2019

{ White Experiment W6.9 }

Tasting Note

. . .
2019 White Experiment W6.9 wine label

{ Background and Aims }

In most of the previous vintages of this wine, we allowed a portion of Sauvignon Blanc to have some skin contact prior to fermentation. This adds some texture and heft to the wine and can also provide an interesting foil to fruit that went directly to the press. In 2019, we were intrigued to try pressing all of our Sauvignon Blanc directly. Our expectation was that this would give us the cleanest expression of fruit.


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{ Methodology }

At harvest, all of our fruit went directly to press and was whole cluster pressed. Fermentation was conducted in a variety of different sized barrels. This blend was assembled in January and the primary lees were stirred twice a month for eight months before bottling. We tasted and made notes during fermentation at blending and just before bottling.


{ Conclusion }

The conventional wisdom about whole cluster pressing is that it retains more fruit and that the expression is cleaner. We found this to be true. The 2019 White Experiment is vibrant and fresh with ample fruit. There is a nice linearity and cleanliness on the palate as well. It is exciting to see this technique clearly demonstrated – a useful skill as each vintage and its fruit have different demands. This also opens the door for future experimentation with skin contact for the other varietals.