2018 Nero d’Avola – Redtail Vineyard

In 2012 the Redtail Vineyard was planted adjacent to our winery in the heart of the Jahant AVA. The 3.62 acre block has open vines with small canopies allowing filtered sunlight to uniformly ripen clusters.

Weather is a key element of farming – it plays a crucial role in the health of our vines and winegrapes. Daily temperatures and rainfall come together to dictate the growing season, making each vintage distinctive. 2018 was a long and even season with moderate conditions and mild summer weather. This allowed the winegrapes to mature slowly with even ripening, pushing our start of harvest to August 6^th, 10 days later than the previous two years. The overall moderate to cool harvest conditions were good for flavor development, but on October 3^rd we endured rain showers. Luckily the following two weeks were dry and sunny helping finish the sugar accumulation in our mid to late ripening varietals. We ended harvest in November, one of the latest in recent memory, with particularly good quality and spectacular color in the red varietals and white varietals with sound flavor and acid development.

Jahant AVA – Located in the center of the Lodi AVA, the Jahant AVA is geographically the smallest of Lodi’s seven AVAs – a total size of 28,000 acres, with roughly 9,000 acres planted to vineyard. It sits on highly dissected river terraces and old floodplain deposits. The classic Mediterranean climate has Delta fog influence, and receives cold air drainage and entrapment within our vineyards.