2021 Cuvée Luke
Mendocino
Alder Springs

The Cuvée Luke is a blend of 48% Roussanne, 35% Marsanne and 17% Viognier, named for the Davis’ eldest grandchild. This wine was inspired by traditions from the Rhône Valley. The three varieties come together seamlessly, expressing stone fruit and floral aromatics, balanced with a distinctive minerality. Since we do this wine in full stainless steel, we do a few days of extra skin contact on the Roussanne to give the really interesting body without needing oak.

These aromatic, White Rhone varietals were on the vine for 226 days from the day they started blooming, and forming clusters to the day we finished picking the last of the Roussanne - that is a lot of days for making special aromas and flavors and those beautiful,
amber clusters were loaded with layers and layers.

Guy's techniques with these grapes always delivers round, lush textures even though he uses no oak to polish this wine. He loves these grapes, especially blending them into a sum that exceeds the character of each on its own. It will set your Spring and Summer right, and you will nor want to run out.

Once in the winery, both the Marsanne and the Viognier were whole cluster pressed. The  Roussanne was picked at night and then destemmed only, and held in a small closed top tank at 40 degrees F as whole berries for several days before pressing off the skins. While working in the Rhone Valley, Guy found the extended skin contact with the Roussanne adds a great textural component, and a very special element of complexity, ringing true with this vineyard/wine as well.  All varieties were aged individually in 200 liter stainless steel barrels. All the ferments took off spontaneously with the native yeasts, then once the populations of yeast seemed healthy and steady, the temperature of the cellar was taken down to 50 degrees F to slowly go dry, working to preserve the precious aromatics. This wine did not go through ML. All the acidity is natural, as is the alcohol level. This blend is 48% Roussanne, 35% Marsanne and 17% Viognier, blended 30 days prior to bottling.