2017 Grenache

We use most of our Grenache in our Esprit de Tablas and Côtes de Tablas blends each year. However, we feel that this is a grape whose bright fruit, spice and acidity lends itself well to bottling as a single-varietal wine as well. Grenache seems to improve more dramatically with vine age than any other grape we grow, and although we didn't produce our first single-varietal Grenache bottling until 2006, we have made one most years since.

The grapes for our 2017 Grenache were grown on our certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.

The 2017 vintage saw our drought end with a bang, as we received 43 inches of rain and saw our rainiest month ever in January. The wet soils delayed budbreak to a normal time frame, and produced such a healthy vineyard that we saw canopy sizes and cane lengths we hadn’t seen in years. The summer began relatively cool, but was punctuated by two heat spikes, one in early July and the other in late August, that accelerated ripening and produced intense flavors. The resulting vintage shows the health of the vines with a combination of concentration and freshness, with bright acids framing powerful fruit.

The Grenache grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in closed stainless steel and upright oak tanks. After two weeks, they were pressed and moved to neutral barrels to complete their fermentation. It was bottled April 2019.