2016 Los Idiots

A blend of 55% Syrah and 45% Riesling. Another year older, another year wiser? With more grapes than ever heading to the press it’s hard for a clown to get any shut eye nowadays. Production marches on to the beat of a different drum and los idiots continue to think outside the box about what’s inside the barrel. Sometimes it’s better to listen to your gut instead of your head.

This one is a battle for the senses. Smells like a holiday party at mom’s house. Somehow neither grape dominates the nose but both shine. At the same time red fruits and citrus jump out, like if a plum and a meyer lemon had a baby. A plemon, it smells like a fat plemon. Its on the palette that the syrah makes itself known in soft subtle tannins, we think it works. 48 cases produced.

FRUIT SOURCES
Quaker Run Syrah from the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Syria (Madison County). Ox-Eye Riesling from the Shenandoah Valley.

WINEMAKING
Simple. Fermented on the skins, 75% whole cluster. Fermented with ambient yeasts and pressed at dryness. Malolactic and aging in old 228L French barrels. No racking and aged with low level of SO2. Bottled unfiltered August 2017.

CHEMISTRY
pH: 3.6
TA: 4.5 g/L
Free SO2 at bottling: 19 ppm
Alcohol: 12.3% abv
RS: 0.02 g/L
Malic Acid: 0.03 g/L