Yes, orange wine. Not unusual if you’re hip to the natural wines from the likes of Gravner, Radikon, Valentini et al but if you’ve never experienced one of these, you might be tempted to send the bottle back as flawed at first glance. The fact that this wine is made right here in California, land of the perfect, shiny and polished paean to modern technology, makes it even more of an oddity. Caroline Hoel and Hank Beckmeyer of La Clarine Farm have been growing grapes and raising goats on 10 acres at 2,600 feet up into the Sierra Foothills for almost 10 years now and are making some of the most interesting wines in the state at the moment. Their “less is more” philosophy made it easy for them to adopt biodynamic farming principles from the get go but along the way they realized that while principally sound, classical biodynamic farming wasn’t exactly right for the vines or their goats. They didn’t abandon the BD philosophy, they simply tweaked it to more closely match the rhythms of the vineyard, something classical BD farming isn’t really in tune with. During this transition, they were guided by ideas taken from the works of Masanobo Fukuoka, a Japanese scientist turned farmer, and his “natural farming” philosophy. Winemaking here follows pretty standard natural wine production ideas: foot trodden fermentation, native yeasts, minimal intervention, no sulfur at harvest or during fermentation, no adulterations (read no new oak) etc. A bit of sulfur may be used before bottling to help insure a more stable product for the market but that’s about it.
The La Clarine “Orange” Viognier is the only example I know of this varietal being made this way. Hank decided to make the wine exactly the same way he makes his reds which means whole clusters and skin contact through the entire fermentation process, only pressing when dry, leaving a bit of tannin in the wine and lending no small amount of color. The aromas here are much more reminiscent of a red wine with just a hint of the pit fruit so common to fruity viognier. The texture is rich and layered with god structure both from bright acid and some tannin, an unusual texture in a white wine. I’ve been pouring this and from the response it’s clear that these strange looking whites aren’t just for wine geeks anymore.
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