This wine is only available by allocation.
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2021 Impassable Mountain
Dark, rich and full-bodied, the wine first opens with the scents of violets, cedar and black raspberries. As it unfolds the wine reveals cascading layers of black fruit: blackberries, plums, and cherries, laced with mint, clove, and allspice. As it continues to evolve in the glass hints of blood orange, mint, and graphite join the dance. The texture is smooth, supple and dense with beautiful length, finishing with abundant sweet cocoa tannins. Approachable now with decanting, this wine will improve for a decade or more.
VINEYARD
The Immortal Estate vineyard lies within an enclosed valley on steep mountainside slopes with mostly eastern and southern exposures at elevations ranging from 1100 to 1700 feet. The soils are a complex mixture of uplifted alluvium and decomposed volcanic material typical of the Mayacamas Range, and vary throughout the vineyard. The vineyard is on steep mostly terraced slopes. The lean soils and steep slopes naturally limit vine vigor and give remarkably small berried fruit. Although the vineyard is usually above the fog and sees warm days, the site is protected from inland heat and receives ocean cooling from early morning and late afternoon breezes that maintain our moderate our growing temperatures to somewhat cooler than Spring Mountain directly to the east. The extended growing day at moderate temperatures gives the fruit well developed tannins and rich texture yet preserves the complex fruit characters and natural acidity lost in warmer locations.
VINTAGE
headed into our second drought year in a row. We’ve observed in that with a very dry winter, applying water prior to budbreak promotes uniform vineyard growth and development, and overall vine health throughout the year. With California’s historically wet winters this has never been a consideration even in previous drought years. We began irrigation in February, making several applications ahead of the early March bud break. Early budbreak exposes the growing shoots to increased spring frost risk during March and April, as well as inclement weather during flowering, which can reduce fruit set. A mild season and the protection provided by steep slopes let us avoid and real frost damage, but set was slightly light, giving us medium weight open clusters, not great for yields but excellent for quality. The year progressed mild and warm, with a few modest heat waves, and a long, stable weather pattern extending into October. After the tumult of prior vintages, an early harvest without natural incident felt like a gift from nature. We picked the vineyard over five days at the beginning of October, selecting each section at the peak of ripeness, and completed nearly two weeks ahead of normal.
WINEMAKING:
Vineyard blocks were selected for harvest by taste, selecting subsections of rows for any harvest day. The vineyard was harvested into nine lots over eleven days, responding to the varying development of diļ¬erent aspects, elevations and rootstocks. Hand harvested and meticulously sorted, the fruit was allowed to cold soak prior to fermentation and further post fermentation maceration on the skins for a total of 28 to 38 days depending on the lot. Fermentations begin naturally, and after a few days of cold soak took roughly two weeks to complete with daily pumpovers or delestage, then less movement and air during extended maceration. The wines were gently pressed to 75% new french oak where they underwent malolactic fermentation. Individual barrels from select lots were blended for the
final cuvée. These wines were racked a total of three times during èlevage and bottled unfiltered in July of 2024.
