Nose
Coconut, papaya, pineapple, pear and quince paste (yes!) in the nose and maybe a suggestion of dried fruit (dried peaches?). There is a wonderful toastiness to the nose, maybe the caramelized sugar of a of crème brulée.
Palate
On the palate, the wine is sweet, of course, but extremely well balanced with acidity and just a hint of astringency which prevents it from cloying. Very, very long, clean finish. This is possibly the most perfect wine you could imagine with a cheese course.
Harvest
2013 brought an incredible opportunity for a truly late harvest wine to be produced from Beeswax Vineyard in Arroyo Seco. Typically this vineyard’s fruit is harvested nearly into November, but in 2013, it was harvested for our Cigare Blanc in the first week of October. This allowed us to leave a portion of the Grenache Blanc in the vineyard for another 5 weeks to naturally dry and concentrate sugar and flavor on the vine.
Bottling
375ml bottling. Bottled 2/10/2014.
Winemaking
We hand picked the fruit and gently pressed whole cluster at the winery. The resulting juice was 31.8 brix and was slowly cold fermented in 100% stainless steel.
Food Pairing
Fruit or nut based-desserts, foie gras torchon.
