2006 Dulcissima CamillaFarina Vineyard
This wine began as “LSB-D” in the cellar, because of the attentive eye of Jason Berthold. We had pressed the juice for the LSB and were very happy with what we got. Two days later, we were racking the tank in which the juice had settled and filling barrels with it. When we had barreled down about three-quarters of the juice, Jason noticed that the juice flowing through the hoses was getting darker and darker. We opened the tank and inspected. The juice was not bright green and pectiny any more—as it had been at the beginning. It was brown and turbid. Not pretty. Jason said, “we don't make wine from stuff like this.” But the fruit was too beautiful—and the grapes too expensive—to discard. So we barreled down the juice separately and labeled it “LSB-D”— for dark.
The juice fermented immediately, probably because it was relatively high in pH and very high in solids. The wine settled very quickly and the wine was immediately brilliant, one of the most attractive in the cellar. It is lower in acid than LSB, rich, exotic, more redolent of rain forest and musky herbs.
It is named for Camilla, the beautiful warrior princess who nearly defeats Aeneas at the end of Vergil’s Aeneid.
42 cases produced.