North America | California | Birichino | Carignane Montague Vineyard

Carignane Montague Vineyard

VARIETALS
Carignane

NOTES

VINEYARD: Matt Shinn, who tends this very old vineyard planted in the late 1920s, wed a very charming woman from the Bechthold Family - Bechthold as in the celebrated Bechthold Vineyard around the corner. She described their union as a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story. In as much as this very old site never enjoyed a formal name, Alex and John suggested that a likely candidate had just presented itself, and thus we present the first wine from this plot bearing the name Montague Vineyard.
The vines themselves are impressive, and not just because morning glories weave their way in and out of the canopy. They are large, and produce quite large clusters and vividly scented wine.

VINIFICATION: Fermented with some stems and without inoculation, aging in neutral barrels, and bottling in the summer without filtration.
14cs for MA

TASTING NOTES: The vines easily shrugged off the blistering heat of late August and early September, choosing to enter a period of absolute stasis for three weeks, before starting up the photosynthetic engine again towards a harvest on September 28. Layered and complex.