This wine leads with all the cherries – Bing, Ranier, red, ripe, cola’d, stewed. It is what you would get if wild cherry Pepsi and grilled portabella mushrooms had a baby. There is clove, cinnamon and cranberry. There is dustiness rather than to the finish in a good way.
I would have this with lamb loin or Thanksgiving.
This wine was aged for 11 months in French oak barrels.
2018 Ricci St. Laurent
$37.00
When this was planted in 2001, this was the only block of St. Laurent in the country. That is because Dale is a badass. There, I said it.
He and a friend were looking for new ideas about what to plant in cool climates and the stumbled upon St. Laurent in a book. The friend (who was German) went back to Germany and asked a farmer for a cutting. He brought them back to Sonoma (these are called Suitcase Clones because they technically are illegal but are how a lot of clones got to the US. The risk is they might carry virus. These, luckily, were clean.) where Dale planted them in his experimental block. He grew to love the variety and later grafted over the whole block (save the 41 muscat vines) to St. Laurent.
St. Laurent is widely planted in Austria and is a parent of Zweigelt, Austria’s most planted grape. The origins of St. Laurent are less known. Pinot Noir appears to be one parent, leaving the other extinct and unidentified.