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2002 Étiquette Blanche Inspired by the third color of the French flag, the 2002 Clos Mimi "White Label" Syrah represents our third late harvest red wine produced to date---one that pushes the envelope for natural winemaking! (exclamation point) This "monocépage" Syrah was hand harvested 24 September at 31.6 Degrees Brix from Brave Oak Vineyard in Paso Robles. Yields from this terraced 1922 vines per acre vineyard were a microscopic 0.3 ton per acre! The grapes were completely destemmed after 72 hours of whole cluster stem contact (a first for Clos Mimi) in an effort to increase the wine's aromatics given the maturity level in the stems. The must was sulphured at 10 grams per hectoliter in a single macrobin before my customary "pigeage" (all of Clos Mimi's single vineyard Syrahs are treaded by foot---mostly mine, sometimes Maggie's and sometimes Tristan's---to insure gentle crushing of the whole berries and seeds). Indigenous fermentation began day five. Total maceration was 56 days. I knew this lot would be something special based on just how far the indigenous yeast had fermented the sugar in the bin (eg. 18.89% alcohol and 12.53 grams per liter residual sugar). Once the free run was gravity drained into a three year old Seguin Moreau Center of France 100-liter barrel (same baby barrel used to age the 1999 Clos Mimi "Blue Label" Syrah) the "chapeau" was carefully shoveled into a small basket press. The press wine possessed surprisingly soft tannins for topping the tiny 26.4-gallon barrel. The wine was aged 34 months before bottling. 100% gravity from the vineyard to the bottle as always. Alcohol content at bottling was a remarkable 19.9 percent by volume! Residual sugar at bottling was 22 grams per liter. This wine was never fortified with brandy or other spirits, never fined and never filtered. Only twelve (12 x 750ML) cases produced.
3 November 2005
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