2022 Caleb Leisure 'Off Glide' Merlot

Carbo Merlot! I've been very fortunate to work with this gorgeous fruit in the past. It became avaiable to me though a friend who was farming and consulting for this premier Chalk Hill vineyard (the kind of fruit that is generally out of my price range). In 2020, I treated it very traditionally: destemmed, ferment until dry, pressed into nuetral oak. It was big, brambly, varietally correct. In 2022, knowing this was my last opportunity to work with this fruit (at reasonable cost), I decided to take a more playful approach. I picked a bit earlier, pressed some out after 2 days, put some into qvevri and flex tank for carbonic maceration. The two lots were then combined and aged in qvevri. The results are of course dramatically different than 2020, but what surprises me is how serious this wine has become, and how the lighter maceration has rendered terroir more transparent. This wine positively sings of place and (volcanic) soil. It's still pretty fun, and doesn't object to a chill.