Month: January 2013

Tasting the 2012’s

Exciting times here at Senses Wines! Chris, Max, and I had the chance to sit down and taste through our 2012 vintage with our winemaker. The experience was very educational as we got to see the wines at various stages in barrel maturation.

Right now they’re going through what’s called malolactic fermentation, where the malic acid present in the wine is naturally being converted into lactic acid. This will make the wines smooth and more “buttery” with a fuller mouthfeel.

Most interesting to me was comparing our Hillcrest Estate Pinot Noir with the Tanuda Ridge wine. The two vineyards are only a mile or two apart, but have created some drastically different wines. Hillcrest tasted lighter and more delicate, with one sample showing some interesting candy cherry aromas and flavors. Tanuda, on the other hand, was bolder and extremely aromatic with strong dark fruit flavors. The wines have a lot of growing up to do in barrel, so they’ll change dramatically before they’re bottled, but it was exciting to see them so early in their development.

Check out our facebook to see photos! The 2012s are turning out great, maybe even better than the 2011s!