Cline North Coast Viognier

Description

Cline North Coast Viognier is a white wine made by Cline Family Cellars.

In 1982, on leaving university, Fred Cline returned to his hometown Oakley, Contra Costa County (equidistant between Sacramento and San Francisco) to found the company that would become Cline Cellars. There he started producing wines and restoring ancient vines. Today Zinfandel, Carignane and Mourvèdre produced from these vines are some of the most unique and historic wines made in California – the coming together of the climate, the soil and the landscape are the epitome of Oakley terroir. In 1991, the winery relocated from Oakley to the Carneros region of Sonoma County on a historic 350-acre estate with new vineyards and facilities. While much of the cool Carneros region is planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot, Fred Cline pioneered the planting of Rhône varietals including Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. In 1997, Cline ventured further west into an even cooler growing area in eastern Petaluma and again planted more Rhône varietals.

The grapes for this wine come from four of Cline’s Sonoma Coast Estate vineyards. Three of the vineyards (Catapult, Diamond Pile and Lazy M) are located in the cool and fog-shrouded area to the East of Petaluma. The fourth is located at the Five Sisters home ranch estate. A combination of soil from volcanic to loam combined with the cool evenings and warm days provide ideal conditions for this ancient grape

For the Cline North Coast Viognier  the grapes are handpicked, de-stemmed without being crushed and then immediately pumped to Cline’s tank press where the juice is gently squeezed from the fruit. The juice is then pumped to a stainless steel fermenting tank and the wine chilled and settled overnight. The juice is  then racked (decanted) off the grape solids and inoculated with a pure strain of wine yeast. Fermentation is at a cool temperature of 50 degrees F to preserve the lovely fruit character and kept in temperature controlled stainless steel vats and neutral Franch oak barrels (35%). 100% Viognier.

Cline North Coast Viognier is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.