This is the first year that we've made Grenache from this rocky vineyard springing out of the old, dry riverbed near the town of Healdsburg. We’ve always loved the velvety texture and sweet pure fruit of Grenache, but had never found an ideal vineyard for producing the kind of Grenache we enjoy drinking. Finally, we found a contender.
HISTORY We wanted to make a lighter-styled, lower-alcohol, lush, mouthfilling Grenache, and after making the wine we felt we had the majority of the flavors we wanted. To add complexity and texture, we decided to blend the wine with 20% 100-year-old Mourvedre. Together, the two wines created a beautiful complex, mouth-filling, spicy wine - an ideal wine for a hot spring or summer day cooking at the barbeque.
PRODUCTION We picked these grapes relatively late, in early October 2008. The grapes were picked early in the AM to keep the grapes cold, and then trucked 1 1/2 hours to the winery. As with all of our wines, the fermentation is conducted using the native yeasts found naturally growing on the grapes. We waited 12 hours and "bled off" some of the slightly colored juice to make our Vin Gris (rose), which helps concentrate the wine. We loved the purity of the fruit so much that we decided to keep the wine unfiltered and unfined, to keep the fruit as distinctive as possible, reflecting the character of the vineyard.
Since we loved the character of the fruit, we aged the wine in 100% older French oak barrels (older than three years old). By using older barrels we intentionally kept this wine away from heavy oak influences, and enhanced the lovely fruit character of the wine.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Varietals: 80% Grenache; 20% old-vine Mouvedre
Appellation: Dry Creek Valley (Mouvedre from Contra Costa Valley)
Alcohol: 13.8% by vol.
Time in oak: 8 months, 100% older French
Production: 197 cases, 750mL
Release date: June 15, 2009
Sugg. retail price: $24.00 bottle, 750mL
Optimum time for consumption: 2009-13
TASTING NOTES
Color : Purple with a tinge of red
Aroma: Beautiful fresh blackberry and cassis, hints of lavender and rosemary, peppery, earthy
Taste: Lush, velvety, blackberry and black cherry, black currents, floral, slightly grainy tannins, long, mineral and earthy finish, spicy.
