2022 Viognier

100% Viognier

The grapes from this vineyard came from the historic Sanford and Benedict vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills. This organically farmed vineyard is in one of the coolest winegrowing regions in California. The block is own rooted on gravelly soils of marine sediment with limestone base that has a slight northern slope and sits in a bit of a bowl that protects it from the wind.

On this nose this wine opens up with delicate river rock aroma which evolve to white flower and Fuji apple. There is also some slight anise and hazelnut. On the palate it shows bright acidity in the attack with Fuji apple and apricot flavors. The fruitiness shows a lot of restraint on top of slatey minerality. The finish is long, bone dry and saline with soft elegance. To us, this wine drinks like a Chardonnay; but there is a bit less richness in the middle. In all, it is a fun and glorious wine. 

This wine would be fun to pair with petrale sole (please don’t forget the capers) and potatoes dauphinoise. A squeeze of lemon would reward your experience. 

We picked the grapes late September and it was actually our last pick of the season. The fruit came at 18.5 brix. That is the beauty of a cool growing region; long hangtimes for flavor development. After we had the fruit trucked six hours north in a refrigerated truck, we pressed lightly and settled the juice for 24 hours before we racked to another tank for fermentation. Once fermentation started natively, we transferred some of the juice to one new Stockinger barrel and the rest neutral. Fermentation lasted about two weeks, after which we topped the barrels and let them age on the lees without stirring. We ended up using most of the wine in the Superbloom blend but kept three barrels out to see what happens. After a year of aging, we put the wine into stainless on light lees for one year before bottling. We racked about a month before bottling and then returned the wine to its original vessels. Just before the bottling date, we racked the wine to a tank for bottling. It was bottled without fining or filtration.

Production: 70 cases | ABV: 12.1% | TA: 6.7 g/L | pH: 3.36 | VA: 0.41 g/L | DCO2: 1120 ppm | Total SO2: 72ppm | RS: 0.25 g/L | Malic: 0 g/L | Turbidity at bottling: 2.2 NTU

Download a technical data sheet here.

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