
Type
Epiphany Wine Co
2016 Marsanne
Appellation
Santa Barbara County
Varietal
Marsanne
Description
"...sports a medium-gold color as well as classic notes of buttered citrus, Meyer lemons, brioche, and white flowers. This deep, medium to full-bodied white has beautiful purity, a fat, fleshy texture, and terrific acidity. It's going to shine on the dinner table and should keep for 3-5 years..." ~ Jeb Dunnuck
"...a very pretty wine. Drops of Viognier add perfume to the apricot, orange, chamomile and lightly honeyed notes. The Marsanne has enough weight to pair with a wide range of foods." ~ Antonio Galloni's Vinous
Marsanne has arrestingly great aromatics. There’s a distinctive aromatic lift in this pretty white wine of cantaloupe, orange zest, pie crust, beeswax, jasmine and a hint of vanilla. Citrus notes carries forth on the palate, along with flavors of vanilla, honey, lemon curd and golden delicious apple. The fruit flavors on the palate of this wine are an ideal accompaniment for hard cheeses. This is also the ideal sipping wine, and will pair nicely with the warm weather on our horizon.
We hand-picked these grapes at night, so that this Marsanne might retain its freshness. We also took extra care to handle each cluster carefully, as Marsaane is delicate and tends to bruise easily. Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes were whole-cluster pressed, a gentle process wherein the intact grapes are directly pressed while still attached to the stems; this process helps us to avoid the extraction of harsh tannins and what some winemakers refer to as “greenness” or bitterness. The juice that is collected from pressing is then cold settled in a tank for 2 to 3 days. The clean juice is then racked into predominately one- or four-year French oak barrels, where it remains for 8 months. During this time, the wine goes through 100% malolactic fermentation, the process by which malic acid is converted into lactic acid, thereby enhancing the body and flavor of the wine, and enriching the texture with an added creaminess.