• 2021 Sauvignon Blanc
    Cuvée 128
    Anderson Valley, Mendocino
    • (750 ml) Sold Out!
See all Wines

Unfortunately this product is no longer available!

You may still be interested in:


Counting stars Recent Press

After spending long hours in the spring randomly selecting vines and counting grape clusters, it appeared that we had a normal crop on most of our vines in 2021. Unfortunately, we had failed to calculate the number of berries in an average cluster since everything looked pretty normal. When the vines were harvested and the grapes arrived at the winery, we were shocked. We had a light crop in 2020 where we harvested about 20% less than our five-year average, but this 2021 harvest was another 20% reduction from the 2020 crop. Ouch! Our Savvy usually contains wine from the fruit across the street at Foursight Vineyards, but they had a meager harvest as well. We were scrambling and phoned every grower we knew in the Anderson Valley, Yorkville Highlands and Mendocino Ridge appellations. At the last minute we got a phone call from the Old Chatham Ranch on Highway 128 outside Yorkville; they had a small block of Sauvignon Blanc and would sell us the fruit.

Deleafing grapevines in 2016.
[above] Deleafing Sauvignon Blanc vines prior to harvest so that pickers can easily spot and harvest the fruit. This photo was taken in 2016—no facemasks—and was one of the last large Sauvignon Blanc harvests that our vines produced.
Harvesting Sauvignon Blanc at night under floodlights. [below] Not only is the wine better when the grapes are harvested cold, but the pickers enjoy night harvesting as well since yellowjackets and snakes are absent and picking goes faster without daytime heat.
Aerial view of night harvesting, a tractor with floodlights.

As luck would have it, they also had a light crop and could only deliver enough Savvy for an additional 65 cases of wine. A portion of this bottling was fermented and aged in ovals for five months and the remainder fermented in stainless steel then racked to seasoned French oak barrels to age for four months. The sur lie aging has contributed a roundness to the wine that displays grapefruit, tangerine and fresh herb flavors all kept zippy by the varietal's naturally high acidity. Double Gold Medal-winner.

Specifications
  • Harvested: Sept. 3 to 10, 2021
  • Sugars at harvest: 22.8° Brix
  • Bottled: Feb. 10 & 11, 2022
  • Cases produced: 2,070
  • Alcohol: 12.8 %
  • Titratable acidity: 7.8 g/L
  • pH: 3.24