Our
old vine Carignane is harvested from the low-yielding 120+ year old vines,
grown in the Evangelho Vineyard located in Contra Costa County and planted in
1890.
This
Evangelho grown fruit was the last harvested from the Evangelho vineyard in
2011. This last harvest assures us the ripest possible conditions from the
choicest sweet spot in this amazing vineyard. We traveled to the vineyard, the
morning of September 28th and returned with 8 full bins of amazing Carignane
clusters.
That
same afternoon, we crushed the fruit and then cold-soaked the must for 7 days
before the natural yeast took hold. The wine slowly fermented and was pressed
to a combination of mostly new French and Hungarian barrels.
After
22 months in fine oak barrels, and a total of three rackings, we proudly
hand-bottled this wine unfined and unfiltered. The bottling of 238 cases took
place the 3rd week of July, 2013. In addition to the standard 750ml bottles, we
bottled five 3 liter double magnums.
The
resulting wine from this heirloom varietal, grow is loaded with bursting fruit, very balanced acid and refined oak
aging. Today, this wine is drinking beautifully, and should drink well for many
years to come - depending on storage.
Back
in Arroyo Grande at our estate vineyard, 2011 was the last of three very
challenging years for our estate vineyard. As a result we could not produce our
Estate Zinfandel or our Estate Petite Sirah. In 2011, this Old Vine Carignane
and a small batch release of Old Vine Carignane Dessert Wine was all we produced.
Harvest:
Sept. 28, 2011
Bottled:
July 20-25, 2013
Production:
238 cases
Alcohol:
15.8
pH:
3.31
TA:
.83
"Toucan
Symphony" by Laurel Sherrie