The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.
News
Our Crystal Springs vineyard is typically the backbone of this blend. In 2012 we started picking at Crystal on September 25th then snuck up to Hershey to take a small amount of Cabernet for Onda on the same day. We completed Crystal just over a week later and then returned to Hershey before coming back to Lotus. Helms followed, and we eventually finished picking Hershey on Halloween. The final blend saw mostly concrete fermentation, but also included blocks fermented in oak upright, stainless steel and barrels. The wines were pressed directly to barrel, and malolactic was native.
Wine Description
The Story
Onda is a wine made in the Bordeaux tradition, blending both varietals and vineyards together to create a synergy from our estate sites. Philippe has been making this wine since 2005, experimenting by blending fruit from Helms, Hershey, Lotus and the fourth estate vineyard, Crystal Springs. A bit softer than the single vineyard wines, Onda is characterized by wonderful fruit purity, elegance and precision. It drinks beautifully upon release but will age gracefully for 10-15 years with appropriate storage.
Wine Information
After the challenges presented by 2009-2011, the 2012 vintage was welcomed with open arms. We had some beautiful warm days in both January and February, followed by almost 12 inches of rain in March. This pushed bud break back a couple of weeks into mid and even late April for Hershey. These rains set us up for larger than normal yields and berry sizes. We left cover crops in place a bit longer to dry the soil profiles, leaving extra fruit to limit berry size. The extra fruit was then dropped later to balance the vines. The summer of 2012 was very mild, with just one summer heat spike on June 16th and an Indian summer warming event on October 1st. The October warming trends can be detrimental, but in this case they were just the motivation the vines needed to achieve perfect ripeness.
