Winemaker Notes
This wine reflects its Southern Rhone heritage: sunny, bright, floral, fruity and complex. The wine's ripe apple, peach, lemon crème, and vanilla aromas and flavors will prove a refreshing pairing with summertime, Medierranean fare.
Blend: 61% Roussanne, 17% Grenache Blanc, 17% Clairette Blanche, 5% Picpoul Blanc.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Pear, apple, dried white flower and clay aromas show on the nose of this blend of 61% Roussanne, 17% Grenache Blanc, 17% Clairette Blanche and 5% Picpoul Blanc. Meyer lemon and pear flavors show on the sip, which is slightly flat in tannins and acidity.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
Home to some of California’s most influential winemaking pioneers of the late 1800s, Paul Masson and Charles Lefranc, the Santa Clara Valley AVA hugs up against the southwestern border of today’s famous Silicon Valley and excels in the production of bold reds, as well as some whites.