2017 Yellow Bird Vineyard Grenache
Tasting notes
Beautiful aromatics of rose water, spring flowers, and garrigue. A plush mid-palate is loaded with black cherries, kirsch, and raspberries and is complimented nicely with an earthy minerality. Natural acidity and ultra-fine tannins result in a juicy and long finish. This wine can be enjoyed now, but if you have the patience will benefit from cellaring and should evolve nicely for at least ten years from release.
The fruit was harvested and sorted by hand on October 14, 2017. A three-day cold soak was employed prior to primary fermentation. Approximately 50% of the fruit was left as whole-cluster. During fermentation only yeast hulls and oxygen were used to aid fermentation - no commercial yeast or chemicals. Primary fermentation lasted approximately fourteen days, while the wine stayed on skins for a total of twenty-eight days including an extended maceration. During fermentation, manual punch downs were performed three times per day with a rack-and-return performed as necessary to aid fermentation. Secondary fermentation was also feral, the lees were stirred every few days, and ultimately, the wine was never racked and remained on lees. The wine was aged for seventeen months in neutral French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered in February 2019. No chemicals, enzymes, adjuncts or other nonsense has been added to this wine
| Download Wine Notes |
| Vintage | 2017 |
| Varietal Composition | 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah |
| Appellation | Walla Walla Valley |
| Vineyard | Yellow Bird |
| PH | 3.85 |
| Aging | 17 Months Neutral French Oak |
| Alcohol | 14.70% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Cases Produced | 90 |
High atop the foothills of the Blue Mountains sits Yellow Bird Vineyard. Owned by the Chan family and farmed by the venerable Kenny Hart, the vineyard is dry farmed and uses sustainable farming practices. Deep Loess soil with excellent drainage. The Grenache we use, Tablas Creek clone sits at 1,450 feet in elevation. The high elevation and naturally struggling vines produce fruit with great depth and concentration. The struggling vines and ultra-low yields are unfortunate from a commercial producer’s standpoint but perfectly beautiful from ours. This higher elevation site has warm nights that ripen the heat dependent Grenache, but also have cool nights that help maintain natural acidity resulting in an elegant and well-balanced Grenache.
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2018
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