Region: Fresno County + Sierra Foothills < California

Grapes: 80% Carignan, 20% Albariño (with a splash of Muscat)

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; Carignan: 100+ year old vines, with some carbonic fermentation then foot tread and fermented on skins for 10 days before gently pressing; Albariño fermented separately then added to Carignan at disgorgement; no added So2; zero-zero; 11% ABV; 40 cases 

Winemaker: Noel Diaz (with the help of Team Rock Juice!)

This is the third vintage of our wine, a collaboration between Rock Juice and the amazing Noel Diaz of Purity Wines!  Trying to recreate the magic of our first two vintages, we went for another red/white co-ferment fizzy pink Pet’Nat again.  Noel found some beautiful super old-vine Carignan from what is essentially a backyard vineyard in Fresno county, farmed organically, and let it start fermenting carbonically. Then Lindsey and I sanitized our feet and had dance party on the grapes. The juice went from pretty pink to deep ruby, and then it finished it fermentation thing in flex tank. Then we bottled, and let them rest up upside down to allow the yeast cap to form in the neck. Finally, Lindsey and I returned to help hand-disgorge -- and mad-scientist like top off the bottles with the white juice before crown capping and labeling.  Each year the process gets a little easier, especially after we learned to chill the bottles to prevent total volcanic eruption upon disgorging.  

A lot of time and love went into these bottles, but we couldn’t be happier with the result this round - the juice is a pretty magenta color, with just the right amount of fizz.  The fruit is sweetly spicy, with a bit more tannin this vintage, but that same sexy red-hot cinnamon and cloves and tart cranberries. It tastes like Christmas in a bottle!