2019 Light Red Wine
This wine is versatile at the table because it has low tannin levels and higher acidity. It stands up to spicy and sour foods better than more traditional red wines, but it has enough structure to pair well with meats and other proteins. This wine is more extracted than the 2018 vintage, and the aromas that were evident through fermentation—blood orange, grapefruit, and juniper—have a stronger presence in the finished wine. There’s also more evident red fruit character, tending toward cherry, than in the previous vintage. I like to serve the wine pretty cool, but not fully fridge cold, as an aperetif and with lighter meals, pates, cheeses, fresh or grilled/roasted vegetable salads, beans, and lighter grilled or roasted meats.
Acidity held on strong at Breezy Slope in 2019, and sugars were slow to accumulate, which enabled a later harvest than in 2018. Slightly higher physiological maturity in the fruit, plus a higher proportion of Pinot Noir, made for a substantially darker color compared with the 2018 wine. The 2019 is still structured primarily by acidity, but has a fair bit more extraction than the previous year. This is a special wine made possible by the unique conditions at Breezy Slope Vineyard, nestled in the foothills of the blue mountains, right on the WA/OR border. The elevation, aspect, water holding capacity of the soils, and the rapid air exchange at this site allow cool-climate wine grapes to thrive in the otherwise quite hot climate of the Walla Walla valley.
The wine was made by gentle whole-cluster maceration (Pinots Gris and Noir all mixed together, stems and all) for about a week, followed by pressing and finishing in neutral barrels where it aged on lees, with occasional stirring, until bottling. Because of the antioxidant properties of the lees, I was able to keep the sulfite dosage extremely low (about 50ppm over the entire course of production). The wine is bottled unfiltered, with a small quanitiy of lees making it into each bottle.
