2023 Conduit Fair Play - El Dorado Co. Grenache Noir

Made to Chill

Tasting Notes

A perfect Grenache for Pinot drinkers, this chillable red wine is bursting with aromas of potpourri, baking spice and light white pepper, leading into fruit flavors of bing cherries, red currant, pomagranate and cranberry. It's delicious, it's versatile, and we have paired with anything from pizza to duck to grilled chicken, hambergers, and vegetables...the fresh acidity and light tannin finish would even hold up to red meats like Hanger Steak and Filet Mignon. We recommend you serve with a slight chill.

Winemaking

Harvest: 1/2 of the grapes were put into large T-bins whole cluster, the remaining half were de-stemmed on top, creating a partial carbonice maceration fermentation environment. Grapes were foot stomped daily until native ferment started breaking down the grapes enough to do daily punchdowns.

Harvest: October 17, 2023

Aging: 9 months in old French Oak barrels

Yeast: Indigenous

Bottled without fining or filtration

Winemaker Notes

Fair Play Viticultural Area

Located in southern El Dorado County, the Fair Play AVA is one of the smallest viticultural areas in California, also boasting one of the highest elevations as well, with nearly all grapes grown between 2,000’ - 3,000’ elevation. The combination of high elevation plantings with the granitic and loam soils produce world-class wines with both complexity as well as lively structure.

Vintage

The 2023 vintage was marked by a long, cool growing season, which allowed our fruit to hang and slowly develop phenolic ripeness, or harmony of the sugars with the acids in the grapes. A few late summer rains set the grape development back a few times, leading to even more extended hang time in what could amount to be one of the best vintages of my lifetime!

Varietal

I have always loved the diversity of wines my from Grenache. The grape produces amazing rosé as well as a light structured reds to be enjoyed on their own or as a great blending element with a number of other wines. After moving to Fair Play in 2020, I found a private vineyard with the Tablas Creek clone of Grenache, which originated in the Southern Rhône and makes extremely expressive wines, .