| TASTE BENCHMARKS |
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Profile #1
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| Appearance |
Straw gold. |
| Aroma |
Intense Grapefruit and , gaining with age nuances of custard. |
| Flavor |
Utterly distinctive lean but assertive ripe pineapple without any of the natural sweetness of the valley floor, and charged with an intense minerality. |
| Balance |
Crisp, dry, angular and energetic, filling out on the palate with bottle age. |
| PRODUCTION CORRELATIONS |
| Oenological |
Traditional burgundian practices: in barrel fermentation, ful malolactic, lees stirring. The anti-oxidative power of lees, mineral energy and a little tannin gives the wines great longevity but may also cause them to be closed and even reductive in youth, and thus extensive ageing in old wood is required. |
| Viticultural |
Minimum tillage practices prevent erosion and add to minerality in the wines. |
| Terroir |
One of the few enclaves in California with true limestone underlying in places the granitic soils. High altitude gives long days and high incident light. |