So many Viogniers are fatty and thick and too flabby. This is not that. This wine has energy, vibrance, and enthusiasm. It is lean, bright and intriguing.
This wine has a load of herbaceous notes, with orange and citrus blossoms, and wildflowers. It is zesty and alive. The mouth is all stone fruit- apricot and peaches galore. High acid and and lifted, this wine is super clean and both food friendly and quaffable.
This wine was whole cluster pressed, barrel fermented in neutral French oak and aged on the lees for six months. Bottles with no Malo-lactic fermentation.
2020 McKahn Family Viognier
$36.00
“If I could tell you what my biggest goal as a winemaker, and particularly with McKahn family is to make Rhone wines more popular to the average wine consumer.
Viognier is my baby. It’s just a beautiful, bright wine. This fruit is from Catie’s Corner which is near Windsor, east of the Russian River. It is owned by Kunde and farmed by the Duttons- two of Sonoma’s most well know wine families. I got connected to them because of Chappellet. I was part of the team that had made Viognier at Chappellet.
I pick Viognier at a pretty moderate Brix level. I do a whole cluster press. The temptation to destem it is very high because the juice yields are terrible. As a business owner, I get really amped up about the juice yields. They’re very dry clusters, very thick skins and not a lot of juice. I do a barrel ferment. Pretty warm fermentation, 65 degrees usually. We age it for six months. I stir it every two weeks through the first of the year, and then I stop stirring. We bottle it every March. No Malo, no new oak.
I happen to think it’s an elegant wine. If you have this wine up against a Chardonnay, for instance, I think it’s a lot more elegant, very fruit-forward, floral, and a lot of stone fruit. Peaches, apricots, some melons, but mostly spring flowers and ripe stone fruits. I’m always very proud of this one.”