Variety: Ribolla Gialla
Location: Napa Valley, CA
Alcohol: 12%

The Ribolla Gialla tastes like hazelnuts, baking spices, meyer lemon curd, Bartlett pear, but most of all it has a stony minerality that is incredibly distinctive. There is supple tannic structure and fresh balanced acidity, with great weight and length given the moderate alcohol.

Wine was fermented whole cluster with native yeast in an open-top tank using punchdowns. After two weeks the must was pressed, and the wine was aged for 18 months sur lees in neutral barrels.

The Ribolla Gialla represents seven rows in the Matthiasson vineyard in the Western Oak Knoll area of Napa Valley. It was grafted onto 15-year-old Merlot vines. George Vare was given a few sticks of the budwood from Josko Gravner in 2001 and grafted it into his own vineyard, which Steve was managing. Steve (and then Jill) fell in love with the variety in the process, and immediately grafted the variety into their own vineyard when they purchased it in 2006. Farmed using only organic methods, with fruit trees at the ends of the rows.