2018 Adelaida Viognier

Light gold color; aromas of freshly sliced peaches, white flowers, and baked dessert. Elegant entry, stone fruits, juicy acidity, creamy texture, and sweet toasty oak in a long finish. EB (12/19)

This highly aromatic grape, besides being made as a white wine, is often co-fermented with syrah, accentuating fruit while moderating tannins. Occasionally, we have made a few barrels separately as a white wine from our Lytton Estate. For our first harvest at Adelaida vineyard, our intent was to blend it with the other white grapes, but its superb varietal character convinced us to bottle it on its own. Enjoyable now, this fine wine will be at its best over the next five years.

This is our first bottling of viognier from the Adelaida Vineyard. Paso Robles is the epicenter of new Rhone plantings in California. We are fortunate to be able to source grapes from Adelaida Vineyards, who planted grenache blanc, roussanne, viognier and picpoul blanc, among other more established varieties such as grenache noir, syrah and mourvedre (mataro). Their vineyard lies on the limestone hills of the Adelaida District, thirteen miles from the Pacific coast. Warm days, cool nights, and balanced vines promote great acidity in the grapes.

Rainfall: 20 inches (below normal)
Bloom: Late May
Weather: Spring rains helped the vines get through a warm summer. Fall weather was mild.

Harvest Dates: Day(s) 8 September
Grapes: Average Brix 24.4˚
TA: 5.55 g/L
pH: 3.0
Fermentation: Whole-cluster pressed. Natural primary finished January 2019, and secondary
finished by March 2019.
Barrels: 80% barrel fermented and aged in five-year-old barrels for 4 months; 20% concrete fermented and aged for one final month.
Aging: Six months in barrel

Sustainably farmed, hand-harvested grapes; whole-cluster pressed; fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective SO2. Pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Average Rating: 90.8

No. of Tasting Notes: 7

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