2006 Esoterica 2006 Late Harvest Viognier

Vineyard Source: Capp Vineyard, Suisun Valley

Harvest Date: October 23, 2006

Lab (harvest):
Brix – 47.0% sugar
pH – 3.91
Total Acidity – 4.7 grams/liter

Quantity Produced: 787 cases (12 x 375ml)

Date of Bottling: November 14, 2007

Barrels: 12 months in 50% new and 50% one year old French oak

Lab (bottling):
Residual Sugar – 35%
pH – 3.76
Total Acidity – 6.6 grams/liter
Alcohol – 9.52%

Every year as the harvest slows I search for good grapes to make late harvest white wines. Most years I can find nothing—the weather hasn’t cooperated or the birds got to them first or there just were not any nice ones to be found, but in 2006 I found gold—an entire vineyard of Viognier, in perfect shape and sweet as grapes can ever get! Why the birds hadn’t gone after them, I will never know.

Making late harvest wines is a joy for winemakers. The grapes come in all dry and fuzzy, pressing them takes days rather than hours. The juice is so thick that it looks like motor oil and it is so sweet that yeast don’t like to ferment in it (think pancake syrup). But for a winemaker that is all part of the challenge…after all, making yeast happy is a winemaker’s highest calling!
This wine is luscious, sweet, and succulent--it tastes like apricot nectar on steroids with lots of other good things added in. It is great now, but will age for years and years and years. Drink it for dessert (not with dessert).