Two Shepherds, Centime 2020, Windmill Vineyard, Yolo County, Clarksburg, Sacramento Valley, CA

This “orange” wine is an excellent introduction to the style – light and fresh but still with some texture. Blended with vermentino and picpoul grapes, “Centime” has notes of citrus, and spice – a great food-friendly wine.

COUNTRY: United State of America (USA)

STATE: CA

APPELLATION (AVA): Yolo County

REGION: Sacramento Valley

SUBREGION: Clarksburg

VINEYARD: Windmill Vineyard

VINTAGE: 2020

GRAPES: 80% Vermintino, 20% Picpoul

SOIL: Alluvial gravelly

PRACTICE: Certified organic

VINIFICATION: Destemmed, fermented 12 days on the skins, neutral oak aging 10 months, complete malolactic fermentation

STYLE: Still

COLOR: Clear, bright cantaloupe orange

BODY: Light to Medium (3-4)

TASTE: Dry

PRIMARY AROMAS: Citrus peel, tangerine, spice

FLAVOR: Ginger, grapefruit, citrus peel, soft tannins, fleshy texture; vibrant acidity and spice on the finish

FORMAT: 750 ml

ALCOHOL: 11.5%

SERVICE AND SUGGESTION: Enjoy with dishes such as thai curry or biryani.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER: 
Two Shepherds is the genesis of long-time garagiste winemaker William Allen. After years of extolling his love of Rhone wines and winemaking practices of balance and elegance, William decided to expand upon his years of garage wine making and hands-on harvest experience to make commercially available the style of wines he was championing. Thus Two Shepherds was born – making wines that “shepherd” grapes gently into non-manipulated and balanced old world style wines. Allen employs a natural winemaking philosophy in his cellar. The process of wine making occurs naturally, and as a wine maker, Two Shepherds role is to guide it along, protect it from harm, and otherwise not intervene. The wines are fermented with native yeast with no additives of any kind, native malolactic fermentations, aged on the lees, minimally racked and are 13- 14% alcohol, with high, food friendly acidity. These are old world-leaning, elegant wines focused on bright acidity, texture, and mouth feel. All wines are aged in used, neutral barrels that impart no oak characteristics, but subtly enhance the wines’ texture, mouth feel, and flavor concentration.

ABOUT THE VINEYARD: Windmill Vineyards, Yolo
Windmill Vineyard is a new strategic partner for us for four varietals, in the Dunnigan Hills AVA. We're grateful to Steve Matthiasson for the introduction to Sergio's vineyard. Steve was the original consultant, and still sources a variety of grapes here.
Besides widely planted to many Rhone and Bordeaux varieties, it’s rolling hills and gravelly alluvial soils has a wonderful polyculture also growing and farming organically an array of fruit trees.

ABOUT THE LABEL:
“Centime” harkens back to France's copper penny, and relates to the coppery orange color of the skin contact wine.