11.8% ABV

Producer Notes:
We'll be honest, our favorite wines from Abruzzo are the light on their feet, downright chuggable, barely red but not quite rosé wines of the region.  So we set out to see if that can be done in California, and if authentic renditions of esoteric Italy is your thing (here, here!) Fox Hill Vineyard is the place to be.

Vinification: All grapes were lightly foot tread and macerated on skins and stems for four days.  Right as fermentation was beginning to kick off, all grapes were gently pressed in a traditional ratchet style wood basket press to fiberglass, and allowed to conduct most of primary fermentation off skins.  Primary and secondary fermentation were with wild yeasts and native bacteria from the vineyard, and no sulphur was added at any point during the fermentation, elevage or at bottling.  No fining, no filtration. 

Notes: Montepulciano is such a densely colored and flavored grape variety that those brief 96 hours on skins gives us all the raw materials we need to make not just neon magenta glou glou for the masses but also a deeply complex, crunchy, aromatic and mouthwateringly refreshing red wine.  The aromas are of the ripest red cherries you could possibly imagine, and the flavors continue that perfect amerena cocktail cherry note, replete with a bit of the white pepper and spice you'd expect from Montepulciano.  Mouthwatering and crunchy AF... each sip is like riding in Doc's Delorean with 1.21 gigawatts in the tank.

Artwork: Guerrilla Fighter - Scott Scheidly