Selene sauvignon Blanc Hyde vineyard 2004

Selene Wines
USA, Napa Valley
Sauvignon

Varietal Composition:
100% Sauvignon Blanc (Musque selection)

Vineyard:
Hyde Vineyards is located in the Carneros Region of Napa between Highway 12 and Old Sonoma Road. This is a relatively warm part of the Carneros, since it’s further from the cooling influences of fog and wind from nearby San Francisco Bay. It also has good elevation above sea level, making the soils lighter in clay with better drainage. Selene has been sourcing grapes for this wine from Hyde Vineyards since 1992.

Vintage:
In 2004 Napa enjoyed an early, warm spring. More often than not, vintages with early, consistently warm springs turn out to be really good ones. In other words, when you’re in shorts for most of March and April, things are setting up for a very nice vintage. Our Sauvignon Blanc set a particularly small crop and we began picking ripe, concentrated Sauvignon Blanc from the two 1103 Paulsen Blocks in late August. We finished up with the Own-Rooted Block in early September.

Fermentation:
Grapes are whole-cluster pressed and the juice is transferred into both new French oak and stainless steel barrels for fermentation. The wine remains there on primary lees, gaining complexity, until March, when it is racked and bottled. We make no acid additions and the wines undergo no malolactic. Just that pure juice flavor straight to the bottle.

Tasting Notes:
This vintage definitely has a stone fruit bent to it, with lots of apricot, nectarine, and peach. The aromas also show ripe pear and Granny Smith apple, along with the usual suspects, honeysuckle, and stony mineral character that evolve with time in the glass. The flavor concentration and intensity come through very clearly in the mouth, with the wine showing the rich viscosity and good acidity that wine drinkers have come to expect from Selene Sauvignon Blanc.

“Smooth, rich and plush, with layers of fig, melon, citrus and hay flavors, all sharply focused and finishing with excellent depth and concentration.”