Vintage Summary

The old Wirz Vineyard was originally planted around 1900 to “mixed blacks” as Pat Wirz, the longtime farmer/owner likes to call them. The mix is the typical field blend of vineyards in the Diablo range that consist of Mataro, Carignan, Zinfandel, and the oddball Cabernet Pfeffer. However, in 1964, about 45 acres of white Riesling were planted. The San Andreas Fault runs through the vineyard, which sits at the base of the Eastern flank of the Gabilan Mountains. There are several different soil types found here. The Riesling is mostly planted on deep granitic sand, and some is on the darker clay loam that’s weathered from limestone. Dry farmed, head trained, and organic. 2021 was a welcome change from 2020 as the weather gods blessed us without too much misfortune. Overall we had a very dry winter with some timely late rains in the early spring, but yields were drastically lower than usual. A long and slow ripening phase started in August and we had to exercise some patience for the Riesling and Zinfandel to ripen for a rather mild September. Picked on September 19, 2021.

Winemaking

The grapes were picked by hand. At the winery the grapes were given 24 hours of whole cluster maceration to extract tannins, aroma, and flavor compounds in the skins, followed by pressing the grapes. No sulfur was added to allow the juice to oxidize. After a 36 hour cold settle in tank, the clean juice was racked off the solids to another tank for spontaneous fermentation. The wine was sulfured post completion of secondary fermentation with elevage in barrels on fine lees. Racked off fine lees a month prior to bottling and blended. This wine is lightly filtered for clarity and unfined. The only addition we ever use is sulfur. Bottled April 16, 2022. 200 cases produced.

Wine Stats

Varietal Composition: Riesling (95%), Zinfandel (5%)

Brix at harvest: 20.5

Titratable Acidity: 6.4 g/L

pH: 3.17

Residual Sugar: 0.0 g/L

Alcohol: 11.6%