2016 Merryvale Petite Sirah Juliana Vineyard

Winemaking

Juliana Vineyards rewards attention to detail with world-class Petite Sirah. The variety has a lot of power naturally and offers lovely floral and spice notes when tamed. The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning hours to preserve the freshness and skin integrity of the fruit. The fruit was destemmed and cold soaked for 5 days. We used native yeast to ferment the fruit for about 14 days at a low temperature to promote flavors and limit bitterness and too much extraction. Malolactic fermentation occurred in the barrel and the wine was racked every 3 months for 18 months. Only French oak barrels were used, 30% new from the center of France with the rest once and twice used. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Tasting Notes

The wine opens with beautiful notes of violets and lilacs and then changes to blue fruits such as blueberry and raspberry before ending on chocolate and savory herbs. This wine has a lot of color and it tastes like it, showing the round entry typical of the wines with a lot of phenolics, and displays early fine tannins that brings structure. It ends on beautiful notes of dark chocolate and spice. Decant for an hour before serving it to promote the fruit characteristics.