This is a happy accident and fun lesson in top grafting. When you are collecting plant material for grafting, you are essentially picking up sticks off the ground, which at the time all look the same. There was a little over an acre at Johan that was attempted to be grafted to Ribolla Gialla, however was inadvertently grafted to 30% of a second variety, Tocai Friulano. This fun mishap wasn’t as easy or clean as walking the rows once fruit started to ripen saying “oh hey there’s a Ribolla plant, and there’s a Tocai plant,” as most of the vines have multiple grafting points. We decided to embrace the mistake and pick it all together as a field blend, thus the Scrambled Sticks name.
Grapes | 50% Ribolla Gialla, 28% Tocai Friulano, 22% Pinot Gris |
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Vineyard(s) | Johan Vineyard |
Alcohol | 12.5% |
Winemaking | Big ol' experimental field blend here. We essentially made five lots of wine, and then blended them all together in the spring, then bottled in the late summer. Andrew Beckham from Beckham estate made us two amphora to bring in to our production. We took one and filled it with destemmed Pinot gris, and left it on the skins for 9 months. We did the same with the blend of Ribolla/Tocai. After each were pressed off the skins, they were aged in Neutral oak until assembly. In addition to those, we did a ~30 day skin contact in open fermenter of Pinot gris, and another of Ribolla/Tocai. Lastly, we also did direct press some Pinot Gris, which was fermented and aged in neutral oak. The lots were all blended together in the late spring, and returned to barrel. The wine was then bottled in August unfined, and unfiltered. |
Production | 127 cases + mags. |