These are the wines of our current release; we are excited to present them—and feeling a little trepidation too.

They are all whites; two date from 2007 and have been in barrel all these months; the rest are the first fruits of our most recent harvest.

This wine reprises and expands upon the the star wine of the 2007 vintage. It is gewurztraminer, from rows adjacent to the verdelho at Lost Slough.

It is completely dry, very intense, and difficult to recognize as gewurz. It is somewhat floral, but not sweet or sweet-smelling. It is muscular and viscous. Not delicate, but still charming.

200 cases of 500 ml bottles

The 2008 Naucratis is a return to the form of the 2006. The 2007 wine was almost disproportionately strong; the 2005 and 2006 wines had been beautiful, fragrant, charming. The 2007 was aggressive by comparison; very ripe and alcoholic. Both it and the Gemella seemed like wines made from smaragd Gruner Veltliner. We are now back in the relm of the beautiful, and, for our wines, of the delicate.

Whole cluster pressed Sauvignon Blanc from our rockiest and most severe vineyard, fermented and aged for 18 months in neutral oak. The wine is pure and intense. It has not oxidized in its time in barrel, protected no doubt by its intermittent fermentation. The nose is floral, somewhat rich with honey, but there is also the clear sense of rocks, salt, gunpowder. The normally punishing acidity has been softened and smoothed by the extra time in barrel, but the wine still has the remarkable spine that is particular to this vineyard: great ripeness and sharp acid structure at once.

Composed mostly of Sauvignon Blanc from the 2007 LSB that did not make the cut. The wine has the power and complexity of LSB, but not the finesse or purity. For this reason, we cannot give it a vineyard designation—it simply does not measure up to the other wines from Farina. But it has its virtues; its bloodline cannot be completely obscured. In order to preserve its power but maximize its charm, we have blended it with a little Verdelho from Lost Slough, and some 2007 Chardonnay that also did not merit a vineyard designation. It is only our second blended wine (the first was the 2005 red Satrapies of the East). The result is a wine that echoes the minerality of LSB, but is framed much more by roasted nuts, pecan pie, honeysuckle. Powerful, not subtle, somewhat raucous.

Whole cluster pressed and barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc from 50 year-old vines in Rutherford. The vines, though noble, produce fruit with difficulty. In 2008, frost limited the crop even further, but the light crop made it easy for the old vines to ripen the grapes beautifully. With this vintage, we have made our best wine from Glos since 2005—light, floral, full of peach and pear blossoms.