Vermentino Amber, Troon Vineyard 'Kubli Bench'

Vermentino/Riesling/Roussanne

The three components for the 2021 Kubli Bench Amber were grown and harvested with the intention to make this skin-fermented ‘orange’ or amber wine. Riesling provides ample aromatics to the final blend, along with a surprising amount of structural tannins. Skin-fermented vermentino adds richness, depth, and spice, while roussanne brings fruitiness, acidity, and additional layers of phenolic texture.

Because the grapes are being grown for amber wines, they performed extra leaf removal on these vines in the vineyard to allow for more sun penetration into the fruiting zone, further developing the skin tannins of the grapes. These grapes were then harvested at slightly riper sugar levels with significantly enhanced phenolic development as compared to the same grapes harvested for a white wine.

Due to their varying ripening times, each variety was harvested and fermented separately in open-top fermentors outdoors, typically with about 30% whole-cluster inclusion. Fermentations generally reach dryness in 3-4 weeks, after which point they are pressed to neutral oak barrels, including a small number of acacia barrels, for aging and spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine stays in barrel until just before bottling, when it is racked to stainless steel tank and a small amount of SO2 is added. It is then bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Troon Vineyard is a Demeter Biodynamic® Certified and Regenerative Organic Certified™️ farm in Oregon’s Applegate Valley [the 2nd winery in the world to every receive the ROC Gold Certification]. They naturally craft wines to bring pleasure to your life. Troon Vineyard is dedicated to regenerative agriculture and they practice Biodynamics® in their quest to put back more than they take from their plants and soils. They believe the only route to memorable wines, that reflect the terroir of where they were grown, is to be found in the healthy soils and vines that are the foundation of Biodynamic® agriculture. This philosophy continues in the cellar where their winemaking is minimalist and they use only native yeasts with no additives to ferment their wines and eschew the use of new oak barrels to reveal each nuance of wines grown in Oregon's Applegate Valley. They 'farm like the world depends on it', which is the slogan of the Regenerative Organic Alliance and reflects their vision for their farm, for their wines and for our planet. They are located on the Kubli Bench, high above the Applegate River in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon. It is a biodiverse farm of almost 100 acres. Life on their farm includes cider apples, a vegetable garden, re-wilded honeybees, sheep, chickens, wildlife, dogs, humans and, of course, grapevines.

Winemaking at Troon is straightforward and minimalist. Their grapes are field sorted by the same vineyard crew that tended them all season. Their goal is to express their vineyards rather than winemaking techniques in their wines. All Troon Vineyard wines are fermented only with native yeasts and no commercial yeasts, acids, sugar, enzymes or additives are added to any of the wines. Their white wines are whole-cluster pressed then barrel fermented in mature French Oak barrels. For 'Orange Wines' they are now using clay amphorae to allow extended skin contact after fermentation. They make a range of fun pétillant natural sparkling wines, naturally fermented in bottle. For red wines, they focus on using whole-cluster and whole berry fruit in the fermenters, then use only mature French Oak barrels for aging so that every nuance of their unique Applegate Valley fruit can express itself in their wines.

The vines, the soil, the place, the wines, and the people are all becoming one.