A semi-sweet new release!

Vineyard Notes: Outside of France’s Loire Valley, the Clarksburg AVA is one of the only locations where the Chenin Blanc grape shows true varietal character. These vineyards thrive in the Sacramento delta’s long hot summer days, nicely moderated by the surrounding mass of water, cool breezes from San Pablo Bay, and regular morning fogs, producing fruit that is consistently brightly acidic as well as full of fruit & mineral characteristics. The Wilson’s are 3rd generation farmers in Clarksburg, originally supplying sugar beets to the old sugar mill. They started planting grapes in the 1970s. Wilson Vineyard’s Block 44 is on Babel Slough Rd. & the grapes were planted in 1994.

Cellar Notes: Since Chenin Blanc is often made as a late harvest wine in its home, the Loire valley, we decided to try our hand at this style here in the delta! We let the fruit hang on the vine until late November, allowing the grapes to begin raisining & hoping to have some Botrytis cinerea affect some bunches. At harvest, the sugars were quite high & perhaps 5-10% of the crop was affected by noble rot, but the acid had dropped quite a bit. We destemmed the grapes & pressed the juice to tank, allowing for 5 days of cold settling. The juice was then racked into our terracotta amphora & barrels for fermentation. We began the process to stop fermentation at approximately 5 brix, though some conversion continued through the winter. The wine was racked & bottled in July 2021.

Tasting Notes: The ripeness of the fruit in this wine leads to very tropical aromas - pineapple, lychee, banana - as well as ripe pear, honeysuckle & a honeyed note from the botrytis. In the mouth it is weighty & dense, with bold fruits & good acid. There is noticeable residual sugar, but it is not overwhelming. The finish is long & luscious.