Growing Conditions
The growing season for 2020 was perhaps the most redeeming part of the year. It was a light winter that lasted a bit longer than anyone would have guessed and delayed budbreak a smidge but the rest of the season more than made up for it. It was warm and consistently on the verge of a drought without actually causing any alarming stress to the vines. Grapes came in at a high quality across the board and there was no pressure (rain, disease, or otherwise) to pick, therefore winemakers rejoiced.
Harvest
The fruit was picked over the course of October on several different days. The fruit was machine harvested, crushed and destemmed and pressed the same day. A portion (41%) had 24 hours of skin contact after destemming to improve structure and was then pressed. The juice was then settled and racked off of gross lees and separated into different tanks for fermentation.
Winemaking
This Riesling is a blend of 6 different fermentations using the following yeast strains: Epernay II, ES-181, SENSY, R-HST, and 71B. These all occurred in stainless steel at temperatures between 52F and 65F. Fermentations lasted from 3 weeks to 10 weeks in length, depending on fermentation and desired stopping point. Fermentations were monitored and maintained at low temperatures to retain delicate aromas. Fermentations were arrested naturally (using cooling) to maintain natural grape sweetness in the final wines. The separate components were blended, cold stabilized, and filtered.
