Thee and Thou Albariño Terra Alta Vineyard 2021

Thee and Thou Albariño Terra Alta Vineyard 2021

Clements Hills – Lodi, CA

The Terra Alta vineyard is farmed by Markus Bokisch and has been CCOF since the mid-90’s. Markus has been one of the primary growers involved in actually creating the Lodi AVAs and has been a key player in setting up the region’s Lodi Rules sustainable viticulture program, a comprehensive set of standards that helps farmers work more responsibly both in the vineyard and with their businesses and workers. The vineyard is a mix of alluvial soils, mostly sandy clay loam of Redding/Yellowlark series.

The vines are all farmed bi-lateral cordon. Lodi sits at the mouth of the San Joaquin Valley and gets pretty significant diurnal swings from the hot Valley pulling cold ocean air in through the SF Bay, which helps retain freshness and acidity in the grapes.

The 2021 Thee and Thou Albariño was picked mid-August, early in the morning. It was destemmed & foot-trod at the winery and macerated for 6 days with 1-2 punchdowns a day, after which it was pressed off. The heavy lees were allowed to settle out and it was barreled. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel. Neither fermentation was inoculated.

The wine was aged for 10 months in used, neutral barrels. A small amount of sulfur was added after malolactic fermentation was complete for stabilization. Another small amount of sulfur was added before bottling. Total SO2 added was under 100 ppm.

I started working with Bokisch Albariño back in 2016 and loved it from the start. I was originally looking for a white grape that could handle malolactic fermentation well. My intentions from the start were to aim for a richer style of Albariño – Lodi, CA gets warm, and the classic laser beam Rias Biaxas style would have required a lot of fiddling and intervention, forcing the grapes into a wine they weren’t really grown for.

I started macerating the grapes in 2017 in order to better emphasize that difference. It leads to a more complex wine all around. The extra touch of tannin and astringency also give the wine a more complete evolution on the palate, which is something that’s really important to me.

I love the nose on the wine; it has some classic Albariño character but also carries a certain kind of provocative pungency.