2010 Idle Cellars Viognier
Tasting Notes:
Like a late night summer breeze, our gentle Viognier satisfies the heat of the moment. An adult version of the fruit cocktail with hints of pears, pineapples, and Crenshaw melons. A subtle minerality laces through the soft structure of the wine. A perfect wine that hits the spectrum of food pairings. From goat cheese salad to spicy Asian food, to kickin' it on the porch during those hot summer nights, this Viognier is your ticket to paradise.
We received our 1.6 tons of 2010 Viognier grapes on the 6th of October. We sorted the fruit in the vineyard following the tractor, de-leafing every picking bin. The fruit was harvested before sunrise and placed in the press as the sun came up, keeping it nice and cold. We pressed the juice into a cold tank and let it settle for 2 days. We then racked it off it's lees into neutral white barrels for fermentation. We used the yeast strain CY-3079 as it's good for slow barrel fermentation. The Viognier took 3 weeks to ferment. We added sulfur the moment it went try to keep it from going through malolactic fermentation. It was racked off its lees again and placed in barrel for 5 months. We added bentonite before bottling for heat stability. We bottled the Viognier on March 6th 2011 and added very little sulfur as we wanted to start drinking the wine by May first.