Hello everyone!
To both new and returning mailing list members, we welcome you with open arms and full bottles, nice to virtually see you all again (certainly a trend over the last year). It has undoubtedly been a year full of both victories and losses, but most importantly, it has been one of change; personal, societal, climactic, and economical. I am happy to report that through the seemingly endless ups and downs of the previous 12 months, we have new wines to share with you all, our friends and supporters. There was enough drama and exposition in 2020 to last a lifetime, so let’s get straight to business.
2016 Griffin's Lair Vineyard Syrah
My second bout with Griffin’s Lair Syrah was a basic lesson in Pick Decision 101, showing how much difference picking before or after a heat spike can make. You can see the effects one way or the other throughout the wine’s entire lifetime, from fermentation to cork pop. Back in 2015, we waited until after a heat spike in early September to pick; the sugar numbers were just a touch too low and the flavors just weren’t quite where we wanted them to be. We waited until after the heat to pick and though the wine had every bit of the Griffin’s savory aromas and mouthfeel, it also showed characteristics that reflected that decision; slightly juicier, higher alcohol, and lifted, higher-toned aromatics.
This time around, in 2016, the summer weather was mild, allowing for flavors to accumulate over a longer period of time to a point where we decided that picking before the heat spike towards the end of September. The sugar was markedly lower than the previous year (a full percentage point lower in finished alcohol), but the fruit looked and tasted outstanding, so we made the call to pick.
I handled the fruit similarly as before in the winery: 100% whole cluster foot-trod, indigenous yeast fermentation, and a couple weeks of extended maceration before pressing and barreling down to a neutral 600L demi-muid. There it remained for 18 months before being bottled and resting for another 3 years. The resulting wine is beautiful, the culmination of near-perfect conditions and just letting what Mother Nature provided us with to speak in a liquid tongue. Black pepper, soy, brown sugar, and tapenade envelop the nose at first sniff while black cherry, bacon, and pepper dance across your tastebuds, allowing the resolved tannins to usher your senses to the finish line. This will be quite an obscure reference, but if you have ever had the pleasure of tasting the Pastrami Fried Rice from Mission Chinese in San Francisco, you have tasted this wine before, a trip down Umami Lane.
The wine expectedly softens as it decants, bringing more of the fruit forward on the palate, revealing a beautifully balanced wine. A lot of people understandably like to compare their meaty, cold-climate Syrahs from the New World to their favorite Rhone producer. Hell, I’m absolutely guilty of that. It’s only natural to strive to be even mentioned in the same breath of the Rhone greats. That all being said, I feel as though this wine is quintessentially Petaluma Gap, nuanced with a delicate balance of spice and fruit that I’ve rarely seen elsewhere. I salute Griffin’s Lair and Mother Nature for allowing me to be a simple middleman and bring this wine to you. $42/bottle
2019 Ricci Vineyard St. Laurent
In contrast to the almost brooding flavors Griffin’s Lair Syrah, our second dance with Ricci St. Laurent is bright and welcoming in the glass. As fickle of a grape as it’s mother (or father, who’s to say), Pinot Noir, St. Laurent can be extremely mellow and subdued throughout fermentation and elevage (barrel aging), only really becoming expressive with some time in bottle. It produces delicate wine that is highly impressionable to winemaker decisions and inputs; a trend that can very much be seen in this year’s iteration of Ricci St. Laurent.
I decided to make some slight variations in 2019 compared to the 2018 version of this wine. First off, the grapes were able to develop flavors on the vine a touch longer this vintage, with the harvested brix being one full unit higher than the previous year. I also received a bit more fruit this year so the stem inclusion in the ferment went from 50% to 33%. I still employed partial carbonic for about 4-5 days and let the ferment start with indigenous yeast. The grapes were pressed at dryness and went to barrel a few days later.
A friend and former roommate of mine, Kevin Farrow, had also been making wines for his own label (shout out Filaments Wine!) and just so happened to have an empty new 400L French oak puncheon from the Boutes cooperage. I thought that the riper flavors the 2019 was showing at the end of fermentation would play really well with a bit of new oak so I asked Kev what his plan was with the extra barrel. Luckily, he was looking for some wine to season the barrel with in order to pull some of the stronger new oak flavors out before aging his own wines in it the following years. Well, teamwork makes the dream work I always say and I was more than happy to experiment with my St. Laurent for both of our benefit. The wine sat cozily in the new oak puncheon as well as two stainless steel drums for 9 months before going to bottle in the summer of 2020.
The 2019 Ricci is much more fruit forward than its predecessor. Cranberry, cinnamon, bergamot, and the slightest touch of vanilla (oh, hey new oak) tickle the nostrils. The palate is full of bright cherries with the oak showing its face towards the back, lingering on the finish. Low tannins and medium to high acid, this wine is ready to go so don’t be shy about popping corks. I expect the baking spices and more subtle oak flavors to wake up as the wine ages. Another delicious chapter in the Filomena/Ricci notebook. $24/bottle
2020 Enz Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer Rosé
Known in and originally hailing from the Bordeaux region of France as Mourtaou, Cabernet Pfeffer is a rare gem of a grape in California. It is almost entirely planted in the Cienega Valley just southwest of Hollister on the eastern side of the Gabilan mountain range. The two most well-known vineyards in the area, Enz and Wirz, both have Cab Pfeffer planted on their respective properties. Both the dramatic diurnal temperature shift as well as the large chunks of limestone in the soil spawned wines with razor acidity and well-developed savory flavors. Having tried a number of bottles from various wineries sourcing fruit from Enz, as well as previously working with the Zin, Mourvedre, and Cab Pfeffer, I’d long had my eye on the astutely named Lime Kiln Valley AVA. I badly wanted to work with the fruit and the acid levels of the wines as well as long ripening windows all but screamed rosé at me, most intriguingly, with the Cabernet Pfeffer. I had certainly seen the quality of red wine the Cab Pfeffer produced before. It was simply loaded with dark fruit and white pepper (Pfeffer does mean “pepper” in German after all) with unusually low pHs (aka higher acid) that made the wine fresh and bright, but finnicky, looming tannins that took time to mellow. Well, what if you take the skins and tannin issue out of the picture and make a rosé out of it? Now we’re talkin’.
In order to see my plan come to fruition (heh), I proceeded to bug Ian Brand, who managed Enz at the time (and just so happens to make delicious wines from there as well), about the Cab Pfeffer’s availability during the growing season, making my desire to work with the fruit very clear. Ian’s answer was always a, “love to get you some Pfeffer, but we’ll see how the growing season progresses”-type response from the very busy winemaker and vineyard manager. It wasn’t until about a week out from other wineries’ pick date that I learned I’d be getting some Pfeffer of my very own. Rosé promised land, here I come.
After a VERY long day finding the vineyard in the pitch black at 5 AM, being at the pick, and driving back up to Sonoma through the everlasting traffic zone of the 680 corridor, I finally got my Pfeffer babies into the winery that evening. I decided to foot stomp the bins and let them soak on the skins overnight to pick up a little extra color and spice. The grapes were whole cluster pressed the following morning and went to tank to cold settle. After taking some sugar and acid readings (22.3 brix and 3.3 pH oooooowee!), I racked the juice off the heavy lees a few days later and let the indigenous yeast work their magic while keeping it at 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit in tank.
Now, if you ask most winemakers what the most delicious thing is during harvest, only trust the ones who say mid-ferm rosé with a little bit of tequila thrown in, the Mid-Ferm Paloma as I like to call it. Stone fruit, citrus, and tropical flavors exploded out of the glass during fermentation and every day the savory notes on the nose and back of the palate would slowly creep into focus. The wine remained in tank for 4 months before being bottled this past February. Grapefruit, melon, white pepper, and rose petal lead the way on the nose with the citrus remaining on the palate along with some ripping acidity and minerality. Those are complemented well by the savory finish on the back, only more apparent the longer the bottle stays open. Though the speed at which these bottles are emptied in our house usually prevents that from happening. This wine is fun, it’s delicious, and we can’t stop drinking it. $22/bottle
My sincerest apologies for rambling on to you guys, that got long. The truth is, I’m really proud of these wines. They are damn delicious and I’ve been waiting not so patiently to bring them all to you. I hope you all get as many bottles of Filomena as you can get your hands on and that they bring you as much joy drinking them as we had making them!
All wines are sold on a first come, first served basis. There are no allocations or limits per customer. The release is three weeks long, closing on Tuesday, April 27th at 10pm PST. Orders will begin shipping as early as April 10th and will continue to ship out as orders flow through. We will be hosting two non-contact Saturday pickup days in Novato on May 1st and May 8th. If you select the pickup option upon checkout, you will receive a follow-up email where you'll select the date and time slot that works best for you. We do have a limited supply of wines from last year's release on the "Library Wines" tab if you'd like to revisit any of those as well! Thank you all for you amazing support!
Cheers & Love,
Luke, Kat, & Kuma
PS – We also want to celebrate another love/obsession that we (mostly Luke) picked up during the pandemic, golf! To that end, any purchase of a case or more will get a sleeve (3) of Filomena branded Pro-V1s added to their order for free! FORE RIGHT!
