Wine Article

LSB is our most conventional wine, if one asks solely about means of production, technique. Most of the juice is whole cluster pressed; some is crushed to press, none is affected by maceration or skin fermentation. The fruit itself is Sauvignon Blanc, a kind of vanilla ice-cream among grape cultivars. The wine ferments in neutral oak barrels of standard size; sometiems up to half of it ferments and ages in stainless steel barrels; but that is hardly unconventional. SO2 is used liberally but not wildly to suppress malo-lactic fermentation and preserve friendship. The wine is bottled after a year, while it is still fresh, not oxidized at all nor affected by post-fermentation microbes.

Yet the wine is extreme, and in some ways, unrecognizable-- at least as California Sauvignon Blanc. It is limpid in the clarity of its flavors; direct, no wires crossing, no contradictory elements. It resembles Grüner more than it does Sancerre; but Sancerre more than it does most Napa whites. The vineyard is the source of all of this: it is a cool, east-facing, and terribly well drained site. Fruit ripens richly without ever becoming tired or flabby. Acidity is remarkable-- LSB is almost always our highest acid wine, even if its potential alcohol is more than 2 points higher than other wines'. The wine is all straight lines and forward motion. A vector of speed guided by acidity.