Kingfisher Sauvignon Blanc

VINTAGE NOTES

2022 in Lake County was a good year for farming. Bud break was on the early side but avoided all potential frost damage with a warm spring. The summer was warm, but cooler than recent vintages with no extended heat waves that can cook the grapes. Generally, Lake has a slightly shorter growing season compared to Napa and Sonoma, so the wines show brighter and crisper lemony-citrus notes.

VINEYARD NOTES

The grapes for the 2022 Kingfisher are sourced from two small block in the Big Valley AVA on the shores of Clear Lake. The Vineyard is on slightly uplifted valley floor on a gentle slope. Grapes were harvested early at 21.3 Brix.  The result is floral lemony fruit flavors and a lifting, crisp acidity from the cool Northern California air – all combining to allow great food wines to emerge.

WINEMAKING PRACTICES

Winemaking decisions were made to let the vineyard - the place - speak through the wine. No heavy-handed oak or additives were used to mold this wine into something it is not. Instead, very little is done except to keep it clean and to allow the wine to become itself. The 2022 Kingfisher Sauvignon Blanc is 100% fermented in stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel and cooler fermentation temperatures were used to lock in aromatics and preserve crispness. This amplifies the aromatic, while no malolactic fermentation and a short stainless steel elevage were choices designed to produce a crisp, lively food wine. With no fining involved in the production, this wine is a pure distillation of the Big Valley AVA in Lake County, California.

WINEMAKER’S TASTING NOTES

The 2022 Kingfisher Sauvignon Blanc is blended with 8% Pinot Grigio, giving our Kingfisher Sauvignon Blanc more complexity and depth. The Sauvignon Blanc minerality and lemony fruit is predominant, but there is a subtle warming depth rounding out an otherwise linear focus. The Kingfisher, like all Trinty River wines, is joyful, clean, fruit-driven wine. This vintage is subtly aromatic, but flavors full of citrus-fruit, bright white peach and granite. It is a crisp, non-oaked wine with a cooler climate acidity that is typical for the more northern and mountainous Lake County. This white wine is ready now but has 2-3 years of staying power not typical in fat, over-ripe whites.

FOOD PAIRING NOTES

The 2022 Kingfisher Sauvignon Blanc is a great choice for seafood. I love it with raw or grilled oysters, but the Italian side of the family loves it with clam linguini. Cheers!

VARIETAL COMPOSITION:

92% Sauvignon Blanc, 8% Pinot Gris

APPELLATION: Mendocino County, CA

ALCOHOL: 12.5%

T.A. AT BOTTLING: 7.6 g/L

pH AT BOTTLING: 3.64

BRIX AT HARVEST: 21.3°

R.S.: less than 0.02%

COOPERAGE: Stainless steel fermentation and maturation.

MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION: none

Production: 413 cases