-Chenin lineup, and Kirchhoff makes them with serious intent.

Tasting notes: 2013 Aluvion Reamer Vineyard Demi-Sec Clarksburg Chenin Blanc ($28, 12.8%): Lots of ripe, sunny fruit in this off-dry style, but still more crisp than a Vouvray, with a caraway-seed spice that provides depth.

Trail Marker

It could have been bum luck that brought Drew Huffine and Emily Virgil together in Los Angeles, just weeks before he was off to harvest in New Zealand. But the two Southern California natives stuck together, and by 2011 they were in the Bay Area. While Huffine worked a string of jobs for Sonoma wineries, it was Virgil, who had done costume work in the film industry, who finally threw down: They were newly married, no kids, no mortgage. Now was the time to make wine, or never.

And so they founded Oakland-based Trail Marker, which pulls together a curious collection of locales. Originally, the couple was interested in Mendocino, and in Chardonnay of a certain style (Chablis, the Jura), and found some on Manchester Ridge, high in the hills near the Mendocino coast. But they also met up with viticulturist Prudy Foxx, who knows the Santa Cruz Mountains intimately, and were soon working with the emergent Legan and Savaria vineyards.

They were also introduced to Bob Koth, who has grown Germanic varieties in Lodi for decades. Their Teutonic reds are more quirky than refined, but the Chardonnay is a serious contender. Same with their Pinot, which makes sense given Huffine’s other current work, making wine for R2 and Roessler.

Tasting notes: 2014 Trail Marker Green Valley Vineyard Solano County French Colombard ($22, 13.2%): This everyday wine grown east of Napa is in the spirit of the wonderfully drinkable Colombards in California’s past. Unusually dense fruit flavors, balanced by a boiled-peanut savory side.

Rootdown Cellars

Even two years ago, starting a wine label with not one but two rosés would have seemed like folly. But pink is hot right now, and winemaker Mike Lucia has doubled down.

His new project, Rootdown, which debuted this summer, could have coasted on the wine’s runaway success. Instead, he insisted on creating a studious take on pink: two single-vineyard wines, a Pinot Noir from Santa Maria Valley and a Trousseau from the Sierra Foothills.

In Lucia’s case, it probably helps to be assistant winemaker at Copain Wines in Healdsburg, where he has been instrumental in helping winemaker Wells Guthrie make his Mendocino County-sourced Tous Ensemble wines (including a rosé) into a big win.

“Consciously made rosé is something people aren’t doing,” Lucia says. His labels even list vineyard soil types, a rarity for any wine, and certainly for rosé. Never had pink Trousseau off fine sandy loam in the Upper Mokelumne Watershed? Now’s your chance.

Tasting notes: 2014 Rootdown Amador County Rosé of Trousseau ($21, 12.3%): From a relatively young (2004) planting in the foothills, and soaked on skins for 15 hours. That provides a more fleshy texture to balance the acidity of early-picked Trousseau, as does the variety’s mellow red-berry flavors.

Ferdinand

Evan Frazieris the general manager of Kongsgaard Wine; hence he has the mentorship of one of California’s best white-wine talents.

But the Mill Valley native also wanted “wine that I would pick up off the shelf, which for me wasn’t going to be $85 Napa Chardonnay.” And so, Ferdinand — which was born out of a time spent making wine in France’s Roussillon, near the Catalan border.

Frazier found his inspiration in Lodi’s Borden Ranch area, from which he makes an Albariño richer than most Rias Baixas examples — not least because he applies Kongsgaardian techniques. The wine is fermented and aged for eight months in old oak barrels. His Tempranillo, from the Shake Ridge site in Amador, exudes a fresh, California expression.

Tasting notes: 2012 Ferdinand California Tempranillo ($30, 14.1%): Full of hot-weather tannins, ripe plum and a charred leafy side, with its spiciness almost coming through like chicory. Robust but not flashy.

Vinca Minor

The Santa Cruz Mountains may be hallowed for their Bordeaux-ish dreams, but the area remains under Napa’s shadow. Jason Charles’ blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from the Babrak vineyard near Ridge on Montebello Road adds evidence of the mountains’ potential, with that perfect mix of herbal notes and dusky fruit.

Tasting notes: 2014 Vinca Minor Babrak Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Merlot-Cabernet Franc ($41, 13.1%): A great addition to the (admittedly small) roster of Santa Cruz Merlot. Brims with tea and charcoal, poblano pepper and thyme stem, all built around a tanginess that should mellow with time.

Jon Bonné is a contributing writer. E-mail: food@sfchronicle.com