2015 Avenius Sauvignon Blanc
Style
Dry, restrained, dense, focused.
Food Pairings
Shellfish, whitefish, smoked fish.
Vineyard
Avenius Vineyard is owned and operated by Shari Avenius, who is also Linden Vineyard’s director. It is located on the Blue Ridge one-half mile north of the winery at an elevation of 1,300 feet on a steep northeast facing slope. Soils are well-drained rocky greenstone and shale. The vines were planted in 1996 and are trained on the French lyre trellising system. Clone is unknown. Yields in 2015 were below average at two tons per acre or 30 hl/H. Over the last four years much effort has been made to get these older vines back in balance. Changes in pruning, cropping, manuring, and tilling have given us encouraging results.
Vintage
The winter of 2014/15 was colder than average, but unlike the winter of 2013/14, there was no vine or bud damage. Bud break was slightly late. May was unusually dry and consequentially accelerated growth and flowering. Right around flowering June turned very wet, however pollination and berry set was successful, as temperatures remained warm. Wet spells continued into July and we were bracing ourselves for a possible negative impact on wine quality. The rains stopped in mid-July, but shoot growth continued into early August, which is later than ideal. With a very dry August, vine growth eventually stopped and vines were in fairly good balance going into harvest, but quite vigorous. Warm, dry weather accelerated ripening. Harvest was September 9, 2015.
Winemaking
The goal of winemaking with Avenius Sauvignon Blanc is to showcase textural weight and complexity that comes from the cool Avenius site. The chilled grapes are sorted, destemmed, lightly crushed and pressed and then the juice is allowed to settle overnight. VL3 yeast starts fermentation immediately. The wine fermented for about 21 days at 64F in tank. The wine was aged on lees for 7 months. Bottled in May 2016. Alcohol is 13.7%. Total acidity is 7.59 grams per liter. 150 cases produced.
Linden Vineyards / Our Wines / 2015 Vintage | 2015 Avenius Sauvignon Blanc