2019 Giocondo Grenache
This brand new wine is a wonderful representation of the Grenache varietal - presenting with notes of bright candied cherry, raspberry, cedar, and cooking spice. With fine-grain tannin and detailed structure, this is a serious wine that has long ability potential! And a wonderful tribute to one of the Jacuzzi brothers Giocondo.
The J. Poppe Ranch in Carneros is home to the grapes that make this wine. Situated on the East facing slope of Carneros in Sonoma, this Ranch is exposed to fog from the San Pablo Bay and achieves an extremely long hang-time allowing a depth of complex flavors to develop. The vines are recently planted so we are just beginning to see the quality and promise from these grapes. They are planted in well-drained volcanic soils, producing small amounts of intense fruit.
The grapes are hand-harvested first thing at dawn and transferred to the winery across the road to Jacuzzi where they are gently destemmed and transferred to a closed top tank. Here they begin spontaneous fermentation and are pumped over twice a day. It spends two weeks on skins before being pressed out and transferred directly to barrels, 35% of which is new French oak barrels, from a range of luxury producers. We inoculate with a house strain of ML bacteria and then it is allowed to age for 15 months with one racking during this time before bottling unfined.
