2018 Mission
Mokelumne River, Lodi, California
Alc 13.6% by vol. (750ml)

CASES:
480

BACKGROUND:
Mission, our signature grape, was brought to the New World by the conquistadores. The oldest grape in California, it has been mistreated and neglected for over a century. Today it’s a very rare grape, almost fully replaced by more fashionable varieties. But there would be no wine in California had it not paved the way for all the others, so I’m eternally grateful I get to be part of its new dawn. I’m obsessed with this variety and hopefully you’ll agree it makes a great wine.

STYLE:
I think the mistake people have made in the past with Mission, is that they’ve treated it as a light red grape. Probably because of its light color. But it’s not a light grape in flavor profile. In fact, it has very big tannins and is much more suited as a medium bodied wine. So rather than go against it’s nature, I wanted to go with it and not fight it. That’s why this wine was fermented on its skins for about 3 weeks. This imparts a great color and a wonderful structure to it with a nice mouthfeel, perfectly suited for food. It was aged mainly in neutral oak for 15 months, with just about 15% new oak to add a subtle roundness to the finish.

As always, naturally fermented, no filtering, no fining and with as little sulfites as I can get away with.

VINEYARD:
Somers Vineyard might have some of the oldest Mission vines in the US. Nobody knows exactly how old they are, but our best guess is turn of the century. That would be the last century, not this one. Some say less, but for sure they’re at least 50+ years old. They grow right next to the river in the Mokelumne River AVA, Lodi, California and are mostly dry farmed, since their roots reach deep.