2016 Napa Valley Essence, Sauvignon Blanc
Only the best blocks that express the true nature—the essence—of Sauvignon Blanc are used for this limited-production wine.
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The Wine
Using naturally occurring yeasts found on the grapes, we fermented the juice in 1,500-gallon French oak casks that were temperature-controlled for a cool fermentation to retain all of the grapes’ delicate aromas. We selected the best lots of the vintage and then aged the wine nine months in the same large oak casks. Aging in large casks adds another layer of complexity and texture while highlighting the wonderful aromatics of tropical guava, lime zest and rose petals. The full mouthfeel, mouth-watering acidity and persistent nish make it the ideal wine with a goat cheese salad, smoked salmon mousse, saute´ed mussels in lemon-wine sauce or by itself as an aperitif.
Vintage
The string of near perfect vintages continued for the fifth year in 2016, with an early bud break and flowering, followed by sunny days and relatively mild temperatures throughout the growing season. We were able to have almost all of our grapes safely in the cellar before the valley’s first significant fall rainstorm arrived on October 14th.
Vineyard
Only the best blocks that express the true nature—the essence—of our Sauvignon Blanc are used for this limited production wine. The grapes come primarily from our chilly American Canyon vineyard, supplemented by grapes from our Carneros vineyard, where the cool climate and thin soils limit vigor, producing fewer grapes but more intense avor. We hand-harvested the grapes at night into small bins so they arrived at the winery cool and intact, preserving their wonderful avors and bright acidity.