2021 Blue Mountain Vineyard Grenache
Tasting notes
Aromatics of rose water, garrigue, cinnamon, and orange peel. Notes of red fruits, kirsch, bergamot, briary herbs, and cured meats. There’s an iron-like minerality running through the mid-palate. Even with a very warm vintage, this is a fresh and elegant style of Grenache that evades being over-extracted and syrupy, with juicy acidity and a lively finish that lingers a while. This wine can be enjoyed now, but if you have the patience it will benefit from cellaring and should evolve nicely up to ten years or more.
The fruit was harvested and sorted by hand on October 2, 2021. A three-day cold soak was employed prior to primary fermentation. 2021 was a hot year and we didn’t get the hang time we usually do. Although the fruit ripened nicely, we decided on no whole cluster fermentation. During fermentation only yeast hulls and oxygen were used to aid fermentation - no commercial yeast or chemicals. Primary fermentation lasted approximately twelve days, while the wine stayed on skins for a total of thirty days including an extended maceration. During fermentation, manual punch downs were performed three times per day with a rackand-return performed as necessary to aid fermentation. Secondary fermentation was also natural, the lees were stirred every few days, and ultimately, the wine was never racked and remained on lees. The wine was aged for ten months in neutral French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered in September 2022. No chemicals, enzymes, adjuncts or other nonsense has been added to this wine.
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Varietal Composition | 90% Grenache co-fermented with 10% Syrah |
| Appellation | Walla Walla Valley |
| Vineyard | Blue Mountain Vineyard |
| PH | 3.67 |
| Aging | 10 Months Neutral French Oak |
| Alcohol | 14.70% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Cases Produced | 140 |
Blue Mountain Vineyard is in the foothills of the Blue Mountains on the Eastern side of the Walla Walla Valley AVA and sits at 1,200 feet elevation. The vineyard uses Old English Southdown “Babydoll” Sheep to provide an environmentally friendly way of maintaining vineyard groundcover and soil fertility. The soil is silt loam (loess) with excellent drainage. Exceptional airflow, ever-changing sun exposure, and moderate amounts of rain make this an ideal growing location.
