2021 Aperture Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County

APPELLATION: Sonoma County

VARIETAL: Sauvignon Blanc

BLEND: 97% Sauvignon Blanc. 3% Sémillon

BARREL PROGRAM: Aged 6 months -1/3 new French oak, 1/3 once used French oak, 1/3 neutral French oak

VINEYARD: A combination of our Estate property sémillon and sauvignon musqué in

Russian River Valley and Dry Stack Vineyard’s sauvignon blanc in Bennett Valley.

SOIL TYPE | Clay Loam

The vineyard rests 550 feet above sea level on the eastern slope of Mt. Taylor. The soils are marine clay loam with many small to medium sized stones throughout the profile, helping drainage and soil texture.

WINEMAKER NOTES: The 2021 sauvignon blanc is the first vintage to include our estate-grown sémillion and sauvignon musqué, that we planted on the Aperture property in 2019. These two estate blocks were hand-harvested in early September while our sauvignon blanc from Dry Stack Vineyard in the Bennett Valley AVA was brought in early October, consistent with this vineyard’s unique late-ripening

characteristics. We lightly whole cluster pressed the fruit to a stainless-steel tank where we let the juice chill at 50°F. On the third day, we cleaned and racked it to a smaller tank leaving the heavy sediment behind. Three days later, fermentation starts naturally and keeps below 56°F until half the sugar was consumed. At 18 brix we transferred the young wine to barrels where it spent the remaining time on lees until just before bottling. We used 1/3 New French oak, 1/3 once used and the remaining neutral Franch oak for this vintage’s barrel program. Once transferred to barrel, the wine was placed in our cold barrel room to keep fermentation cool and slow to intentionally preserve the bright aromatics and fresh quality. As the wine slowly fermented for an additional 3 weeks in barrel, we topped and stirred weekly. The wine stayed in those same barrels for 6 months. At that point, we stopped fermentation in order to maintain the wine’s natural bright acidity.