NSFW Montepulciano 2021

Why Montepulciano? We’ll be honest: our favorite wines from Abruzzo are the light-on-their-feet, downright chuggable, barely red but not quite rosé wines of the region. So we set out to see if that could be done in California. If authentic renditions of esoteric Italy are your thing, then Fox Hill Vineyard is the place to be. Vinification: All grapes were lightly foot-tread and macerated on skins and stems for four days. As fermentation began to kick off, the grapes were gently pressed in a traditional ratchet-style wood basket press into fiberglass and allowed to undergo primary fermentation off the skins. Primary and secondary fermentation occurred with wild yeasts and native bacteria from the vineyard, and the wine was allowed to rest on all lees for ten months. It was bottled without fining or filtration, with a small addition of 10parts winemaking sulfur prior to bottling. Notes: Montepulciano is such a densely colored and flavored grape variety that those brief 96 hours on skins