2019 Chenin Blanc

Learn more about the vineyards and wine making process.

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Our Chenin Blanc is named after Joel’s young daughter Cézanne, who (like this wine) has a big personality. We've always been obsessed with white wines that show savory and saline notes. Cézanne is just that: fresh minerality dazzles the palate at the first sip, and as you savor that mouthful, the tantalizingly savory notes begin to shine through the gorgeously long finish.  Typically, wine drinkers look for linalool or wooly notes in California Chenin Blanc, but that is not what we’re going for. We put this wine on par with our favorite mineral-laden Chenins from the Loire Valley. 

Drinking Cézanne — with all its various aromas and flavors — is like a treasure hunt. The wine opens up with a nose of wet stones, brioche, and toasted almond. The palate builds to reveal layer upon layer of mineral, quince, pippin apple, and apricot. The lingering finish, laced with sparkling acidity and minerality will make you salivate for more. Wildly refreshing, you’ll find yourself wondering where the bottle went. Make sure to let the wine aerate a bit before imbibing!

Enjoy this wine alongside dishes with bright flavors and fresh textures: fish tacos, oysters, salads, and grilled foods are all perfect partners.  

The grapes for this wine come from the Norgard Vineyard, which was planted in 1980 and is set up with a quadrilateral cordon system that was popular at that time. It is one of the few vineyards in the area that we source from that is irrigated. The vineyard is situated on a northwest slope on the east side of the Ukiah Valley. It is conventionally farmed and is going to be farmed for us with only organic approved products as of 2021. The berries on the cluster are very small, which produce intense flavors.  

To make a Chenin Blanc in the style we’re after, you need to focus on three things: fermentation, plenty of acid, and no oxidation or oxidized aromas. Everybody says they pick their grapes at the perfect time. To us, that means picking as soon as the fruit has a hint of ripe flavor, which in this case was at about 19 brix.  We also wanted to protect the wine from oxygen enough so it did not create the “forward” aromas of wet wool or linalool. We pressed the grapes whole-cluster as soon as they got into the winery and avoided skin contact. We pressed to a small tank, added 15ppm sulfur and settled at cellar temperature for 24 hours. After this period, we racked the juice with the light lees to another tank and warmed it up to initiate fermentation naturally. Once the fermentation started, we transferred the juice to two concrete eggs and two used demi-muids and a used puncheon for fermentation. We refrained from adding anything further except a small amount of sulfur in the months near the bottling date. We did not fine or filter this wine. 

This wine will continue to age very well for the next several years if kept at a consistent cool temperature. The cork we chose allows the wine to age without “breathing.”   

ABV: 12.16% | TA: 5.82 g/L | pH: 3.21 | VA: 0.48 g/L | DCO2: 890 ppm 

Total SO2: 39 ppm | RS: 0.53 g/L | Turbidity at bottling: 8 NTU