VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
What started as a dry winter turned into a deluge of rain in the springtime. We had the wettest and coldest April/May/June in recorded (130 years) history. Freezing temperatures on the morning of April 14th and 15th knocked back the fragile new growth, in fact, until crop estimates were done in late August, we thought our crop yields would be down across the board by 50-60%. Anticipating a "worst case scenario", our winemaker, Robin, worked to source fruit from our neighboring Columbia Valley. As the growing season progressed we learned not to second guess a grapevine. In over 51 years of growing grapes here in the Dundee Hills we have never seen a freezing event during the growing season, so we had no idea what was going to happen. The primary buds froze and died, but the secondary buds came on, produced fewer but larger clusters, and the vines made a miraculous comeback. Having been able to source such high quality fruit, Robin continued on with making wine from the Columbia Valley grapes and as a result we have this beautiful GSM. Cheers!

WINEMAKING
The fruit for this wine was hand harvested in the first week of October. The grapes were sorted to remove flawed fruit, and then put into 3-ton stainless steel tanks for fermentation. Fermentation took place using commercial yeast with strictly pump-overs for cap management After fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels for 10 months. The three components of this blend were blended in spring of 2023 then returned to barrel for further harmonization for an additional 3 months. This wine was bottled young after only 10 months of aging to capture the rich fruit components but it is built for long term aging in the bottle.

WINE PROFILE
On the nose there is dark cherry and dark currant with a hint of clove and white pepper. The palate is medium bodied with lovely richness from the dark fruit characteristics, earthiness, a hint of gameyness, followed by a spiced finish of cinnamon, clove and white pepper.

PAIRINGS
Pair with sauteed mushrooms in a teriyaki glaze, grilled ribeye steak, grilled Korean beef bulgogi, and medium sharp cheddar.