2023 Clairette Blanche
Nolan Ranch Vineyard
Alisos Canyon AVA
Santa Barbara County
The "Love Letters" Issue
Alc. 11.5% by vol.
The Vintage:
Before the official vintage began, we had a solid amount of rain that started at the end of 2022 and all throughout the Spring of 2023. This gave way to a chilly Spring and slower/ longer growing season. This is more in line of the typical growing season prior to 2012, which was the start of many drought years leading up to 2023. Once the temperate heat and plenty of sun was upon us for summer, by mid fall the grapes were ready for the picking. Clairette was picked October 19th, which was two weeks later than the 2022 vintage.
The Process:
The grapes were hand harvested at night and brought to the winery in the early morning. We dump the fruit into the bladder press and run the press cycle for 3 hours. The pressed juice is pumped directly to a steel tank and settles for one day. It is racked to neutral French oak barrels for fermentation. We let the juice naturally ferment over the course of 5-6 weeks. Around the three week mark, we consolidate the barrels and fill them up completely. From here we top every two weeks and let the wine evolve. The wine is then racked super clean to tank on May 13th, then bottled unfined and unfiltered on May 14th. We added minimal SO2 during barrel aging and just before bottling to lock in the freshness.
The Wine:
Dried white flowers, Lime-y pith with zippy bite, Prickly,
Additional Notes:
61 cases made
Hyper Minimal Intervention winemaking (pressed grapes, spontaneous ferment, neutral barrel ferment and aging, very small amounts of sulfur, & bottled) thats it, nothing else
About The Label:
While bottling one day, I noticed the wine cases stacked in this funny pattern. I thought, "Wow, this kind of looks like the Q*bert game from back in the day." So I Started with that idea, but as the design progressed, the pattern also had wooden children blocks style to them. Right away it reminded me of the only Pro Skateboarder that I share a birthday with, Jeff Grosso. One of his first Pro skateboards from the 80's was a cartoon doll playing with wood blocks that had his name on them. So that transitioned Q*bert to the kids block style and having the Clairette name sake on. Also there's a little heart on the blocks, which the doll on the Grosso board has as well. I've always been stoked on Grosso's skating, as well as a show he made on YouTube titled "Love Letters to Skateboarding". So when trying to come up with an issue name, made sense to give it the same name as Youtube show as a nod to both Grosso and skateboarding.