During the harvest of 2007, I borrowed my friend George Shank's old flatbed truck and was able to squeeze it down the 10' rows of the thirty-year-old vines of the Alvarez vineyard just east of Windsor in the Russian River Valley. We had three hombres picking and I perched on the truck, tossing out any leaves that might have found their way into the picking bin. We harvest three tons of fruit that day and were done picking just as it was starting to heat up. We whole-cluster pressed the grapes which gave us barely six barrels of wine. 30% new oak barrels from the forest of allier were used and I practiced batonnage (stirring of the lees) on a monthly basis until bottling in April of 2008. Aromas of ripe Bartlett pear and crème brûlée, with a balanced acidity and intense flavors of tropical fruit are the hallmarks of this exceptional wine. |
