2020 Sparkling Wine

100% Carignan

This wine is made from grapes grown at certified organic Ricetti Vineyard located in the Redwood Valley, which is in the cool northern end of the Ukiah Valley in Mendocino County. This special vineyard is farmed by Pamela and Tom Ricetti. The old vines are dry-farmed and the soils are gravelly loam.

Here we find a copper hue, a nose of green strawberry, hay in the breeze, toasted hazelnuts and marshmallow. On the palate there is apricot, comice pear and cocoa enveloped in a fine texture. There is a long finish with crisp lime like acidity. This wine will age beautifully over the next several years.

The hand-picked grapes were whole cluster pressed to a tall skinny stainless steel tank. After racking the clear juice at about 250 NTU, we warmed it up to initiate fermentation. When the wine started to tick, we set the cooling on the tank to 68°F and let the wine ferment naturally. We gradually brought down the temperature while it was fermenting until it was around 50°F. When the wine reached about 2 brix we chilled the tank to arrest fermentation. The juice had other plans and actually tried to keep fermenting, even with the tank at 40F! We had to filter the wine to get it to stop. We let the tank sit cold for several weeks to naturally cold stabilize. When it was time to bottle, we racked the wine, added a small amount of organic yeast extract (food for the yeast) and a Champagne yeast culture. The wine was stored sur latte (on its side) for 15 months before it was disgorged. We simply topped the bottles after disgorging and did not add any sugar or sulfur.

Download a technical data sheet here.

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