2019 Vintage: New Wines Who 'Dis?
Our 2019s are here and we are excited to share
This year brought new varieties and new vineyards into our world, so let us take a minute to take you through it all.
2019 California Rosé
It might be a bit much to say that this wine is the radiant joy of springtime in a glass but, hey, that’s how we feel. This year’s rosé is a roughly 60/40 blend of saignée from our Valdiguié and Carignan, respectively, with a gentle kiss of Barbera for some added brightness.
The nose is friendly and inviting, with distinct notes of watermelon Jolly ancher and Bing cherries, with a floral backbone to keep it all in balance. The acid is bright and mouth-watering, the perfect pairing to a sunny day in the garden.
2019 Mendocino Arneis
If you haven’t yet forayed into the world of savory white wines, please allow us to be your shepherd. This wine was harvested from two different clones, planted on the loamy banks of the Russian River, in the heart of the Mendocino AVA.
Fermented in a bodacious, 500-L puncheon and kept on lees until just before bottling, this wine is layered with rich roasted fennel and green fig, along with hints of tangerine and fresh sage. The palate has both weight and persistent texture, making it a great companion to a Spanish tortilla or homemade mac-’n-cheese.
2019 Borden Ranch Verdelho
Hailing from a new vineyard source for the 2019 rendition of this wine, our Verdelho grapes come from the Borden Ranch appellation of Lodi. Grown on gravelly, Redding-clay-loam soils in a CCOF certified vineyard, this wine is a reflection of the intensity of the climate from which it hails.
A white wine to be taken seriously, this bottling has heaps of minerality and golden, tropical fruit. The nose is sunny and bright like a warm summer morning, with lifted notes of lemon peel, caramelized pineapple, wet stone, and brioche. The palate is densely textured, with a chalky minerality and racy acidity. The wine will readily stand the test of time with some cellaring, if you’re into that sort of thing.
2019 Mendocino Carignan
Our 2019 Carignan also comes from a new vineyard this year, just outside of the town of Hopland in the Mendocino AVA. With mixed plantings from 1906 and 1946, these old, head-trained vines have been dry farmed all their lives, and are thus perfectly suited to thrive in the dry heat of the Mendocino summers.
This wine was lovingly hand-picked by a motley crew consisting of our Birdhorse team and some of our hooligan friends. It was fermented with 25% whole cluster and pressed off to neutral oak barrels after 15 days. It is a wine of contradictions. The nose evokes dense, ripe fruit with layers of fresh, dark, brambly fruit. The palate, however, is incredibly lean and fresh, with slightly stemmy tannin and bright acidity, evoking red plums and cranberries. This wine is ideal with a slight chill, and paired with a backyard barbecue.
2019 Suisun Valley Valdiguié
This plush, crushable wine will be familiar to those who were with us last year, and delightful for all who quaff it this year. These grapes come to us from the Suisun Valley, just east of the Vaca Mountains from Napa Valley. The vineyard is organically farmed with 40-year-old vines, which survived the great supplanting of Valdiguié with Cabernet back in the 1980s.
For this wine, we indulged our experimental side. Two-thirds of the grapes were fermented, with 50% whole clusters, and pressed off to neutral oak. The final one-third, we sealed up in a fully-anaerobic fermentation vessel (i.e., a giant food grade plastic-bag) and left alone for two weeks. This was then pressed off and blended with the rest, yielding a remarkably complex wine, with elements of bright, red flowers, luxardo cherry and fresh black raspberry. The low tannin and juicy mouthfeel make this nuanced but friendly wine perfect for a late-night chicken shawarma or a Moroccan tagine.