Revolution's first natural wine to hit the market!
Vineyard Notes: Gary Gonsalves farms approximately 100 acres of grapes in Contra Costa County, many of them 100+ year old plantings of intermixed Carignane, Cinsault, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Grenache & Alicante Bouschet, among others. Horse Ranch Vineyard lies within the city of Antioch, less than a mile from the famous Evangelho Vineyard & on the same dry sandy soil. Alicante itself is an interesting grape - one of the few teinturier varieties, meaning the flesh of the grape is also red. This gives it an intensity of color that is hard to match.
Cellar Notes: We brought in just 1 ton of this fruit & decided to try a “no intervention” wine with it. The grapes were destemmed to bin, but then no sulphur, yeast or anything else was added until bottling, when we added the appropriate amount of sulphur to keep this as a natural wine. The native fermentation took about 10 days, aided by thrice-daily punchdowns. The wine was pressed to barrel & allowed to rest until November 2019, when it was bottled without filtration.
Tasting Notes: This is an intense wine, but also quite playful. The nose is direct: mulberry, tobacco leaf & black pepper. In the mouth it is weighty, with brambly blackberry fruits & fine tannins.