Phelan Farm "Misturado de Cambria" 2021

So What?

"The roots of Phelan Farm stretch back to the 1850s, when the Phelan family founded a homestead on Steiner creek. They worked the land, planting a variety of crops and raising animals. In 2007, Greg Phelan planted four plots of own-rooted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in areas cooled by Pacific winds. Since 2019, Raj Parr has leased the entire farm, and grafted the own-rooted vines to a large variety of different grape varieties that are suited to the area’s cold climate. Working with famed producers in France’s Jura and Savoie and in Galicia, he has sourced cuttings of Trousseau, Poulsard, Savagnin, Mencia, and other varieties. The vines are farmed regeneratively, with close attention to the larger ecosystem and an emphasis on the interconnection between the vineyard and uncultivated nature.  

Misturado de Cambria is a Galician-style coferment of Mencía and Trousseau. The Mencía and Trousseau are from the Phoenix vineyard at Phelan Farm, where in 2019 Raj Parr grafted own-rooted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines planted in 2007 to many cool climate varieties, including Mencía from Envínate’s Camiño Novo vineyard in Ribeira Sacra. The climate here is cold and marginal: grapes struggle to ripen, and harvest ends in the last week of October. Soils are felsite and pink quartz. The Trousseau and Mencía were harvested by hand and cofermented whole cluster for 14 days in neutral oak barrels, then raised in the same vessels. Bottled by gravity, unfined, unfiltered, and with no added sulfur." - Importer Notes