Swanson Vineyards
2010 Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio
California: Napa Valley
Mission Briefing
Smooth as Silk
Silky, elegant, flavorful, and very delicious, today’s brilliant 2010 Swanson Vineyards Pinot Grigio receives our highest recommendation.
Bright but balanced, this wine is a perfect summer sipper that our whole tasting panel loved. Even those tasting Agents that profess to have little love for PG.
We were so impressed by today’s wine, which, in our opinion, delivers something so much more than does a typical California Pinot Grigio. This wine is so smooth and so tasty that we felt that we were drinking a far more expensive white wine.
Enjoy this lovely wine all on its own, or with a wide variety of spring and summer food pairings.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Pale golden hues with perfect clarity and pretty glinting edges that catch the light. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Ripe and sweet with peach and nectarine skins, citrus, pink grapefruit, tangerine blossom, macadamia nut and lemon verbena. |
| Taste: | Tart, sweet and wonderfully balanced. Pronounced, silky flavors of apricot, pear, peach, zingy pineapple, almond, lemongrass and lychee. |
| Finish: | Long and silky with extended apricot and peach. As flavors dwindle, the coating on the palate diminishes first at the mid-palate and then clings on and on at the edges of the palate. |
| Pairing: | Enjoy this silky delicious wine with a spinach salad with strawberry and walnut. |
What the Winery Says
- VINTAGE
- In Oakville, normal winter and spring precipitation levels coupled with cool early season temperatures set the tone for nicely paced shoot growth and fruit development. June was warm, but July and August were cool. September began with just enough heat to ensure optimum ripeness. We hand-harvested quickly in the cold early morning, pleased to note fully developed avors in the fruit, which was cold-pressed immediately. e nal blend includes 10% Chardonnay from our Oakville Estate. Oakville Pinot Grigio fruit provided ample body and minerality; the Oak Knoll portion gave us notes of litchi, peach and Meyer lemon, while the Santa Barbara component contributed crisp acidity, as well as guava and pear avors.
- VINEYARD
- Th e fruit for our 2010 Napa Valley Pinot Grigio was grown in three carefully selected locations. Fifty percent was grown on our sustainably farmed Oakville Estate where our clay-loam soil and meticulous vine management consistently produce a small crop of ultra-premium grapes. irty- ve percent of the fruit was sourced from a cooler location in the Oak Knoll district, and 15% from a small, super-premium Santa Barbara vineyard.
- TASTING NOTES
- Bright, fresh pear and peach fruit mingle with litchi and Meyer lemon aromas in the complex nose of this wine. On the palate, these aromas are translated directly into the generous avor pro le. ere is a nice weight in the mouth, due to the synergy of the Oakville Estate components: Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay. is wine tastes remarkably like the ripe Pinot Grigio grapes from which it was made. Matches extremely well with light pasta dishes and almost any seafood. Serve chilled. - Chris Phelps, Winemaker
- HARVEST DATE
- August 30th – September 9th
- ANALYSIS AT HARVEST
- 21.9 Brix, 7.8 g/L TA, 3.25 pH
- WINEMAKING
- Whole-cluster pressed Cold-fermented exclusively in Stainless Steel No malolactic fermentation, no residual sugar Weekly lees stirring through December
- BOTTLING DATE
- February 8, 2011
- ANALYSIS AT BOTTLING
- 13.3% alc., 7.2 g/L TA, 3.28 pH
- CASE PRODUCTION
- 7,480 cases (12x750ml)
About the Winery
We are thrilled to announce that our vineyards are now certified as sustainably farmed, both by Fish Friendly Farming and Napa Green Certified Land!
Swanson Vineyards owns 100 acres along the Oakville Cross Road in Oakville, located next to Opus One and Silver Oak Cellars. Swanson soils are part of geological history dating back to the formation of Napa Valley. Tectonic-plate movements and volcanic activity pushed up mountains to the east and west of the Napa River, while simultaneously displacing the ocean bottom downward in the southern part of the valley.
The soils on the valley floor are clay loam, alluvial in nature, laid down as sediment from the frequent flooding over the millenia. It is here that our 100 acres produce wines of great elegance and finesse.
It is to these soils that Swanson Vineyards’ wines owe their wonderful aromas, flavors and complexities. The vines are further nurtured by the use of a variety of rootstock, clones, spacing and trellis systems, all selected to enhance the capabilities of the soil. The winemaker’s challenge is to ensure that all the potential of our vineyards is captured and reflected in our wines.