WINES

2009 Grenache Les E'nfant Terrible, Dry Creek Valley This is the first year that we’ve used our “Les Enfants Terribles” label series for our lovely, complex Grenache grown in a single rocky vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley. This flat, rugged vineyard is planted in an old dry riverbed near the town of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, where the maritime fog that flows down the valley at night cools down the vines until the late morning, keeping the grapes cool and the resulting wines extremely luscious and balanced between fruit and acidity.

Info & Tasting Notes:	2009
Press:	2009
Purchase:	2009

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2009 Les Enfants Terribles

Grenache Dry Creek Valley


History
Because of the way we make this wine—fermented with the native yeasts on the grapes; aged in large older French oak barrels; unfined and unfiltered; and bottled with low SO2 levels—we felt that it deserved to be labeled with our other wines in the Les Enfants Terribles (the “Wild Children”) series that are made in a more Old World style.  The resulting purity of flavor, velvety texture, and complex midpalette is a break from the brash, fruit-forward style of many Californian wines.

We wanted to make a lighter-styled, lush, mouthfilling Grenache, and after making the wine we felt we had the majority of the flavors we wanted.  By keeping the wine in large barrels we were able to increase contact with the yeast, giving the wine it’s combination of lovely Grenache fruit and more toasty, earthy flavors.  It’s an ideal wine for a hot spring or summer day cooking at the barbeque.


Production
We picked these grapes relatively late, in early October 2009.  The grapes were picked early in the AM to keep the grapes very cold, and then trucked 1 ˝ 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 500 Liter older French oak puncheons (about twice the size of a “normal” barrel). 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:        100% Grenache

Appellation:  Dry Creek Valley

Alcohol:         14.2% by vol.

Time in oak:  5 months in 500 Liter barrels, 100% older French

Production:     301 cases, 750mL

Release date:             June 1, 2010

Sugg. retail price: $24.00 bottle, 750mL

Optimum time for consumption: 2010-14


Tasting Notes
Color :         Strawberry red--unfiltered

Aroma:        Beautiful fresh black-cherry, strawberry, earth and minerals, slight rosemary and pepper spice

Taste:          Lush, sweet red fruit together with black currents, floral, slightly grainy tannins, luscious and velvety mouthfeel, long, mineral and earthy finish, spicy.