The Verge- Russian River Valley, Sonoma, United States

The Verge is made up of two wines, a Russian River Chardonnay and an Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

It was originally set up for an on premise chain in Texas, but of course that was all upset with the coming of COVID, and so as we have inventory we decided to release into the off-premise retail arena. The name The Verge means winemaking on the edge. It always feels like we’re on a precipice when it comes to making wine. The weather is always a factor, whether the pickers will show up on time, and whether we will have an empty tank to accommodate the fruit. All very good intrinsic questions that are done during the heat of harvest. Even though we make great plans once the grapes start coming, the questions come. While we are good planners, winemaking may also need to be the art of the practical.

The Chardonnay vineyard is in the Sebastopol Hills which is the second coldest location in the Russian River after the Green Valley. It is a beautiful area, slightly higher in elevation than Green Valley, and

consists of more rolling hills rather than the hollow that Green Valley appears to sit in. The vineyard was planted in 1978 and is an old marcel or field selection. It was selected for its sub-tropical characters of passionfruit and melon. The clone is called a “See” selection. We share this vineyard with another wine that we make called Fog’s Edge, but they are different blocks. This block is more in the Piedmont location of the vineyard, which is ideal in terms of exposure, airflow and drainage. The vineyard was never replanted as others were in 1990 because the vineyard is on Gold Ridge sandy loam which does not have very much organic matter and so the phylloxera cannot live there. The clusters are made up of big and small berries indicating some level of virus. This is

not a bad thing by any means and actually is an indicator of quality. Flavors are quite random, and yes, quite subtropical. They are not as cool in flavor as the Dijon peach aromatic or the UC Davis apple and pear aromatic. This fruit is far more interesting and flavorful, rather than being clonal. Field selections are unique, especially at this older age because they are very low yield and slow to ripen. The clones such as 95, 96 and 76 were selected for fast accumulation of sugar and high yield. In terms of winemaking, it is made 80% in concrete and 40% in old

barrel. What we are looking for is the autolysis characters similar to what we see with aged champagne. The yeast remains in contact with the wine for 14 to 16 months before we rack and bottle. We also use very little SO2 during the winemaking process and therefore if you open the bottle and leave it, there will be very little change in color or aroma even after 4 to 5 days. This is Chablis style so although it smells vanilla it is imparted by the yeast, but the mouth is bright, mineral and electric.

The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Geyserville, which is in the middle of the Alexander Valley. The vineyard faces east and is well known for itsbright fruit and supple tannins. I have been working on this vineyard since 1991 when it was part of Simi. The property has changed ownership, but we continued to work with the fruit during this time. We picked this vineyard three different times based on canopy and crop size. We end up making each pick separately. The piece that we pick early we call the dense component and the piece that we pick at the end is the elegant component. The one in the middle is the powerful component, but when we blend all three together, we have a very complex wine. This wine is 100% barrel aged. It is classic Alexander Valley being red cherry, blueberry, and black cherry with a little bit of blackberry. The wine tends to be more elegant and structural than what you get from the Napa Valley. That means the wine is alive and you get this mineral graphite and bright electric character, which I find extremely appealing. The wine will stay purple and red for 25 years as I can show you a wine this old from the same vineyard.