This wine is confusing because you don’t know what it is “supposed” to taste like, but then magically the bottle is gone while you are trying to figure it out.
It leads with incense and orange peel, strawberry, watermelon and rhubarb. There is a bit of fuzzy tannin even though it is a light wine. As it opens it becomes more savory and spicy.
Andy and Mabel did 2 ferments on this wine- one fully de-stemmed one with 50% whole cluster, with partial carbonic maceration. This is the blend of those two.
2020 Found Wine Mission
$30.00
So Mission has a LONG history in California.
The Mission grape first came to the city from Spain, where it was known as listán prieto, with Father Junípero Serra, whose priests planted vines from New Mexico down to Baja; it is also grown in Peru and Chile, where it is known as criolla and pais. In Spain is now only grown on the Canary Islands.
According to the Department of Agriculture, there are currently only about 400 acres of Mission grapes statewide, compared with the 10,000 acres estimated in Santa Ana alone in the 1850s.
While it fell out of fashion for a long time, Mission is enjoying a massive renaissance now, with hip winemakers seeking it out and hip wine drinkers hunting it down all around California.
The vineyard this wine comes from is is in Lodi and the vines are around 80 years old, which is young for how ancient some of the Mission fruit is in California. The vines are huge trunks that look like trees, they are hearty and thick skinned which naturally protects them from pests.
Generally, the characteristics of Mission are that is it is light in color, low in acid, and could easily be mistaken for a Rosé. It has bitterness and orange pithyness to it as well, and is meant to be enjoyed young.
If you want to learn more about Mission, and its revival, you can read about it here,here, and here.