2023 Sandy Lane Carignane

Nose of cherry cola, roasted meat, dusty cocoa, slate and leather. Medium-bodied with juicy acidity and well-resolved tannins. Notes of ripe raspberry, garrigue and pepper on the palate. SR (12/24)

Planted around 1890 in Antioch, east of San Francisco, these vines are own rooted, head-trained and dry farmed. They grow in Delhi Sandy Loam which looks like white sand. Afternoon winds off the Sacramento River Delta moderate temperatures. This beautiful wine is enjoyable now and will evolve over the next six years. SR (6/24)

Ridge has a long history producing wine from this Spanish grape variety. This is our first vintage of carignane from Sandy Lane, located in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco. These 130-plus-yearold vines are grown in deep sandy soil on the bank of the Sacramento River. They are own-rooted, head trained and dry farmed, which is a viticultural anomaly, as most vines throughout the world are grafted onto resistant rootstock. The sandy soil protected these vines from phylloxera, creating an uninhabitable environment for the root louse.

Rainfall: 24 inches (above normal)
Bloom: Early May
Weather: Late and prolonged harvest due to consistently cool weather throughout the growing season.

Harvest Date: 17 August
Grapes: Average Brix 24.1˚
TA: 5.58 g/L
pH: 3.48
Fermentation: Natural primary and natural secondary (malolactic) fermentations; seven vineyard blocks fermented separately.
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels; (9% new, 11% one year old, 50% four years old, and 30% five-plus years old).
Aging: Fourteen months in barrel

Sandy Lane grapes, hand-harvested; destemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur (35ppm at crush, 88ppm during aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.