Valdiguié, Major Wines

Since the late 1800’s, the Sinton family has been raising cattle on this vast and beautiful property called Avenales Ranch. They know everyone and everyone knows them. In 1972, the Sintons planted a vineyard within Avenales Ranch and named it Shell Creek because of the layers of marine fossils found in the vineyard’s soil and adjacent hills. These Valdiguié vines were planted in 1997 and recently converted to organic farming.

During the 2019 vintage, they picked their grapes in October at 21.5 brix, which gave them around 12% alcohol. The grapes were destemmed and fermented using natural yeasts. Fermentation completed in ten days and the juice was pressed into neutral French oak barrels, where they sat untouched for nine months.