Ryan de Witte

2020 Solus Red, South Rock Vineyard

I love this wine. Ryan needed a halo wine like everyone else, but he didn’t want it to be just another Bordeaux blend. “How many more of these do we need…?” And so, in an effort to represent their oldest vineyard in a way that reached out for a singular sense of place, he took the odd company of varieties and tried something new. Firstly, Solus is a co-ferment. First fruit off each year is from their oldest-vines… Gewürztraminer (planted in 1973!), living happily in the South Rock Vineyard with the rest of these big boys: Zinfandel, Merlot, Cab Sauv... And so he begins a ferment of the Gew whole cluster in an old-world semi-carbonic manner, and that becomes the starter for the rest of it. As the other varieties come off one by one (Merlot from 1994 planted vines) first, gets pressed and added to the Gewurz ferment and closed up, topped with argon. Then the Cab comes in a week or two later and joins in. Then at last, last of the year, comes the Zinfandel (planted in 2002). All in all, this small natural ferment comes to completion and
then ages 18 months in oak, (two-thirds new this vintage), and produces only 200 cases from six barrels. This was a terrific year, especially if you love density, because the warmth and dryness led to wines with huge concentration and structure. With almost six years age on it, it's really stitched together beautifully. TA 6g/L and pH 3.77.