Nose
Tropical fruit flavors invade the nose.
Palate
Once the palate is breached, flavors of red apple, pear, pineapple and spicy mango explode on the tongue. This wine is bright, crisp and clean with a long finish. Soft, smooth and round.
Growing Conditions
Growing season 2015 was in the fourth year of the severe drought in California. The normally rainy season between January and March was quite dry resulting in a lighter harvest and an early one. We knew mid summer that harvest would come early, and it did, by almost three weeks. Our yields were also down this year as the weather stressed bud break and we had fewer clusters on each vine. In some areas of Sonoma County we were down by as much as 40%! While we didn’t get as much as vintages 2013 and 2014, but the caliber of this wine is just as remarkable!
Bottling
The final wine was bottled in August of 2016.
Winemaking
Each varietal (66% Chard, 23% Pinot Blanc, 11% Pinot Meunier) was cold fermented to dryness in stainless steel tanks, allowing us to preserve the minerality and aromatic fruit character. When dry, the wine was put through partial malolactic fermentation to add buttery texture.
