Tasting Notes

While there is a delicacy, a freshness to this wine, it is counterbalanced with a brilliant sauvage element of gaminess and earthiness that makes you want to take another sip.

The focused aromas begin with shitake mushroom, and then continue with grilled herbs, violet, and blood orange. The palate is round with a hint of campfire smoke, rhubarb, Alpine strawberry, and black tea. Overall, this wine has more red tones in it than blue/black. There’s a slight kick at the finish before leading to the final chapter of subtle power.

Winemaking Notes

The 2014 Evening Standard was fermented with naturally occurring yeasts in a combination of open- top French oak puncheons, concrete tanks, and stainless steel tanks. Puncheons were punched down by hand multiple times per day to gently extract fine tannins and enhance the deep color. Délestage was performed on tanks every other day, and wines were pressed at dryness after 10-15 days of maceration. The wine was then aged for 18 months without racking in 500L French oak puncheons from Francois Frères and was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Vintage Notes

After a very dry and warm early winter, we saw nearly nine inches of rainfall in February 2014. Coupled with mild temperatures, budbreak occurred in early March, a few weeks ahead of schedule. Despite the early budbreak and persistent drought conditions, bloom and fruit set took place in favorable weather and resulted in an above average crop. Typically cool mornings and warm afternoons continued through the spring and early summer with an occasional light rain, making for optimal growing conditions. We began picking the last week of August, a week or two earlier than average for our cool, coastal vineyards.