FREE YOUR MIND 101

Co-fermentation! The idea is to be more than the sum of the parts. At its core, Free Your Mind is an aromatic Orange wine: a skim-fermented Riesling. When the Riesling is mid-way through fermentation, pressed carbonic Carignan is gradually blended in via daily pump-overs. Our goals are to conduct a layered extraction of Riesling skins, to marry the two cuvees early in production, and protect the water matrix (low alcohol) extraction phase in the Riesling cuvee.

Carignan was picked at 21.3* Brix on August 15. The fruit enjoyed a couple weeks longer hang time and cooler temperatures at harvest than last vintage. Riesling was picked at 21.7* Brix on September 14. It was another cool growing season in the the Arroyo Seco AVA (Riesling) with impressive acidity. Riesling was de-stemmed and fermented on skins with twice daily pump-overs. At 1/2 Brix depletion, Riesling pump-overs were replaced with Carignan pump-overs (from another tank). Once the two cuvees were fully blended and fermented to dryness (14-day maceration), the lot was pressed to a stainless steel tank were it underwent malolactic fermentation and was aged on lees. This was was produced without fining or filtration, with 20ppm sulfur (KMBS) added at bottling.