2015 Cuvée Blanc - La Encantada Estate

Tense key lime, wet flint, white strawberry. Barely-ripe honeydew, wild sage, green pear. Finely sliced almond and sweet garden herbs, struck match and salty sea spray. Meyer lemon, white cherry, and Granny Smith apple highlight a delicate and subtle fruit profile that hits with energetic and crisp refreshment. Saline earth and beautiful reductive tones don't hesitate to steal the spotlight away with notes of clean quartz and gunpowder that dance and play among breaking ocean waves. Honeysuckle and light savory spices make a fleeting appearance along with mild phenolic bitterness that fades behind the terroir-driven mineral finish. Extremely interesting and delightfully complex, showcasing high acidity and great depth within a medium bodied frame. This 2015 Cuvée Blanc by La Encantada Estate is a brilliantly unique single-vineyard white blend from Santa Barbara.

Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc are distinct lighter-skinned mutations of the Pinot Noir grape. Although classically bottled as single-varietal wines these grape varieties can be used to make unique and interesting blends. This bottling, crafted by La Encantada Estate using 42% Pinot Gris and 58% Pinot Blanc all grown in the La Encantada Vineyard, is a remarkable example of a somewhat unconventional yet extraordinarily delicious white blend. It manages to showcase complex Pinot Gris fruit and raw Pinot Blanc minerality simultaneously, and does so in a way that is extremely transparent and terroir-expressive. This is a serious wine that is as contemplative as it is delicious, and it speaks to place as well or better than the greatest examples of any grape grown in the region. An unsuspecting yet simply spectacular bottle of wine.