Our next door neighbor Gil Ordway passed away this May at the age of 97. Gil was a remarkable conservationist and philanthropist who cared deeply about farming, ranching and open space; his championship of this scarcely-planted grape variety in California was typical of his visionary outlook. Navarro's Grüner Veltliner is produced from grapes grown at Gil's and his wife Marge's Valley Foothills Vineyard. A celebrated variety in Austria, this is the only planting of this variety in Anderson Valley. We produced our first Grüner Veltliner in 2020; the grapes approached full ripeness in late August with grape sugars rising and acidity dropping. Our primary concern was retaining enough natural acidity to produce a “food” wine; the grapes tasted ripe so we made the decision to harvest the Grüner at a lower sugar level than most of our other white grapes. The wine was well received by both our customers and wine critics so we decided to follow the same protocol in 2021.

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