Marbeso - 'Ascona Vineyard' - Pinot Noir - Santa Cruz Mountains, CA - 2021

HISTORY Ascona was planted in 2003, but its story begins a geologic age earlier when a patch of ancient seabed began dancing to the slow tectonic beat. Today those ancient marine sand and siltstones are 2,500 feet high in the Santa Cruz Mountains and attentively farmed using organic practices. Its days are hot, but fog and cool Pacific breezes prevail overnight to balance phenolic ripening and stem maturation with fresh natural acidity in the wines WINEMAKING 100% of the fruit was tipped whole-cluster into stainless tanks and layered with dry ice for a few days to encourage freshness and allow CO2 to saturate the skins. On day three we began to encourage juice flow and natural fermentation with light foot treading which gradually went deeper each day. On day six we began circulating the juice from the bottom valve to the cap to promote extraction and maintain healthy fermentation. When the free run was dry, the wine was pressed and aged for 11 months in neutral French oak, then bottled without fining or filtration. PALATE Pomegranate, hibiscus, redwood needles. Whole clusters give this wine the breezy elegance of rose hips, but without losing the earthy ruggedness of its North Coast roots.

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South Bay Natives, Colin and Hannah are a small production in the Sta Rita Hills producing vineyard designates from Santa Barbara County and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Combining our passion of wine together my wife and I decided to launch our own label Marbeso (kiss of the sea) in 2019 after years of making wine for other people. This year will mark Colin’s 20th vintage as a whole, ranging from Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River to Martinborough Vineyards in the North Island of NZ. We source wines in close proximity to the sea and strive to produce clean, acid driven wines of minimal intervention using natural yeasts and bacteria; neutral french oak, bottle unfined and unfiltered to promote transparency between glass and vineyard. With vineyard sourcing and farming at the forefront, we have a strong connection to finding fruit that has been organically grown.