Absolutely delightful.
100% Albariño. (2/3 from the Rorick Heritage vineyard in the Sierra Nevada, 1/3 from the C5 vineyard in Santa Ynez.) After nighttime harvest, the grapes were direct pressed, then fermented warm to dryness. A portion of the juice was reserved, frozen, and later added to the finished wine, and bottled the next day to get the ferment going again. It was then given three months’ of bottle aging to finish the secondary fermentation — very much like the col fondo method of making sparkling in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Unfined, unfiltered, no sulfur added, and undisgorged. Jehan and Ryan describe this wine as being made “via simple methods,” resulting in a foamy, fritzy wine that shouldn’t be mistaken for intense bubbly like Prosecco—it’s joyful, tropical, surprisingly light stuff that’s an ideal first or last bottle.