Spring Release Wild Mountainside Viognier
2017

Winemaker’s Notes

Viognier is a stubborn grape variety to grow and craft without allowing its tendency to heaviness to obscure its potential for beauty and vibrancy. In the vineyard, we restrict the yield quite severely without irrigating the vines and harvest just as the flavors pivot from freshness to overt richness. This combination of power and finesse, volume and viscosity, is quite hard to execute, but this wine pulls it off beautifully. Our 16th vintage of Viognier is probably our finest.

A blend of three classic vineyards grown on coastal marine sedimentary soils and steep volcanic hillsides, the wine delivers astonishing aromatic intensity, deeply textured flavors and long-flowing persistency. We can trace the obvious density of the wine back to its vineyard roots; fully mature vines on meager soils, low yields, and tiny thick-skinned grapes.

There is a crystalline purity of aroma: fragrant notes of jasmine and orange blossom, rich apricot and tangerine with sea salt freshness. The palate is buoyant and flowing, an intrinsic viscosity and oiliness with mouthwatering intensity, deep texture, volume and breadth - utterly delicious. We sealed this wine with a Diam cork to retain all its natural vibrancy at the time of bottling. Drink between summer 2019 and 2021.

Andy Smith