Tablas Creek Vineyard

California

Vaccarese

Adelaida District

$35 USD

Release Price

Drink Window

13%

ABV

pH

TA

RS

Nose

A nose of pine forest, graphite, and minty juniper.

Palate

The mouth shows notes of tobacco and spice, medium body, some tannic grip, and a lovely chalky textural note on the long finish. For now, the wine's fruit flavors play a secondary role to the spice, herb and mineral elements. We have no idea how it will age, but are looking forward to finding out.

Growing Conditions

The 2019 vintage began with ample rainfall the preceding winter. The wet soils delayed budbreak to a little after normal, and a cool first half of the summer delayed flowering and the ripening of our earlier varieties. Beginning the second week of July, the weather turned warm but never so warm to engage the vines' self-defense mechanism of shutting down, accelerating ripening of our later varieties and producing intense flavors. The resulting compressed harvest was completed under ideal conditions and the vintage shows both concentration and freshness, with bright acids framing ample fruit.

The Vaccarese grapes were grown on our certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.

Harvest

Our Vaccarese (California's first-ever harvest) came in on September 26th.

Winemaking

Vaccarese is large berried and yet quite dark, and produces wines with dark color, aromas of pine forest and juniper, flavors of tobacco, graphite, and spice, medium body, and some tannic grip. While we expect to ultimately use it in our red blends, with these early vintages, we are exploring what a seminal French ampelography calls its "indisputable aromatic floral originality" and "very fresh and very elegant flavor".

The fruit was destemmed and fermented on the skins for two weeks in a 1-ton microfermenter, punched down twice daily. Only native yeasts we used. After two weeks, the berries were pressed and this was combined with the free run juice into neutral oak barrels.

Aging

It aged in neutral oak on its lees until we bottled it in April of 2021.

Appearance

The 2019 Vaccarese is a lovely deep purple color.

Food Pairing

- Dried sausages
- Salty cheeses
- Santa Maria tri tip
- Coq au vin

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