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Scholium Project 1MN 2016 750ml

size
750ml
country
United States
region
California
appellation
Lodi
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WNR
Winery
This wine is composed of 100% Cinsault from the amazing Bechtold Ranch vineyard, planted in 1870 on its own roots, in deep, sandy loam soil deposited by the Mokelumne River, flowing down from the Sierras. The vineyard is on the west side of Lodi in an area where the ground is often heavy, clay loam—but Bechtold is in the old flood plain of the Mokelumne, and its Sierra sand balances the heavy loam. The vineyard is so old and healthy that it has never been replanted, thus the fact the the vines still grow on their own (ungrafted) roots. We make this wine in the simplest possible way: we bring the fruit in from the vineyard, introduce it gradually into 600 liter puncheons turned vertical, with their heads removed. We stomp all of the fruit as it goes in, releasing the juice from about a third of the fruit. Then we leave it alone. In a week or so, fermentation starts and a cap forms. Still we leave it alone. We call this the Courier Protocol—an extended floating cap fermentation with a minimum of punchdowns and no pumpovers. After about 3 weeks of fermentation, we drain the wine away, press the remaining pomace very gently, and age the two wines (press and free-run) separately for about a year, in 220 liter neutral oak barrels. The wine usually ages without SO2 and is bottled with 0 free and about 40 mg/L total. A note on the name: We were originally told that the vineyard was planted to “Black Malvasia.” I knew that this was one of those weird, very local names the settlers from all over Europe called the vines that they planted in California— like Napa Gamay and Grey Riesling. But it never occurred to me that it referred to anything other than the Italian grape that I knew as Malvasia Nera. And then, after two years, I learned that the Germans who settled, and planted, this part of Lodi used the name Black Malvasia for what we know, universally, as Cinsault. We called the wine “1MN” because it was then the first fruit that we brought into the winery and we thought that it was Malvasia Nera.
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Scholium Project 1MN 2016 750ml

SKU 859874
Out of Stock
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Winery Scholium Project
barrel

Region: California

California as a wine producing region has grown in size and importance considerably over the past couple of centuries, and today is the proud producer of more than ninety percent of the United States' wines. Indeed, if California was a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, with a vast range of vineyards covering almost half a million acres. The secret to California's success as a wine region has a lot to do with the high quality of its soils, and the fact that it has an extensive Pacific coastline which perfectly tempers the blazing sunshine it experiences all year round. The winds coming off the ocean cool the vines, and the natural valleys and mountainsides which make up most of the state's wine regions make for ideal areas in which to cultivate a variety of high quality grapes.
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Country: United States

For three hundred years now, the United States has been leading the New World in wine production, both in regards to quantity and quality. Wine is actually produced in all fifty states across the country, with California leading the way by an enormous margin. Indeed, as much as eighty-nine percent of all wines to come out of the United States are produced in California, where the fertile soils and sloping mountain sides, coupled with the long, hot summers provide ideal conditions for producing high quality, European style red, white and rosé wines. With over a million acres of the country under vine, the United States sits comfortably as the fourth largest wine producer in the world, where imported grape varietals from all over the Old World are processed using a successful blend of traditional and contemporary techniques.