We are lucky to be able
to source the grapes from the Westerly Vineyard for this wine,
as its poor rocky soils are the perfect antidote to this varietal's
natural vigorous and productive tendencies. Adding to this site's
great potential, we take the farming to an extreme by pruning
the vines to the cordon method, rather than the more productive
cane pruning technique, and leaving only a few single bud spurs
per vine. In late spring we thin out the shoots that are not on
our chosen spurs and end up with an open vine with even shoots
and nicely sun-exposed clusters. This detailed attention to the
vine gives us a ridiculously small crop of grapes, but every year
it is of stellar quality.
In 2003, the flowering
did not go well, so we harvested only half the usual small crop.
The wine fermented to dryness right away (which was not the case
in 2002), and it is zippy with pungent varietal herbal-ness and
acidity. There is a marvelous stony quality to the finish, the
direct result of the poor rocky soil and very low yields. I seek
to showcase the careful work done in the vineyard, so avoided
the use of new oak barrels in the aging of this wine
.This
is the pure unadulterated expression of sauvignon blanc from a
special spot.