2022 Broc Cellars 'Love' White Blend California

Winemaker Notes:  Kaffir lime & orange peel on the nose. Key lime, grapefruit, honey blossom & sea salt on the palate.

This is one of the more interesting and complex Love Whites yet. It’s evolved over the years from a Rhône blend of Marsanne and Roussanne and this is the first year we’ve added Orange Muscat to the mix. California is one of the few places Orange Muscat is grown and it is often made in a sweeter style wine. For us, we love the beautiful aromatics and charming texture it brings to the wine. Picpoul from Windmill Vineyard is more substantially featured this year, which brings a new brightness to the blend that makes it hard to put down the glass. All white grapes receive a light footstomp on arrival at the winery. It’s an important step for two reasons: We like the complexity the short skin contact gives the wine and, more functionally, treading breaks up the clusters to better fit everything into the press. After a gentle press, the wine goes into mostly neutral barrique with a small fraction into stainless steel tank where it’s fermented and aged for six months.

FUN FACT: Orange Muscat’s pedigree was hotly debated until DNA studies confirmed that it’s a crossing of Chasselas, Muscat Blanc and Petit Grains.

26% Picpoul | 22% Clairette | 22% Orange Muscat | 15% Marsanne | 10% Roussanne | 5% Chardonnay 11% ABV

Our goal in making wine is to bring out the natural expression of the grape. We use organically grown grapes and harvest early for more healthy grapes that retain their good acidity. This often results in lower alcohol wines and the lower Brix (sugar content) at harvest, which allows for easier fermentations. All Broc wines are made using spontaneous fermentation, which means only native yeasts and bacteria that exist on the grapes are used to make the wine. We may add a minimal amount of sulphur at bottling depending on the year, wine and style. We never add sulphur during fermentation and aging. We source an eclectic mix of grapes from all over California, working with vineyards as far south as Paso Robles and as far north as Mendocino. All of the vineyards are organically farmed and family-owned.