After sorting we pressed the grapes and allowed for a 24 hour cold settle before moving the wine via gravity into well used 114l and 228l barrels.  Having two of each size barrel we thought this was a perfect situation to experiment with some bâtonnage. One of each barrel size received light, bi-weekly stirring until we found they had a mouthfeel and aromatic expression that we liked and also differed from the two untouched barrels. Surprisingly it took until the next harvest for the wines in to go fully dry. Up until that point we were worried we had stuck ferments that weren’t going to finish naturally. Once dry we made some blends and ended up using one of each size barrel, one stirred, one not. Bottled via gravity. The other two barrels lay resting, likely for a 2026 spring bottling.

 

We looked at these wines, not just this blend, as a glass half full situation. We worried something would go wrong, and went through many stages of discontent along the way. Then we thought, you never open an oyster or scallop and shrug at it being half empty, you look always forward to the half that is full. The resulting wine, that spent 12 months in barrel shows a bright acidity and luxuriousness, that only time and patience could create. An ever evolving palate of lemon, pears and beeswax transitions into flavors reminiscent of the rocky soils in which the grapes were grown.