Unfamiliar Truth

Winemaker’s Tasting Notes

I am loving this wine, yes, it is a departure from the more heady, richer “Unfamiliar Truths” of past vintages. But it is a beautiful floral and vibrantly aromatic Grenache. It truly jumps out of the glass like a rhubarb and coriander pie, if there ever was such a dessert. It is richer on the palate than the tranluscent ruby color suggests; with raspberry, blood orange, roasted strawberry, white pepper embraced in a silky coat. The finish of red fruits and baking spices just keeps going and going.

Drink Now-2030

Winegrowing Approach

Grenache is both challenging and rewarding because the resulting wine is so transparent to each winemaking and vineyard decision. This Portico Hills, is a wonderful, cool Grenache site. We whole-cluster fermented these grapes, which complements the structure, flavor, and aromas. To optimize color extraction, we chilled the juice and skins for 18 days before starting fermentation, which we allowed to progress with its naturally occurring yeast. For further extraction, during fermentation we applied punch-down, pump-over, and rack-and-return techniques.  After fermentation, we blended the "free run” and press wine into a mix of brand new and neutral large puncheon barrels (2.5 x the size of a normal barrel). We continued to stir the lees weekly during malolactic fermentation.  18 months later we carefully bottled this beautiful Grenache.