Why Montepulciano? We’ll be honest: our favorite wines from Abruzzo are the light-on-their-feet, downright chuggable, barely red but not quite rosé wines of the region. So we set out to see if that could be done in California. If authentic renditions of esoteric Italy are your thing, then Fox Hill Vineyard is the place to be.
Vinification: All grapes were lightly foot-tread and macerated on skins and stems for four days. As fermentation began to kick off, the grapes were gently pressed in a traditional ratchet-style wood basket press into fiberglass and allowed to undergo primary fermentation off the skins. Primary and secondary fermentation occurred with wild yeasts and native bacteria from the vineyard, and the wine was allowed to rest on all lees for ten months. It was bottled without fining or filtration, with a small addition of 10
parts winemaking sulfur prior to bottling.
Notes: Montepulciano is such a densely colored and flavored grape variety that those brief 96 hours on skins provide all the raw materials needed to make not just neon magenta glou-glou for the masses but also a deeply complex, crunchy, aromatic, and mouthwateringly refreshing red wine. The aromas are of the ripest red cherries you can imagine, and the flavors continue with that perfect Amarena cocktail cherry note, complemented by a bit of the white pepper and spice you’d expect from Montepulciano. Mouthwatering and crunchy AF... each sip is like riding in Doc’s DeLorean with 1.21 gigawatts in the tank, taking you back to a time when wine needed to be nothing more than fresh and lip-smackingly delicious!
