just when you thought you were done buying for the year!
Aisana
Confession: it’s our dirty little secret that in our home, there are always more bottles of white open than red…
Champagne, always.
Riesling, very often.
Sancerre, chenin, sémillon, Chablis…
any and all of the above.
Given our love of white, we figured it was high time we put our efforts behind making one. When we found the perfect site from a winegrowing family we trust like no other, we knew it was time.
Bart and Daphne Araujo purchased Rancho Pequeño in 2013 and wasted no time converting this site on Oakville’s eastern benchlands to organic and biodynamic farming. Ancient alluvial loam soils washed down from the Vaca Mountain range support just over two acres of hand-selected sauvignon blanc and sémillon clones that benefit from a southern sun exposure and cool afternoon marine airflow. Farmed by Steve Matthiasson and Silverado Farming with the diligence and care that has always set this family and the fruit they farm apart, we couldn’t be more honored or excited to be working with this vineyard.
Hierothesion
The reality of our dedication to site-specific wines is that our business doesn’t lend itself to scaling. As we’ve expanded our vineyard sources, we find ourselves each vintage at a blending bench rich with components, some of which are better-suited to an earlier drinking wine. Less tightly coiled. Less driving structure. More open.
So, when stories filter back to us of Kinsman stashes fiercely protected, nary a cork pulled for fear of chastisement, the path forward was clear: a Kinsman red that you do not have to age. A wine you can drink in the near term without a lick of guilt while you wait for our single vineyards to find their groove in the cellar.
Our third release of this juicy, cofermented cabernet blend, this year’s offering is from the promising 2023 vintage. While our Hierothesion (“Hiero” for short, because as you know, abbreviating words is a national pastime for Australians) bottling may still only amount to a few hundred cases, it’ll tide a handful of you over if you’re quick on the draw next week!