2021 Light Red Wine
The Marginalia Light Red Wine is cofermented from whole-cluster Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir grown in the same block at Breezy Slope Vineyard on the eastern foothills of the Walla Walla AVA. The exact percentage of each variety varies from year to year, depending on growing conditions (2020 was 3:1 led by Pinot Gris, but 2021 is 3:1 led by Pinot Noir). This Pinot Noir heavy vintage highlights light/crunchy red fruit and has softer tannins sodfter acidity than the previous vintage. It’s very light in color, but definitely not a Rose in terms of structure or palate intensity. The aroma is strongly influenced by stem inclusion, which confers an herbal, sometimes piney edge. Early pressing minimizes extraction of seed and stem tannins, so we got fresh stemmy aromatics without stemmy astringency. Subtle citrus elements are more evident in this bottling than previous vintages. Aging on lees for six months with occasional stirring softened the edges of the wine and kept it fresh with almost no SO2 added. This is a fantasticaly versatile wine that matches well with lighter prioteins, lots of vegetables and legumes, and can even take a bit of spice: think Chile Verde, Tamales, stir fries with Sichuan chili-bean paste.
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.
2021 was a warm vintage with low yields, so ripening proceeded very quickly at the end of the summer. In order to keep alcoholl restrained and retain acid I picekd the vineyard on the last day of August. This was an early pick, but only about a week earlier than the previous vintage. The Pinot Noir was less physiologically mature than the Pinot Gris, so the high proportion of Noir gave helped to secure about an extra week of ripening to soften the tannin of the Pinot Gris. Acidity was high at harvest, but softened more than usual during fermentation and elevage because of high potasium levels and higher tthan usual malic acid (which degrades during the process). Slightly more pigment and slightly lower acid make this a fruitier, softer vintage, though there is still plenty of structuring acidity.
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 30 ppm over the entire course of production). The wine is bottled unfiltered, and it pours with a very light haze.
