Vineyard Notes
The 2022 Moose comes from a combination of our Estate Block 8 Syrah, a south facing chalky slope which is our lowest yielding, most intensely structured Syrah we produce. The Petit Verdot from our estate produces extremely small berries and is one of the few varieties that can compete enough on the palate with Syrah to reveal its own unique dark fruit character. The 2022 vintage was challenging with its early ripening and distinct profile. Very atypical for Paso Robles, the juice was ahead of the skins and seeds, so different fermentation practices were required to make these wines shine.
Production
580 Cases Produced
Production Notes
The 2 blocks of Syrah and Petit Verdot were hand picked the same day, de-stemmed without crushing and fermented in 4.5 ton open top concrete tanks. Twice daily pump-overs were performed for the first 5 days of ferment, followed by combination of delestage and pump over to maximize oxygen interplay. After 4 days, the ferment slowed down and was allowed to complete to dryness with twice daily punch downs. Usually for the Moose we allow a long extended maceration for maximum extraction, but that would have been disaster in 2022. The skins and seeds had powerful woody tannin in them, so only needed a quick 9 total days on skins to pull out adequate structure. The must was pressed and all press/free run fractions were combined. The resulting wine was aged for 20 months in a combination of 4000L neutral French oak tank and 265L French oak barrels, 60% of which was new.
Food Pairing Notes
This is a wine that needs to face off with the small end cut of prime rib, slow roasted for maximum sophistication.
