2017 Domenica Amato Estate Grenache

Vineyard: Our estate vineyard in Dry Creek Valley,known as “the Vinegrove,”features several different blocks with unique exposures and soil types. The main “swale”in the center was recently field graftedto Grenache on the nearly 30-year old rootstock planted in very fine Laughlin loam.Isolated up in the hills, it is a few degrees cooler than the valley floor, allowing forbalance and elegance in our expression of Grenache.

Vintage: The first winter with big rains in half a decade allowed soils to store up plenty of water –this helped with a healthy take for the freshly grafted vines that pushed their first Grenache buds in May. A scorching hot summer with over a dozen 100-degree days helped to speed ripening so that we were able to produce a smallamount of wine from this first leaf. The wine country wildfires interfered just as we were preparing to harvest, but luckily the prevailing winds carried the smoke away from our estate throughout the ordeal, and we were able to pick on October 21st.

Winemaking: Harvested by hand and fully de-stemmed into an open top tank, where after a three-daycold soak, fermentation began spontaneously with wild yeast. The must was punched down manually once or twice per day and the pace was brisk despite moderate temperatures of 78-85 degrees during the peak of fermentation. The wine was pressed after less than 2 weeks on the skins and racked into French oak -one new barrique, one neutral puncheon and oneneutral barrique. The wine spent eleven months in barrel before it was racked and bottledunfined and unfiltered.