Orin Swift Blank Stare 2023

Orin Swift Blank Stare

Region: California, USA

Vintage: 2023

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon

ABV: 15%

Sauvignon Blanc plus a splash of Sémillon from California, perfumed with cedar, dried herbs and fresh straw, then delivering a juicy mouthful of ripe peach and passion fruit and finishing on a tangy shot of grapefruit and lemon zest.

The fruit sourced from the Russian River Valley. The cooler climate brings out a different expression of the varietal – slightly more nervy and less ripe with lots of acidity and texture.

Zinfandel requires use of the Goldilocks principle - pick it too early and you end up with a stemmy wine; pick it too late and you risk a stuck fermentation; pick it just right... well, what do you think? Zinfandel tends to have more acidity compared to other grapes at the same sugar levels, therefore making it necessary to let them ripen more than usual. As a result, alcohols are rarely seen below 15% abv. Sourced from vineyards of pedigree, such as Monte Rosso, Bismark, Korte and Frei Ranch.

The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995 when on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”. During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself, he founded Orin Swift Cellars in 1998; Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.

https://www.orinswift.com