We made seven wines from Southern California vineyards in this, our first vintage in Los Angeles. These wines appear under a new label, as will all of our future wines from the Southland: the label of the
Los Angeles River Wine Company.We are offering the wines to you in a single package, to reflect and represent the whole of our work this year. Each of these wines is a first for us-- we have never worked with any of the vineyards, and did not even know that most of them existed a year ago. Each bottling represents the partial resolution of a mystery-- we now know at least one kind of wine we can make from each vineyard, and how good it can be-- but we have no idea of the future of each wine.
That future begins now.
We produced only one or two barrels of each of these wines. We are limiting this offer to 15 packages of these wines; if there are any bottles left over, we will let you know. This package contains one bottle of each wine in the release, except for the Riverside Red blend. we only made 82 bottles of it and they are already sold out. It was not even the best wine-- just the smallest. The most interesting wine is Lone Wolf, and there is a bottle in this box for you.
These are the wines:2019 Lone Wolf
The treasure of our harvest. We found an own-rooted
Mission vineyard, planted in 1912, and abandoned around 1960. Some
vines pruned once or twice since then, almost no wine made. For sixty
years. This is the first public release of a wine made from the vineyard
since Prohibition.
Mission is a strange, nearly wild, grape imported
and propagated by the Spanish colonists as they moved North from Chile
and Peru through Mexico and California. The grape is highly variable,
with a complex and untamed genetic heritage. The Mission vineyards all
over California differ strongly from each other-- there was no such
thing as a UC Davis clone of Mission when these vineyards were planted.
The
variety tends to produce lightly colored pink or cherry red grapes,
with tiny berries on loose clusters. The fruit, seeds, and stems are all
highly tannic. For this reason, the grapes have always been made mostly
into white wine or very lightly colored rosé. We destemmed 70% of
fruit, stomped on almost all of it, and then allowed everything to
ferment together for nearly 3 weeks. The result is a lightly colored red
wine that smells and tastes like nothing you have ever encountered. It
is graceful and energetic in the mouth-- but shockingly tannic. It is a
real wine of meditation and reflection.
2019 M.E.P.P.
Pecorino from the Ponte Vineyard in Temecula. 50% skin-fermented, 50% juice.
The name stands for "Modified Emidio Pepe Pecorino Protocol"-- named for the wine of one our heroes, and the touchstone for our success in this wine.
2019 Raisin City
Incredible bio-dynamically farmed, own-rooted, Palomino from the infinite deserts of Fresno. Rich, viscous, haunted. Also: a white wine.
2019 Lopez Rosé
Not white at all, but we tried: a deeply colored rosé made from Zinfandel from Lopez. Foot-stomping and 3 hours of skin-contact released all of the color. The wine has the flavor and presence of a white wine in spite of its appearance.
2019 Lopez Red
100% Zinfandel, planted in 1920 in the Cucamonga Valley just east of Los Angeles. Growing in deep sand, on their own roots, farmed organically and without irrigation. The vineyard is a natural treasure, preserved by the wonderful Galleano family.
2019 Galleano Home
An incredible blend of ancient own-rooted vines, planted by the Galleano in 1920 for Port and Sherry production. One-third each Alicante Bousquet, Salvador, and white fruit: Palomino, Mission, and Rose of Peru. Harvested by us on the hottest day of the year, foot-stomped, co-fermented.
