I have just revised this page, after the series of tastings of barrel samples that we held in New York and on the river during the last month.

I crafted this release from a new home, with a view of the wide Napa River in front of me. It is tidal, and changes direction four times each day. The changing of the tides mirrors the changes of the seasons, the work of a year compressed into a single day, repeated day after day. This is a radically new vista for me, and this new vista has informed our present release in several ways. The chief one is this: there was almost no Spring Release at all until I woke up one morning with a fresh view on several of the wines, as if I had been awakened from a deep and oblivious slumber. The river gets some credit for that awakening.

Before that awakening, I had intended to bottle (and release) a dozen wines in September. It would have been a monstrous job, and the desire to consolidate tasks would have led me to bottle at least a couple of wines past their acme. What was I thinking? Part of the cause was the sclerotic effect of doubt, doubt that I could pull a spring bottling together, including providing the funds necessary. It is hard to say what broke the grip of doubt, but it was not brains on my part. Instead, the change felt somehow rhythmic, tidal. These are the wines, with some notes added post tasting:

blanc-de-noir from 140-year old Cinsault. Sweeter and softer than the 2009. Seductive, but too welcoming. We are going to toughen it up.

the second to last vintage of 50-year old Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is strange in a way typical of the vineyard: it has the extinguished campfire character of some tequila. There is powerful fruit and blossoms, typical of SB, but the wine is utterly dominated by minerals and smoke now.

a blended white wine, all barrel-fermented and -aged. This is built like a very powerful Gruner; it is all minerals, thunder, and baking spices—but not like a chard. This showed particularly well in Napa.

an especially luscious vintage of old-vine Chardonnay. This wine was super beautiful and impressive. It shouted distinction and nobility. Powerful mineral structure, dried porcini midpalate, but sweet and rich with roasted pears. I hesitate to pile on such references—the wine is complex, layered, and offers richness and acid spine at once.

skin-fermented Pinot Grigio, barrel-aged for five years. Superb. Hard to pin down—not brown, but not fresh either. Somewhere between oxblood and mahogany. Very smooth—no more brutish tannins. All richness and depth. Spicy, somewhat like panforte, but closer to a Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo than any typical Pinot Grigio.

especially seductive whole-cluster Syrah. This wine showed strongly in both locales, the lone red wine in the tasting. Its tannic power did not seem out of place and did not clash with the whites, no doubt because were prepared for its structure and power by the skin=fermented PG. Beautifully ripe and high-acid at once; with powerful funk, but no dirt or rot. Blood and iron, hung game, Jamon Iberico. Exactly what we aimed for from the days before harvest.