Florez 2023 'Kind of Orange' Viognier

Grapes: 100% Viognier

Feliz Creek, Mendocino County, California

1980’s planting on well drained Russian River gravelly loams. Dry farmed, no till, with absolute minimum organic inputs.

This wine is a rare bird: “These vines verge on wild, and sadly there is an attrition every year. We may only have another vintage or two of this wine,” - James Jelks, winemaker,

The grapes were handpicked and carefully put into stainless vessels for a 3-week carbonic maceration, using harvested CO2 from an already active fermentation, as opposed to using CO2 from a commercial cylinder. While it was done as carbonic, the soft skins readily bled juice leading to a type of submerged cap maceration for the later portion of the fermentation. The structure of the wine comes from skin tannin, and stem tannin. Pressed off and sent to neutral French oak barrels for 10 months aging sur lie. Racked once and bottled. No additives including no added sulfites.