Tasting Notes: Strawberry, lavender honey, ras el hanout
THE STORY: The Grenache Gris is a wine and grape that amazes us every vintage. This year it’s a beautiful deep amaranth with a quenchable, farmstand fruit palate. The color and even the body vary greatly year-to-year depending on how the canopy develops over the growing season and how we fermented it. This year we explored different fermentation styles and vessels. For some of the Grenache Gris, we layered it into a concrete tank to undergo carbonic maceration for nearly two weeks. The remaining grapes saw a traditional footstomp and three-day maceration before pressing it all together. We divided fermentation and aging into some concrete tank and the rest in two of our sandstone jarres. The result is a wine that has the acid and buoyancy of a rosé, with a backbone of a light red wine.
The Grenache Gris hails from Gibson Ranch, in McDowell Valley just inland of the town of Hopland in Mendocino County, where most of their Grenache vines are more than 110-years-old. Their age really shows as the grape skins can vary widely in color depending on the year and harvest from sun-soaked pale to darker tones closer to Grenache Noir.
FUN FACT: Vines at Gibson Ranch are more tree-like, stretching over six feet tall.
VARIETIES: 100% Grenache Gris
LOCATION: Gibson Ranch - McDowell Valley AVA
FARMING PRACTICES: Organically grown grapes
ALCOHOL: 12.5%
