Joy Sauvignon Blanc 2013
100% Sauvignon Blanc, the third great vintage from our J&J Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley.
Winner of a Silver Medal at the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition after only 3 months in bottle. The intense flavor of this delicious wine is captivating and you will instantly see why the French call their finest Sauvignon Blanc a "savage white!" This is no cool climate, grassy, herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc.
Unbelievable - this is a delicious Sauvignon Blanc! Crisp and elegant with grapefruit and citrus flavors on the nose rolling on to a beautiful ripe honeydew melon in the mouth. The slight mineral structure hints of limestone and suggests the wine's food pairing value as it lingers past the finish to leave you wanting more.
This wine was so good in the barrel that we tried something different this year and decided to forgo the process of cold stabilization to preserve the beautiful flavors.
Cold stabilization is a superficial process whose sole purpose is to make a wine "look" better by removing the "wine diamonds" which are completely harmless, and quite natural tartrate crystals that only form when a wine gets very cold.
In Europe these crystals are appreciated as a sign that the wine is natural however in America we are used to wine being clear, pure, filtered and processed. The higher quality a wine is, the more likely it is to have crystals because good wines are not cold stabilized, filtered or over processed, in order to preserve the intricacies and subtle character of the wine.
Since the tartaric acid and potassium are natural components of grapes, they cannot easily be removed so the winemaker forces the crystals to form by chilling the wine to near-freezing for three days. The crystals stick to the sides of the tank and when the wine is removed, the crystals remain behind.
As winemakers we believe that a portion of the flavor and uniqueness of the wine is stripped by this process so when this Sauvignon Blanc was tasting so well we decided to release it in its more natural state. Generally you will not see these crystals as their solubility is temperature-dependent, unless you really chill the wine, which you may do with this Sauvignon Blanc, especially since it is presented in a clear bottle.
If you ever seen these tartrates you need do absolutely nothing about them as they are completely tasteless, odorless and harmless. However, if you don’t like having these little crystals at the bottom of your wine bottle you can simply decant the white wine as you would an older red using a funnel with a screen or a coffee filter.
After fermenting in a temperature controlled tank the wine was allowed to élevage and mature for 11 months in neutral white French Oak barrels.
Harvested on September 2, 2013 we fermented 2,012 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc and produced only 841 cases of the 2013 Joy Sauvignon Blanc
| Color | White |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 2013 |
| Style | White Bordeaux |
| Appellation | Dry Creek Valley |
| Varietal | Sauvignon Blanc |
| Date Bottled | 18th Aug 2014 |
| Drinkable | 2014 - 2018 |
| Alcohol | 13.90% |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| PH Level | 3.3 |
