This Merlot is grown at Winesap Vineyards, which is located in The Rocks District AVA.  Merlot down in the Rocks has tremendous potential.  Just the right amount of heat to ripen properly, which a touch of earthiness and minerailty.  

Winesap Vineyard with grass cover crop

We harvested our lot of fruit on 10/15. This is when the chemistry looked the best and also had physiological ripeness at its peak. With the extremely high pH of merlot from The Rocks I wanted to allow this fruit to get a little more ripe with more potential ending ABV (Learn more from our Winemaking Videos).

10/15/2020

Brix 25 - pH 3.95 - TA 4.5 g/L

After the fruit was harvested, it was de-stemmed (but not crushed). It went on to cold soak for 24 hours before inoculation of BM 45 yeast strain. The cap was punched down 3 times per day to break up skins and to gain maximum extraction.

Want to learn more about winemaking, check out our Winemaking Videos.

97 points - Bellingham Wine Show

90 points - Wine Enthusiast

We harvested our ton of fruit on 9/25/19.  This is when the chemistry looked the best and also had physiological ripeness at its peak

As a winemaker, when you have premium fruit,  from one of the best vineyards, your job is to get out of the way.  

We used 25% whole cluster for stem inclusion.  We punched down the cap three times per day, while also mixing in pulse air as a midday cap management technique. The wine was pressed when tannin structure was perfect and put into neutral french barrels.

93 points - International Wine Report 

92 points - Wine Enthusiast

91 points - Bellingham

A pulsar is a neutron star whose beams of radiation appear as a flickering light from the earth’s surface. The first pulsar was discovered in 1967 via radio wave technology, and the scientists were puzzled at what this regular blinking message may be. Unsure of what to call it, they went with – LGM-1 – because maybe it was Little Green Men.

All of these wines were harvested at different times.  Syrah is an early ripener whereas Grenache and Mourvedre tend to be later ripeners.

Syrah - 9/28

Mourvedre - 10/16

Grenache - 10/19

Want to learn more about Grape Varieties, check out our video from our Winemaking Video Series

 

The Mourvedre was saignee to concentrate colors, flavors, and aromas.  There was a 48 hour cold soak to extract more anthocyanins from the skins before innoculation. All three wines were fermented and aged separately and blending happened 3 months before bottling to lets the flavors meld together.

92 points - International Wine Report 

93 points - Wine Enthusiast

95 points - Bellingham

This was an extremely fun wine to make and put together.  This small lot Syrah had around 80 lbs of Viognier mixed in for co-fermentation.

The Caps were punched three times per day and the wine was pressed when the tannic structure was in line with our style.  These were aged in french oak barrels for 14 months.

90 points - International Wine Report 

93 points - Wine Enthusiast