Whenever we make a wine, one of the main things we consider is how can we make it super sexy. Sexy to us means: full of intrigue, bone dry, lightly textured and mineral. Most Trousseau Gris is made with skin contact, but we knew that for the type of wine we wanted to make, it had to be direct to press. Trousseau Gris is a low acid and high pH variety; skin contact would further raise the pH and make the wine blocky, salty and not sexy.
The 2022 vintage was quite bountiful at this vineyard with a crop similar to that of 2021. We learn so much from making this wine and it sets the tone for the coming harvest because it is one of the first lots that we pick. We know to grab the fruit a as soon as the berries start to soften. Picking grapes early doesn’t always make a better wine, but in this case, the freshness and nerve that we seek is lost once the grapes get to about 20 brix. Our target is about 18-19 brix. We pick this grape before the pH goes up and it gives us a wine with firm acidity, minerality, and a purity of fruit.
We settled the juice for 24 hours before we racked to another tank for fermentation. Once fermentation started natively, we transferred the juice to two 700L concrete eggs and three neutral 600L demi muids for fermentation which lasted about two weeks. The wine was aged for 10 months on its lees. 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. The wine may throw a haze or may have a deposit, but this is nothing to be worried about; instead rejoice in the natural beauty!
Production: 290 cases | ABV: 10.7% | TA: 6.9 g/L | pH: 3.21 | VA: 0.55 g/L | DCO2: 1174 ppm | Total SO2: 42ppm | RS: 0.9 g/L | MALIC: 0 g/L | Turbidity at bottling: 3.7 NTU
Download a technical data sheet here.
