AROMA: key lime, shortbread, lemongrass
FLAVOR: quince, rock salt, pomelo
FOOD PAIRINGS: creamy hummus + grilled pita, mojo de ajo shrimp, herbed chèvre + seeded cracker
VINIFICATION: 1.6 T Sauvignon Blanc, .6 T Sémillon, and .4 T Chardonnay hand-harvested on Sept.12. All three varieties went directly to press without any sulfur additions, and were co-fermented on wild yeasts in neutral French oak. Post-malo, the wine was racked to stainless steel to settle for one month. Cross-flow filtered before bottling.
SITE: This historic Prohibition-era ranch boasts some of the oldest known Vitis vinifera plantings in California. The Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon vines were planted in 1942, and the Wente Chardonnay in the early 70s. Vines are head-trained and dry-farmed organically, on red clay soils strewn with fist-sized rocks at 800-900ft. elevation. Extreme diurnal shift necessitates longer hang times (and a steady temperament). Vineyard is overseen by husband/wife duo Denise and Athan Poulos.
NOTES: Blending Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon has been done for hundreds of years in Bordeaux, France. And crisp Loire wines from Cheverny have similarly married Sauvignon Blanc with Chardonnay for centuries. But what about a blend of all three varieties? And what if we co-fermented them? This was the question we pondered for a few years while kicking stones around Lolonis Ranch. We were already knocked out by the 1942 Sauvignon Blanc, which we've been bottling since 2016. In 2018, the idea got wings, resulting in our first bottling of Old Vine White. Textural yet taut, the wine reminded us of some European super-blends. In 2019, we adjusted our take from the vineyard and leaned harder into the SB with the hopes of adding more focus to the softer, golden elements contributed by the Sémillon and Chardonnay. The resulting wine, fermented on native yeasts in six neutral oak barrels, delivered exactly that, and is a step-up from the maiden voyage in its precision, complexity, and mouth-watering snap.
