2015 J. Lohr Estates Wildflower Valdiguié

Vintage

Valdiguié is a very large-berried variety, requiring extra vigilance from our Arroyo Seco vineyard crew to prune to only one bud per spur and aggressively thin any extra shoots pushing from the cordon. Otherwise, yields are too high and ripening becomes difficult for this late-maturing variety. In our winemaking, the goal is to preserve the wonderful natural acidity and fresh fruit character of this varietal. We incorporate two different fermentation techniques to achieve this. In 2015, we hand-picked roughly one-third of the fruit and put those whole clusters directly into the fermenters in a winemaking process called carbonic maceration – no crushing, punching down, or pumping over of the whole clusters is performed. The other, more conventional technique used in the remaining two-thirds of the fruit, includes gently de-stemming the fruit going to the fermenter, pumping over and extracting with fairly short, warm fermentations. These processes give the wine a remarkable similarity to the wines of Beaujolais, with enticing berry fruit flavors, a vibrant color and soft tannins. A native malolactic fermentation on about 50% of the blend puts an unusual spin on the 2015 vintage by softening acidity and delivering a darker fruit character to the final wine.