The vineyard is maturing, the growing season was fantastic. So, employing attentiveness and patience, I set out to raise our Les Tournesols to the next level. This year's blend succeeds in marrying force to finesse, and distinctiveness to deliciousness. Each year we are lear'ning and growing with this wine, and this vintage represents a tremendous leap forward for us in style and substance.
In the world of white wine grapes, Roussanne is fairly unique and a bit odd, because it yields a certain sense of power to wines principally made from it - yet it is also quite delicate and nuanced in character. It tends to age oddly at points in cask and then rather well in the bottle; at times it can seem to have a similar texture to and maturity pattern of a red wine. The more experience I have with its contradictory elements, the more it returns me to first principles: ripen the grapes enough to generate appropriate weight and texture without losing vibrancy and interesting aromatics, and carefully vinify the juice in such a way as to maintain those characters in the finished wine. For me at least, balance is everything in wine, and Roussanne demands great care in that regard.
Provided these first principles are observed, the rest of the process necessitates a certain amount of faith. While aging in barrels it is bound, by turns, to seem fresh and bright, rich but muddled, then withdrawn or brooding - as if it were a subject seen through the cubist lens of Pablo Picasso. But at the end, despite its apparent moodiness, it always emerges as a more cohesive and satisfying wine than expected: one that is full of playful, complex, and intriguing angles.
The aromas and flavors of the 2009 Les Tournesols blend (French for Sunflowers) center on asian pear and meyer lemon with supporting notes of licorice and clover honey. Very keenly balanced, there is a distinctive interplay between the richer elements at the edge and a lively component of fresh cut white peach, from the Viognier component, that works its way in and ties everything together.