The wine comes in an extreme variety of styles from light to very dark red (?), depending on the amount of sunlight the grape clusters are exposed to as a result of leaf pruning. In short, shaded result in a “green” or “grassy” tasting wine, whereas grapes exposed to sunlight produce a citric style. The wine is sometimes called Fume Blanc when aged in oak barrels but this is not a legal definition so beware.

I’ve been making Sauvignon Blanc wine since 1982 starting with fruit from Amador’s Clockspring Vineyard, El Dorado’s Sunny Oak Vineyard and now since 1994 our own estate vineyards. The cuttings from which we established our estate Sauvignon Blanc vineyards came from Amador Foothill Winery in the Shenandoah Valley. Amador Foothill Winery’s Ben and Katie have made countless award-winning Sauvignon Blancs for decades. But like every grape we grow once it’s rooted in our soil, on our hill, at our elevation, grown organically this Sauvignon Blanc takes on its own persona. And what is true is give 5 winemakers the exact same grapes and you will have 5 different wines.

The evolution of my style of Sauvignon Blanc started with harvesting grapes that were golden ripe resulting in white wines of high alcohol with the flavor profile of warm pears and rich mouth-feel. Then I made a giant pendulumn swing by picking the grapes when the average was 22.5 – 23 Brix to capture the full spectrum of green to gold. This not only brought forward a new flavor profile but lowered the alcohol resulting in a fantastic refreshing lighter style.  So for the first decade of this new Millennia we’ve been perfecting this most enjoyable style.