'
Vintage: | 2012 |
Varietal Composition: | |
100% | Rkatsiteli |
Harvest Date: | September 12, 2012 |
Sugar: | 19.9 brix |
Acid: | 5.21 g/l |
PH: | 3.41 |
Aging: | Jupilles forest French oak - 10 months |
Barrel Aging: | |
10 months | |
25% | Neutral Jupilles forest French oak |
25% | New Jupilles Forest French oak |
25% | Second use Jupilles French oak |
25% | Third use Jupilles French oak |
Ageability: | drink now |
Fermentation: | barrel |
Bottling Date: | August 21, 2013 |
Residual Sugar: | 0 |
Alcohol %: | 12.5 |
It is intense and creamy with a roundness that will make you think it is one of our great Chardonnays, but it also has so much more going on. There are some cool herbal tones, citrusy characters and just a certain “je ne sais quoi” feel and taste to it. It is like nothing we have ever made before but at the same time very clearly a Tarara-style wine. Does that make any sense? Probably not and it shouldn’t. It just means that this juice is awesome, fun, exciting and something that is probably as new to you as it was to us. We hope you love it just as much as we do!
The Rkatsiteli comes from a site that is at the base of the many surrounding hillsides of the area. It is fairly hard red clay soils and is really showing well with this interesting variety originating from the Republic of Georgia. The fruit tends to be very Sauvignon Blanc like from this site but with somewhat lower alcohol levels only being in the 10-11% range with vibrant acidity and a great balance of herbal and citrus like elements. Harvest Conditions: The 2012 is said to be one of winemaker Jordan Harris’ favorite vintages to date. While some vineyard around the state did suffer from a little too much rain at harvest, many of the sites that Tarara works with really got away lucky. Nevaeh in particular with the small rain shadow of the Catoctins and the weather patterns that follow the Potomac really meant that Nevaeh didn’t receive any rain through the 2012 harvest season. It only benefited from the slightly lower resulting temperatures of nearby rains and the lack of humidity. In the end the 2012 season was about having some of the best balanced wines we have seen to date. The season started very early with an almost alarmingly warm and early spring causing bud-break in late March. It stayed warm so there were no significant frost issues that we were worried about. After that the summer never really heated up too much with the exception of the last two weeks of July and the first week of August. All together that put the harvest back on normal schedule which was superb since a worry had to harvest in the heat of the summer. The prolonged and generally mild season resulted in vibrant acidity, massive flavor concentration, moderate alcohol and beautifully ripe tannins. An overall very well balanced year unlike any we have seen in a long time.
Barrel fermented and aged for 10 months sur lie. The wine was allowed to complete malo-lactic fermentation and was bottled after only a light filtration.
98 cases
By entering Tarara Winery's Wine Store, you affirm that you are of
legal drinking age in the country where this site is accessed.