We just love our organically farmed one-acre vineyard, planted in front of a friend’s house in ’02. This is our 12th vintage from the Admiral’s Vineyard, and it continues to impress! We returned to picking earlier while acids are still super bright and sugars are not as sweet, then pressed whole cluster and fermented cold in stainless steel. The 2017 vintage is crisp and bright, with nice minerality and citrus notes, with flavors of pink grapefruit and aromas of lemon blossom.

Thank goodness for friends who have an acre of weeds and offer their land for vineyard planting. That is how it came to be that in 2002 I planted approximately 815 Sauvignon Blanc vines on Mee Lane just south of St. Helena. I selected Sauvignon Blanc to grow here because the soil conditions and climate in that area are perfect for this varietal - heavy clay soils help to limit the vigor associated with vegetal aromas in Sauvignon Blanc. We had to add tons of red lava rock just to help break up the soil so that the vines could get established.

We are beginning to get more maturity from the vineyard and have a good sense of the style of wine that will come from here going forward. We pick when the acidity, sugar and fruitfulness are in perfect balance and rush it to the winery for whole cluster pressing, then cold ferment in stainless steel to preserve the crispness, bright flavors and aromas.