{ 2020 Red Experiment N5.0 }

Seeking an external frame of reference to reshape ideas and inspire new ones, we purchased a small amount of fruit from a neighboring vineyard. Working with our colleague, we learned the why and how of their site and studied everything from the soil and rootstock to row orientation and trellis setup. Their different approach allowed us to learn and improve upon what we do here at the estate.

For 2020, we focused our Neighbor Experiment around the influence of afternoon temperature and the subtle difference between the east and west sides of Napa Valley. To fully explore this difference, we worked with two different vineyards on the west side to make one wine blended from the two sites. Our interest was in understanding how the expression of the wine differs from what we have at the OVID estate and how that might influence our choices around farming practices that impact the fruit zone environment.

The result of this exploration is a wine with great richness, color and depth. We found the slightly cooler afternoons of the west side to be important in steering the fruit’s expression and secondary aromas. Notes of forest floor, pine bow, and blue and black fruit exude from the glass – a juxtaposition to our estate expressions. These distinct and delicious differences will give us plenty of food for thought as we consider our approach to canopy management, leaf removal (or not) and how we might use shoot laterals to our advantage.