Growing Conditions
The 2020 season was amazing. If you could reproduce the weather conditions of this season every year you would. Regular winter rainfall and a cool spring encouraged canopy growth but kept cropping levels low. Summer was very dry but stayed relatively cool resulting in healthy vines with no disease or water stress. There was a slow progression into autumn with a long ripening period where the fruit reached optimum ripeness in perfect harvest conditions.
Harvest
The fruit for this wine was hand harvested and whole bunch pressed, allowing clean and intensely flavored juice to be pressed from the grape.
Bottling
It was bottled without fining and only a light filtration and a hit of sulfur.
Winemaking
The juice was fermented in French oak barriques, with a combination of indigenous and cultured yeast, followed by extended barrel ageing on yeast lees. The lees were stirred up in cask for the first few weeks and then the wine was left to age gracefully.
Aging
After 15 months aging on lees, the wine was racked to tank for bottling.
Nose
Intense and complex, this wine displays aromas of peaches, mandarin peel, and lemon tart, integrated with brioche and crème brulée aromas from the French oak influence.
Palate
Ripe and intense stone fruit flavors of peach and dried apricot complimented by hints of roasted hazelnut. A tight and linear palate with underlying minerality concludes with seamless length.
Appearance
Rich straw gold.
Food Pairing
Crab cakes beckon for this wine. Not in the mood for seafood but looking for something from the water, a simple trout amandine would be divine. Roasted Japanese sweet potatoes with a simple Spring greens salad or to add some chicken into the mix check out the Zuni Cafe roast chicken recipe.