2001 La Famiglia  Sangiovese

Winemaker's Notes
Our 2001 Sangiovese has zesty ripe cherry and raspberry character, with the intriguing nuances of rose and aromatic spice that characterize this ancient Italian grape variety. Sangiovese dates back to the Estrucans in 8th Century BC, when it provided one of the three staples of the Tuscan diet - wine, olive oil and bread. The Sangiovese grape's spiciness and acidity make it especially delicious with cheeses, creamy pasta dishes or grilled pork, chicken or game. Small amounts of Syrah and Teroldego were blended into the Sangiovese to enhance the fruit and spice flavor profile. We aged the wine for a year in French oak barrels for full integration of flavors and nimble tannins.

Varietal blend: 76% Sangiovese, 17% Syrah, 7% Teroldego

Vintage
The 2001 harvest experienced one of the longest bloom-to-harvest periods in recent history. This long "hang-time" on the vine resulted in exceptional flavors and balance in the grapes. We had predicted an early harvest since budbreak, bloom and veraison were ahead of normal, and indeed, harvest began as one of the earliest in the last 20 years. Then the weather changed and the harvest became one of the longest in duration. We constantly worked with the vines during the growing season -- pulling leaves around clusters for ideal sun exposure and thinning the crop -- to develop exceptional flavor concentration in the grapes. We harvested the Sangiovese, Syrah and Teroldego grapes for this wine from mid-September through October.

Grapes: (Average) 24.4º Brix with 0.78% initial acid and 3.31pH

Vineyard
We selected 94% of the grapes from Napa Valley, with the balance from Lake, Mendocino and Santa Clara Counties. In Italy, Sangiovese develops its greatest potential in the rolling hills of Tuscany. Our knowledge of the best Tuscan vineyard sites has helped up select soil types and microclimates in California that yield grapes with rich flavors and silky tannins. Clonal selection of this ancient grape variety is also very important, and we have been researching idea, small berry clones for new plantings in our vineyards. The finest small-berry clones are classified as Sangiovese Piccolo.

Fermentation & Aging
To accentuate the spiciness of Sangiovese, we gently destemmed the grapes to retain a large number of whole berries for the fermentation. We fermented the wine with a combination of cultured Italian yeast and native yeasts to add layers of subtle flavors to the wine, followed by a total of 25 days of skin contact to developed richness on the palate. We gently transferred the wine into French oak barrels to undergo a long malolactic fermentation and 12 months of aging. We chose to use 20% new oak to respect the pure varietal expression of the grape, yet give background nuances of spicy oak complexity.

Wine analysis: 0.61% total acid, 3.50 pH, 0.03 residual sugar (dry), 14.1% alcohol, by volume