We are so excited to offer this wine for the first time-- a beautiful salmon-colored Blanc de Noir composed of Palomino and whole-cluster pressed Zinfandel, from the old vines of the Lopez Ranch in Cucamonga.

We have been working on this wine for several years. Its origin is a fascination with the light but intense still wines of Champagne-- the new Côteaux Champenois wines made by more and more producers as their Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier ripen more quickly and more richly in the current climate.

I have thought from the beginning of our work here that even with desert fruit, we could make wines of intensity, complexity, and lightness at once. The key was simply to harvest promptly-- at the beginning and middle of ripeness, and not past the peak-- and to leave the skins behind. In other words, we could make fresh, light wine (if not exactly white wine), even from Zinfandel and Mataro if we pressed the fruit gently and did not allow for skin contact. This is the same principle behind behind making all Blancs de Noir, whether it is for Champagne or something even more esoteric.

This wine is 90% Palomino, harvested from Lopez in August, after a long, slow, growing season without heat spikes; and 10% Zinfandel, harvested about a week later, in the first few days of the Zinfandel harvest. Both lots were foot-treaded, pressed using our new Chiara method, and fermented and aged in stainless steel. The blend was assembled in a large, neutral, wooden puncheon, and allowed to rest and come together for a month before bottling. 

162 cases produced.