For 2011 we sourced grapes from two established vineyards in Calaveras County. Each has its own personality, and both are tucked way back in those darned hills. The Viognier from Dalton Vineyard tends to lend good balance and distinctive stonefruit characters to a blend. The Dalton Viognier was whole cluster pressed, cold settled and most of it racked to barrels for fermentation. Lees were stirred as fermentation came to an end. Part of the lot was split to ferment in stainless steel to retain the stonefruit characters. Our second Vineyard source hails from the historic Shaw Ranch, in the deep canyon north of Murphys. Cooler nights here bring crisp textures and tropical fruits to the blend. Grapes were pressed and fermented cold on a yeast indigenous to the Rhone Valley. Together, these vineyards truly struggled in 2011 to give us very light yields but top quality, balance and concentration. A late and uncommonly cool summer delayed maturity during the summer months but an almost perfect ‘Indian Summer’ gave us just what the grapes needed to get ripe.
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