2023 • Benchlands 2023

Benchlands 2023

Varietal:

53% Nero d'Avola, 26% Valdiguié, 16% Petite Sirah, 3% Colombard, 2% Carignan

Alcohol:

12.5%

Vinification Notes:

Nero d’Avola and Petite Sirah were each fermented separately in small batches while the Carignan, Valdiguié, and Colombard grapes were harvested and co-fermented as one lot (red and white grapes together!). The components were kept separate after pressing and aged in neutral oak barrique. Racked, blended, and bottled after 18 months. Unfined. Lightly filtered.

Vineyard:

Bricarelli Ranch, Ukiah, Mendocino County, 17-year-old head-trained, dry farmed (non-irrigated) vineyard, farmed by us to organic principles (no pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers); gravelly loam soils.

Ricetti Vineyard, Redwood Valley, Mendocino County; planted in 1948; dry farmed (non-irrigated), certified organic vineyard; gravelly loam soils.

Venturi Vineyard, Calpella, Mendocino County; planted 1948; dry-farmed (non-irrigated), certified organic vineyard; Pinole gravelly loam soils.

Tasting Notes:

Tuck a berry basket in your backpack just in case and take a trip down a meandering coastal trail with notes of warm spice and wild berries—this wine welcomes adventure. Reward yourself for your forest-filled findings with the tannin structure of fine black tea, like Ceylon. This field blend of mostly dark-fruited grapes is made in a very light style, and we return to this team favorite year after year.

Martha's Notes

Our Benchlands cuveé celebrates inland Mendocino County, and the unique mix of grape varieties that made their way to the Ukiah area as a result of the Italian diaspora. Grapes from Sicily, the South of France and Southern Spain (via western coastal Italy), were all planted here by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Since these farmers grew far more than wine grapes, they also transplanted the farming traditions of their homeland: they planted grapes on the less fertile uplifted benchland soils and reserved the rich valley floors for vegetable farming. All of the vineyards in this blend are planted on those uplifted benchlands and are dry-farmed (non-irrigated), just as they would have been back in the late 1800’s. Many of the farmers I work with are the third and fourth generation of those original families.
Through a mix of gentler fermentation techniques and white and red grape co-fermentation, Benchlands is reminiscent of a more brooding Cerasuolo—a delicate red wine with a bright core, but think more wild forest berries than bright cherry.