Donkey & Goat Ramato Pinot Gris

"My favorite thing about this wine isn’t that it’s the Italian word for red-haired person. Nor is it because Pinot Gris is seldom seen wearing its skin so proudly. In my chicken scratch notes over a lunch of backyard pizza, it reads, “Tracey loves the mulberry tree.” Because in the time of urban Covid, you can hardly remember a tree so exotic. It’s a wine that jogs your memory of the passing of time because the Ramato can trace back two deviated life courses. The 750ml Ramato’s twin is bottled in a heftier Magnum bottle. The one you hold in your hand is from free-run juices before the rest of the wine is pressed. Despite your expectations of the free-run juices to yield a softer wine, this Ramato holds a potent grip on your attention. Not for those who live life unexamined.

Tasting Note:
This wine makes you pucker like biting into a barely-ripe apricot. Scented of preserved orange rind and woody like a mushroom foraging adventure. It tastes like hibiscus tea and blood orange, lemon pith and salt. Pairs well with wild pheasant, foraged mushrooms and Rachmaninov’s third movement in Cello Concerto in G Minor."

Technical Info 

• Appellation: Anderson Valley
• Vineyard: Filigreen Farm (biodynamic)
• Varietal: Pinot Gris
• Clone: Clone 4 & 152 on 5BB
• Age: Planted 2001
• Elevation: 400 feet
• Soil: Alluvial with gravel & clay loam
• Harvested: September 11, 2019
• Crushed: September 11, 2019
• Pressed: September 17, 2019
• Maceration: Up to 6 days in Nomblot concrete
• Fermentation: Wild yeast & bacteria in neutral French oak barrels
• Barrel aging: 8 months in neutral French oak barrels
• Bottled: Unfiltered on June 15, 2020
• Production: 528 cases