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100% Petit Manseng | 15 Day Skin Contact | 13.5% ABV | 11 Months Neutral French Oak | Loudoun County, VA Appellation
The Sungold is our shot at a skin fermented white wine, most usually referred to as an orange wine. Orange wines are most commonly thought of as having originated from Georgia (the country) but have become popular in recent years as winemakers around the world have begun making them. The simplest way to think about the winemaking process for orange wine is to understand that it is just white grapes, made in a style like they are a red wine. Thus the fermentation takes place on the skins and because of this, much more flavor, structure, and phenolic components are picked up than what is typical of a white wine.
Our 2024 Sungold brings back this label after 2 consecutive vintages without production. The grape used for this wine, Petit Manseng, holds a high amount of acidity and flavor, which plays well to this production style.
The Petit Manseng was hand harvested on August 28th from Alta Terra down in Loudoun County, one hour from Rocklands. The grapes were placed in our cold storage and cooled overnight.
The following day the grapes were destemmed directly to a 550 gallon steel tank. Upon fermentation starting, the tank was “punched down” once a day. This is a similar process that we do with most of our reds wines, in which the floating “cap” of grapes is pushed down into the fermenting juice. This is done to extract more flavor, structure, and phenolic characteristics.
After 15 days, the grapes were subsequently pressed to tank and barreled down the following day to two 500 liter puncheons (our larger format barrels) and three barrique 225 liter French Oak barrels. The wine remained in barrel until being bottled, untouched besides being topped up periodically.
No additives were used at any point in the winemaking process (including sulfur). The wine is unfined and unfiltered, so a small amount of sediment is possible in bottle.
Descriptors: Dried apricot, pineapple flower, lemon smarties, candied honey, spice, tepache, sun bleached tractor tire
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