Alberto
My first harvest job was picking grapes and running trucks full of grape bins to wineries throughout Oregon. It was a crash course in "the wine life". Alberto was the first guy to show me how to identify grapes on the vine, the first guy to show me how to pick grapes, the first guy to show me how to strap down bins, and how to not ride the brakes. This wine is named after him. Depending on the vintage this wine is a co-fermentation of Tempranillo, Syrah, Grenache, and Alvarinho, all from the northern edge of the Willamette Valley. This wine is always native fermented, aged in old French oak, and is bottled unfiltered and unfined (vegan).
Alberto
2017
Our first vintage. I was able to secure a tiny amount of each of the experimental grapes from the XXXX Vineyard. Alvarinho, Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Viognier were all destemmed and layered in a fermenter in a method we call the “lasagna method”. The grapes on top were gently disturbed twice a day until fermentation began. Once fermentation started, we pumped the juice over once a day. This wine had ZERO added sulfites and was bottled unfined (vegan) and unfiltered.
2018
With more access to fruit from the XXXX Vineyard we decided to make individual wines from the same experimental grapes. With the 2018 vintage we co-fermented the Tempranillo and Grenache. For more structure, during fermentation we punched down twice a day. This wine was aged in a mixture of 3-4 year old French oak barrels and was topped during elevation with Graciano. Not your typical American Tempranillo. Decant this wine and serve at cellar temperature.
2019
With the success of the idea to top with Graciano, we set out to replace the Grenache. This co-fermentation of Graciano, Syrah, and mostly Tempranillo, the 2019 is the most structured wine to date. An incredible core of dark fruit notes, incense, and old leather, this wine was left in barrel for 18 months, then bottled unfined (vegan) and unfiltered.