North America | California | Precedent | Riesling Wirz Vineyard

Riesling Wirz Vineyard

VARIETALS
Riesling

NOTES

VINEYARD: Wirz Vineyard. Farmed by Pat Wirz, this old-vine, dry-farmed vineyard was planted in 1965 on its own roots. It's located at about 1000' in the Gabilan Mountains about twenty miles north of the Pinnacles National Monument in the Cienega Valley AVA (San Benito County). The rocky, nutrient poor soil forces the roots to grow deep in search of water and minerals. These old vines ripen late due to the alpine-like climate, with warm sunny days and very cool evenings, and are extremely low-yielding, around 1 ton/acre annually.

VINIFICATION: Whole clusters were added directly to the press with no crushing or de-stemming, settled overnight and then transferred to older French barrels for indigenous fermentation, which takes just over 2 months to complete. This is followed by natural malolactic fermentation, for a total 18 months in oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with tiny quantities of sulfur.