It's the last weekend in April, which means that it's time for Spring Barrel.
We spend a lot of time and effort to put on a super-awesome experience for this weekend, and this year is no different. With a focus on education, our Barrel Tastings are always a great way to learn more about wine, about Red Mountain, and our operation here.
This year the focus is on Sangiovese. We have 5.5 acres of the grape planted on Red Mountain, and it's exceptional. Even though it constitutes a small slice of our overall plantings (coming in at 2.2% of our acreage), it's one of our favorite grapes and a tasting room superstar.
Sangiovese is most famous as the main grape of Chianti, a region in/around Tuscany Italy. It makes racy, bright, fruit-forward wines with a high degree of drinkability and pairability with food. On Red Mountain, the grape ripens well while still maintaining its trademark acidity. We tend to be pretty soft with the oak treatment, as well as how hard we press the fruit. We want the wine to be true to its Italian roots, so ours is a (rare) Red Mountain wine that you can actually see through. It's the softest red wine that we make from a structure and tannin perspective.
Our barrel-tasting exercise is a trip through time. Starting from youngest to oldest, the tasting begins with a brand-new 2016 Sangiovese, with essentially zero oak influence. The idea here is to show how the grape tastes in its purest/unadulterated form. Then we will fast-forward (re-wind?) two years and taste an almost-ready-to-bottle 2014 version. This wine has been through several blending iterations and consolidations, and is very nearly "done." Lastly, we will get to taste the 2012 version of the wine, which has undergone substantial aging in the bottle at this point. This is the wine that is currently for sale in our tasting room and around the country. We'll also include a splash of Rosé of Sangiovese. As if we need an excuse to drink rosé!
We are running this exercise all weekend (April 28th, 29th, and 30th, 10 - 4:45). As always, we charge $10 per taster, but only if no wine purchases are made. If a customer buys even one bottle of wine, we will waive two $10 tastes.
Premier Pass holders receive a 10% discount on any wine purchases.
See you soon!
