2011 The Sylphs Guman Vineyard
2011 was nearly a year of true bounty in the Guman’s vineyard: our largest harvest since 2002. Years of careful pruning and shoot selection, since the catastrophic harvest of 2008, had finally paid off. And the quality was excellent too: very intense, tannic fruit; coming in with its slightly pumpkin-y suntan. The fermentations were rapid but, for reasons that I will never understand, two baby barrels spoiled immediately after harvest. We saved one of them through re-fermentation, but another sits sadly in the winery, with a blue-tape skull and cross bones on it. Everything that comes from the vineyard is so precious that I cannot bring myself to destroy the barrel, but the wine is so profoundly spoiled that now it has no home. The rest of the wine is a Sylphian triumph: flor-affected, deeply nutty, rich, precise.
13 cases produced