2015 Blowout Blanc Lost Slough Vineyard
45% LOURREIRO
36% GRÜNER
19% VERDELHO
We harvested Grüner and Verdelho on the same day in late July, pressed and fermented all of the fruit together.
We “pressed” at Tenbrink, the most grapes we have ever worked with in a day, by the utterly innovative and unforeseen MAGIC PRESS™: we destemmed, but did not crush, the grapes into our large stainless tank and then did nothing else: welet the weight of the grapes press the juice on its own without any intervention.
We kept the whole thing chilled and under CO2, and after 3 days, drained away all of the juice— about 80% of the yield we would have expected if we had used a normal press. We then dug out the tank, pressed the pomace gently and reserved the press wine.
About 3 weeks later, we harvested the super late-ripening, but very low sugar, Lourreiro and performed the same magic pressing. We then fermented the juice partially on its own and then combined it with the now fermented Grüner and Verdelho wine and allowed the whole thing to complete a fermentation together.
After about 6 week’s lees contact, we filtered the combined wines to prevent malolactic fermentation, and began bottling on November 4. With the Méthode Futuriste, speed is everything!
The Lourreiro is highly floral in a Muscat-y way as a grape, but develops deep funky Chenin-like notes as a fermented wine. We thought that the 2014 Blowout was so successful in a charming way, but Alex and Dani and I wanted to push the complexity and more adult-nature of 2015 wine. We accomplished this by using a plurality of the musky Lourreiro in the blend and extending the lees contact before filtration. Consequently, this vintage is darker, more saline, more minerally and even somewhat earthy and animal—though the wine remains charming and flattering in the mouth. The point of comparison is more serious Chablis than fun Prosecco.
We are also learning about carbonation: this wine shows fewer visible bubbles than the 2014, but it was actually bottled at almost a full atmosphere of pressure higher (we are getting better at using the equipment) and has more dissolved CO2. But it has less protein in suspension— and the bubbles need protein molecules on which to nucleate. We toyed with adding processed yeast protein to jack up the bubbles, but decided “fuck that.” We like carbonating, but we don’t like adding things out of bags from factories. The intensity of the pétillance remains undiminished in the mouth.
We feel that this 2015 Blowout, our second vintage, released in December 2015, is a perfect expression of the Esprit Futuriste.
Total production about 700 cases.