Winemaker's Notes
This is not a typo! This is a unicorn. Bottled this past August after 9 winters in stainless steel barrels. This is the final edition of a project I inherited from a good friend, Tom Klassen (now winemaker at Patz & Hall Winery). I invited him to move the project to my winery a dozen years ago when his previous hosting winery condition changed. His original plan was to ferment and age in 2 old wooden and 2 stainless steel barrels to stretch out the wine’s dimension with oxygen transfer differences and then bottle with 11 months age. Unfortunately, the Gewürztraminer sales project fizzled when Tom’s day job took all his time and I later inherited/adopted the unlabeled bottled wines from the 10/11 and 2012 vintages which I hope many of you remember were released under my label in 2020. Well, this is a different twist on that theme as most of the aging occurred before bottling! So, we have a freshly bottled, well-aged unicorn of a wine that is even beyond Tom’s original vision of ‘terpenoid grape variety goodness.’ I am delighted to have been a part of this as a supportive character in previous editions and eventually the editor of the final cut.
This 2013 has tons of classic Lychee on the nose! Some lemon-lime and hint of honey show up along with a subtle umami/non-fruit element to balance this incredible fruit. It’s like the genie cannot wait to get out of the bottle after being contained in stainless steel barrels for nearly a decade! This defies conventional wisdom and makes me question what is actually wisdom.
It has good body and perfectly balancing acidity as Tom intended (wondering why he was invited in initially?). Absolutely bone-dry, it is versatile with food (especially Thanksgiving fare) or just as a refreshing, exotic prelude to the meal. Just two stainless steel barrels were produced. Nobody else I know of will go out to make a delicious wine on purpose this way, as amazing as it is. Only 45 cases produced, limit 6.
