Vintages

P1100291

2014 – Los Pilares – LaDona’s Sparkling Muscat

Foot-stomped.  Wild yeast fermentation.

Unfiltered.  Unfined.  Bottle-conditioned.

Slightly effervescent with small bubbles.  Honey, ginger, and flowers in the nose.  Dry with a refreshing bite from three days fermenting on the skins and stems.  No SO2, ever.  Nothing added.  Nothing taken away, not even the yeast.

San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Bonne named LaDona Top 100 wine the year:

A joyous new offering from SoCal’s resurgent winemaking posse. Muscat has a long San Diego history, and this revives it in bottle-fermented sparkling form. It has a slightly cloudy aspect, like a great saison beer, with lees suspended in the bottle adding just the right weight to florid Muscat, nectarine and watermelon flavors.

Good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

230 cases.

2013 – Los Pilares – Grenache / Carignane

Wild yeast fermentation.

Unfiltered.  Unfined.  Unoaked.

The 2013 vintage is for real aficionados of natural wine.  It is a chameleon, changing rapidly in the bottle and in the glass. Sometimes it has markedly savory characteristics.  Sometimes the fruit coats your palate from front to back. Long, complex swallow.  Great with food.  Drink it slightly chilled.  It was made in very small quantities with our strict pre-industrial methods — no adjustments to the must, wild yeast fermentation, no added sugars, coloring agents, tannins, or acids.

180 cases.

2013 – Los Pilares – LaDona’s Sparkling Muscat

Our 2013 sparkling Muscat is a crazy experiment that turned out crazy good.  Slightly effervescent with small bubbles.  Honey, ginger, and flowers in the nose.  Dry with a refreshingly bitter bite from the skin contact.  Good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We named it after our friend LaDona, because she likes white wine with time on the skins.  Three years ago we started dreaming of this wine.  Muscat is very traditional in San Diego County where it’s usually made into a sweet desert wine.  Naturally we wanted to honor the tradition but do something different with it.  And, it is the most natural sparkling wine you can find or drink.  Fermented in the bottle (bottle conditioned).  No SO2, ever.  Nothing added.  Nothing taken away, not even the yeast.

30 cases.

2012 – Los Pilares – Grenache

Our 2012 Grenache is very different from the Grenache Carignan we made in 2010 and 2011, at the same time more delicate and more funky.  Light color.  Medium-light body.  Fresh fruit on the nose and a hint of sherry. Surprisingly persistent flavor after swallowing.  Drink it slightly chilled.

It was a difficult year in the vineyard where we got the Grenache, and we picked through the whole thing to get only one half ton of lovely grapes.  Native yeast fermentation, part whole-cluster, part destemmed and crushed.  No SO2 additions.  No adjustments.  We pressed to tank.  And here’s the kicker:  it took more than 18 months to finish fermenting, the whole time sitting quietly on the fine lees.  I think that’s where we get the impression of sherry.  Very interesting.

SO2 at 20ppm at bottling.

30 cases.

2011 – Los Pilares – Grenache / Carignane

50% GRENACHE 50% CARIGNANE

THE GRAPES

The local fruit for our second vintage is from the same sources as our first wine.  Our theories about using southern Mediterranean varieties in San Diego, continue to prove themselves in Coleman and Gina’s backyard vineyard experiments in Alpine and now in Los Pilares with grapes from the backcountry.

Like 2010, the 2011 growing year was quite cool for San Diego, but not quite as much as 2010.

THE HARVEST

As far as we could tell, both the Grenache and the Carignan were essentially perfect – ripe but tart, balanced and healthy.  They required very little sorting.

THE WINEMAKING

We want to keep processes and ingredients to a minimum, without being dogmatic about it.  Because of the confidence we gained in 2010 and because of the quality of the fruit, this year our minimalist winemaking approached the extreme.  The details:  100% whole berries.  No stems.  No added yeast, acids, enzymes, yeast food, tannins, or anything else.  No oak.  No no sulfur dioxide or any other additives or preservatives.  The complete list of ingredients is fresh grapes.  We did not filter or fine or even rack except to blend.

Produced and Bottled by Vesper Vineyards, Valley Center, California

2010 – Los Pilares – Grenache/Carignane

The Grenache-Carignan is the natural result of old-fashioned, hands-off winemaking. The characteristics of each variety stand out. This is something one loses with too much ripeness or extraction. The Grenache gives bright, red berry flavors in the front of the palate. The Carignan delivers some pepper and brooding dark fruit at the back of the palate. Decent acidity. Young, untamed tannins. Begs for food of ANY kind, from grilled fish to boeuf bourguignon.

130 cases.

Produced and Bottled by Vesper Vineyards, Valley Center, California