2018 Sativa, Mendocino County Carignan Magnum

Over the winter, we made several trips up to Jim McCutchen's vineyard and answered some questions about this elusive mountain Carignan. From what was one non-contiguous vineyard, we identified three unique blocks. The most distinguished of them with the oldest vines, grows on the rockiest soils on the property and has never been irrigated. The grape yields here are lower and ripen about a week earlier than the neighboring blocks. From 2018 forward, these dry-farmed old vines alone will make Sativa! The rest of Jim's fruit will be assigned to other wines in our cellar. In 2018, we let this fruit hang until late October resulting in what may be a best-ever version of Sativa. We tread these grapes under foot and fermented them on 100% whole clusters. The resulting wine smells like a mashup of sunbaked black fruit, wild herbs, violets, and crushed stone (there is in fact a stone quarry just below the vineyard).

AROMA: nutmeg, pencil shavings, blue raspberry

FLAVOR: liqueur de violette, black plum, sesame oil

FOOD PAIRINGS: barbacoa, pepperoni pizza, lamb tacos