North America | California | Camins 2 Dreams | Gruner Veltliner Fiddlestix Vineyard

Gruner Veltliner Fiddlestix Vineyard

VARIETAL
Grüner Veltliner

NOTES

VINEYARD: Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills, known for its cool climate and marine-influenced soils, makes it ideal for cultivating cool-climate varietals like grüner veltliner. The vineyard’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean (10 miles away) ensures morning fog and afternoon breezes, contributing to the grapes’ balanced ripening process. The vineyard is located in a narrow slot of the cool climate Santa Rita Hills AVA; on the north side of this tight east-west running valley, fog hangs over the vines until mid-morning, the temperature barely rises above 75º, and the coastal breeze blows through the Santa Rita Hills, ensuring cool grapes throughout a lengthy day of sunshine. Soil is Gazos and Botella clay loam, loaded with chirt and Monterey shale.

FARMING: Biodynamic, Organic, Regenerative Organic

VINIFICATION: Harvested in two stages, two weeks apart, to highlight the grape’s natural chemistry and subtle complexities. The fermentations start pied a cuve, using indigenous yeasts present on the fruit from individual sites. Foot-stomped, 5 hours of skin contact and pressed. They use sunlight to get fermentations going, rolling their square fermenters out of the small cellar and into the warm courtyard behind the building. The fermenters vary in size from a tiny half-ton capacity vessel, to a (still tiny) 1.5 ton cube. All the fruit passes over a sorting table. Tara also tries to presort during the harvest, removing blemished or unripe clusters, and stray vegetation. Some of the fruit is fermented whole-cluster. There’s no set recipe. The couple only add small amounts of SO2 to their wines at bottling. They scrupulously steam clean all the winery’s small collection of neutral oak barrels, to avoid any contamination or off flavors. The meticulously clean workspace they inhabit speaks to an understanding of what is necessary to make natural, low-intervention wines without flaws. Aged 10 months in a combination of 75% neutral French oak and 25% stainless steel, achieving a balanced expression of texture and freshness. Bottled unfined, unfiltered.