This wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the biodynamic Fig Tree Vineyard on Quivira's Dry Creek Valley estate. Adding an interesting twist to conventional CA Sauv Blanc viniculture, winemaker Steven Canter barrel ferments and ages about 40% of this wine in a combination of French oak and Acacia wood barrels, giving the wine a richer mouthfeel than the racy and crisp un-oaked Fig Tree Vineyard bottling (pictured).
This wine is a brilliant pale-gold in the glass, with nice aromas of meyer lemon, pear, and melon rind on the nose, accented by subtle lanolin, woodsmoke, gingery spice, and flinty minerals. The wine has a smooth attack which rolls into a beatifully sliky and creamy mouthfeel. Solid acidity acts as a foil to the influence of the wood and keeps everything balanced and far from too round. This lovely mouthfeel is a vehicle for meyer lemon, grapefruit, pear, and waxy melon flavors of excellent purity and depth. An complex array of subbtle oak, smoke, spice, herb, and mineral flavors play in the background and do not intrude on the forward fruit. Everything follows through nicely on the finish, with the bright acidity bringing things to a clean and refreshing close. As befits the purity, a white grape note lingers.
I really love this wine. It takes Sauvignon Blanc to a very different place, without compromising the purity of the fruit. The way the fruit, acidtiy, and even the influence of the different woods from the barrels come together on the palate is fascinating. The fresh-fruit acidity characteristic of pretty much all manifestations of Sauvignon Blanc is there in full force, so this is definitely a food wine. My choice was Chilean sea bass with a reduced pan sauce made from this wine, pomelo juice, and a bit of butter and fresh herbs. The combination was phenomenal.
$28 at the winery does not make this a bargain as Sauvignon Blanc goes, but youy will rarely find such a singular expression of this varietal from CA - or perhaps anywhere but Sancerre and Graves.
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