AROMA: white peach, tangerine oil, wet stone
FLAVOR: pickled strawberry, chervil, saffron
FOOD PAIRINGS: paella, salmon crudo, fried chicken
VINIFICATION: 1.74 tons of Pinot Noir (82%) and .37 tons (18%) of Chardonnay hand-harvested on Sept 25. The fruit was gently crushed and sent direct-to-press. Co-fermented on wild yeasts in neutral French oak barrels, completing a long, slow malolactic fermentation. Racked to steel for a 1-month settling before bottling.
SITE: At less than a quarter square mile, the Cole Ranch AVA is the smallest appellation in the United States. The AVA is located between the Russian River and Anderson Valley at elevations ranging from 1400-1600 feet. Surround by forested hills, it is unique for its terrarium-like setting and cool climate / late ripening relative to neighboring Ukiah. This 55-acre vineyard was originally planted in 1971 by John Cole, but is now under the management of Mike Lucia and Jill Shadek who are practicing organic without any herbicides or pesticides.
NOTES: Last year we found a permanent home for Ojo! A few years ago, our Healdsburg friends Mike and Jill Lucia put the resources together to purchase America's Smallest AVA, The Cole Ranch. As soon as the ink was dry on their land deed we were blowing them up about buying some fruit out there. On our first visit to the vineyard we were delighted to learn there was some Pinot and Chardonnay, and that our friends would make some available to LIOCO. The 2022 Ojo de Perdiz Rosé affirmed what we suspected—that this organically farmed ranch in the hills between the Russian River and the Anderson Valley would be a perfect terroir for making serious co-fermented Rosé. In 2023, we tweaked the cepage a bit and backed down on the Chardonnay component. The resulting wine still delivers that eponymous partridge eye color, but with perhaps more red-fruit notes. The nervy spine of acidity comes from the white fruit which came off at a razor sharp 19 degrees brix. The slow elevage in old wood brings it all together and gives us a wine with a myriad food pairing possibilities. This is a GO-TO selection for one course at every LIOCO winemaker dinner.
