Palate
The Elivette 2017 is flamboyant with bold fruit content. You will experience concentrated layers of texture in your mouth. The flavor profile is lingering and tenuous. The wine is vivid and playful, with the approachability of fruit tones. There is a balance of young fruit and additional depth to the classical mountain style. You can enjoy it now but a few years of cellaring will reveal a magical vintage.
Growing Conditions
The 2017 vintage at Spring Mountain Vineyard is marked by structure and power. Heavy winter rains recharged the groundwater and gave the vines new reserves to produce a healthy, balanced crop. Flowering took slightly longer than a typical vintage as Spring temperatures were mild so there was a certain degree of shatter, which naturally balanced the crop load. As the growing season progressed, several heat events in September helped accelerate ripening.
Capitalizing on the diversity of Spring Mountain's complex vineyard, vines are planted in 135 discrete hillside blocks that rise from 400 to 1,600 feet above sea level on the eastern slopes of Spring Mountain. The austere mountain soils yield fewer than two tons of grapes per acre, yet the resulting wines reflect intense varietal character, supple tannin structure and bright acidity.
Harvest
An earlier than usual harvest at the Estate, with the majority of the Bordeaux varieties picked by the end of September and early October. In general, the smaller crop of 2017 produced intensely concentrated, muscular wines with a beautiful structure that will allow them to age gracefully for years to come.
Winemaking
To fully preserve the unique qualities of each block, the fruit from each is kept separate for fermentation and barrel aging. After selecting only the most elegant wines from specific barrels of the classic Bordeaux varietals, Elivette is blended to become the finest expression of the Spring Mountain Vineyard.
