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Our Crystal Springs vineyard comprises the backbone of this blend. The early start to the season also made for our earliest start to harvest. Starting on September 8th we harvested Crystal Spring over 3 days. Lotus was picked next on September 12th followed a week later by our earliest block at Hershey. Smaller vines and our commitment to minimal irrigation over the past decade produced intensely flavored fruit with minimal dehydration. The blend was fermented in a majority of concrete tanks. The remaining portion was fermented in approximately equal parts oak upright tanks, stainless steel tanks and 225L French oak barrels. The wines were pressed directly to barrels, 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
The 2015 vintage produced excellent fruit quality. Our vineyards received slightly less than average rainfall, but compared to the previous years of drought conditions the vines started the growing season with ample water in the soil. The winter and spring were among the warmest on record, and pushed bud-break 2-3 weeks ahead of 2013 and 2014 setting up for an early harvest. The warm dry spring led to less vine growth with shorter than average shoots. However, the much smaller than average crop with small berries and loose clusters created balanced vines. The warm spring gave way to a summer that was hot and dry, causing some challenges with numerous heat spells that lasted multiple days. The small vine canopies and our dedication to minimal irrigation over the last decade paid dividends in 2015 with exceptional fruit integrity even after prolonged 100F+ days with extremely low humidity. This gave us the flexibility to harvest based on flavor not desiccation level. The vintage will be remembered as an early, low yielding, hot vintage, with focused intense wines of defining quality.
