This is a side of Mourvédre that I wish I could see more of. I love Mourvédre in general, and in many wines I have heralded the irony meaty characteristics of the variety. This wine is so much more feminine, floral and delicate than that.
I get bright red fruit with a gorgeous backbone of minerality. It is balanced, and floral with a soft and silky finish. This is not a daily pounder, but a really lovely and lifted and graceful bottling.
Destemmed to a stainless-steel fermentation tank. Cold soaked for 5 days before inoculation and fermented on the skins for a total of 14 days. The finished wine is a blend of 85% Mourvèdre and 15% Petite Sirah. Aged in 25% new French oak barrels, 75% neutral oak for 18 months prior to bottling.
2018 McKahn Family Mourvédre
$42.00
“This fruit is from Livermore Valley, a vineyard owned by the Wentes called Raboli. It was a family that had vines before prohibition. It’s a really rocky crunchy site. When you’re walking around the vineyard it’s just rocks. From Pleasanton to Livermore it’s an old quarry so there’s just rocks all over the place. Really crunchy site, and it makes really extracted complex wine. You do have to catch it early before it gets tannic.
Also from Livermore, one of my one of my best blending tools was a Petite Sirah that we used to get and this is 15% Petit Sirah.
I only rack them off of alcoholic fermentation. I let them sit on the ML lees all the way through, which is something that’s different from my Bordeaux wine making. This encourages reduction a little bit, not actively making it reductive. The barrels are oxidative at the top and reductive at the bottom so it is still getting oxygen but it’s nothing like a racking.
This works with Rhones.”