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Wine Details
Price:
$35.00 per bottle
Description:
We had the unique opportunity to pick some naturally Botrytised Sauvignon Blanc fruit in late November of 2002, the day after Thanksgiving to be exact. This is a miracle wine to be sure! Botrytised grapes are not exactly pretty. The plump green berries are shriveled; turn a purple-brown to almost grey-black and enrobed in little hairy mold spores of Botrytis Cinerea, or noble rot, all over them. With the help of Jeff Sowells, a consulting winemaker who specializes in late harvest wines, we braved the cold temperatures dressed in jackets, scarves and hats to selectively pick the right bunches to make this style of wine. Jeff had to teach our Mexican crew how to identify the type of clusters we wanted. It took nine of us all day to go through my neighbor’s vineyard to come up with only a ton and a half of fruit! Talk about labor intensive, this is it! The sugar was so high, 37 degree brix in this case. Once the dark gray juices started to flow from the press, we were able to taste the rich, viscous texture of the beginnings of this wine.
The wine was fermented with Priese de Mousse yeast and aged in a neutral French oak barrel for 18 month, racking the wine monthly to extract the rich, golden nectar off its sediment. Jeff was able to find some Botrytised Semillon to use in the blend, 10% was added to enhance a perfumed flower petal essence in the aromas.
This wine is nectar from the gods! It has a brilliant golden color. The aromas are of honey and pungent dried apricots, with pineapple, cinnamon spice and butterscotch flavors added to the apricot on the palate. It is enlivened by refreshing mouthwatering acidity, structure and balance, a residual sugar of 12g/100ml and an alcohol volume of 14.5%. The wine was bottled on March 26, 2004. The right condition for this phenomenon to happen naturally does not occur every year. This is truly a labor of love, an intriguing and sexy wine and an elegant way to end a meal.
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Varietal Definition
Sauvignon Blanc:
Sauvignon Blanc is widely grown in California — at over 15,000 acres, it’s now the third most planted variety — and often assumes the moniker ‘Fume Blanc’. This popular synonym, credited to Napa’s Robert Mondavi, derives from the grape’s historic home of Pouilly in France’s Upper Loire Valley, where Sauvignon Blanc is the dominant varietal and goes locally by the name of ‘Blanc Fumé’. When treated with respect and afforded suitable growing conditions, Sauvignon Blanc is one of the wine world’s darlings. Steely, racy acidity, green, gooseberry fruit, asparagus and a grassy, herbaceous character characterize dry wines made from this grape.
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