2021 Sandy Lane Carignane

Nose of cherry, black raspberry, black tea and tobacco leaf. Medium-bodied with soft tannins, boysenberry, blackberry and savory notes of white pepper and forest floor. SR (1/23)

Planted in the 1890’s, the Sandy Lane vineyard is head-trained, dry farmed, and grown in pure sand. Incredibly, the vines are own-rooted, that is, they are not grafted on a resistant rootstock as are virtually all wine grape vines in the world. Daily afternoon winds cool the vines and preserve their balanced acidity. This excellent old-vine carignane can be enjoyed now and will continue to develop over the next six years. SR (1/23)

Ridge has a long history producing wine from this Spanish grape variety. This is our first vintage of carignane from Sandy Lane, located in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco. These 130-plus-year-old vines are grown in deep, sandy soil on the bank of the Sacramento River. They are own-rooted, head-trained and dry-farmed, which is a viticultural anomaly, as most vines throughout the world are grafted onto resistant rootstock. The sandy soil protected these vines from phylloxera, creating an uninhabitable environment for the root louse.

Rainfall: 5 inches (below normal)
Bloom: Early May
Weather: The summer was hot and dry with windy afternoons.

Harvest Date: 18 August
Grapes: Average Brix x.x˚
TA: 6.36 g/L
pH: 3.69
Fermentation: 100% natural primary and secondary fermentation; 100% submerged cap; pressed at nine days.
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (9% new,11% one year old, 50% four years old, and 30% five+ years old).
Aging: Fourteen months in barrel

Sandy Lane grapes, hand-harvested; de-stemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur (35ppm at crush, 131ppm during aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.