TRUE AMERICAN GRAPES 🇺🇸

"Another Rare Creature" is a quote my colleague Matthew Rorick, winemaker of Forelorn Hope Wines states on his wine bottles.  This phrase is apt for this little wine treasure as well.  Flora was one of the first wine grapes created specifically for California's cooler climate wine regions by the famous Horticulturist; Dr. Harold Olmo.  This grape was developed in 1938 at the Agricultural Experiment Station managed by the Universtity of California - Davis and released for commercial use in 1958.

Flora is a cross between Gewurztraminer and Sémillon.  It retains a bit of the "spice" of Gewurztraminer with the waxiness of Sémillon. It has a very low acid profile and produces wines that have a very smooth texture.  It was a grape that was mis-used for many years by industrial wine producers in the warmer Central Valley of California, who valued its low acidity.  There are only between 22 - 25 acres of Flora left in the world.  Most of it can be found in Australia, New Zealand, and California.

Our Flora is the first (and only?) vines of their kind to be planted in Oregon back in the late 1960’s  One can only assume that Mr. Coury crossed paths with Dr. Olmo at UC-Davis while he was a student there in the early 1960's.  One can also assume that this plant material was collected from Dr. Olmo's original research vineyard at UC-Davis.

Our 2019 'OLMO' Flora is the third varietal release from the historic Charles Coury Vineyard (now: David Hill Vineyard).  We hope you enjoy this unique piece of Oregon wine history.

**PLEASE NOTE: There is only 1 row of these vines at David Hill Vineyards, so depending on the vintage, this won’t produce enough grapes to make a full barrel of wine. There was not a 2018 version, nor will there be a 2020 version of this wine.

WINE INFO

APPELLATION:                   Willamette Valley
WINE TYPE:                          White
VINTAGE:                              2019
GRAPE:                                  100% Flora
ESTATE GROWN:                Purchased grapes
VINEYARD SOURCE:        David Hill Vineyard
VINEYARD AGE:                  53 years old
DRY FARMED:                     Yes
OWN ROOTED:                   Yes
SOIL TYPE:                           Laurelwood  (Loess)
ELEVATION:                         490 feet (149m)
HARVEST DATE:                September 25th, 2019
HARVEST METHOD:         Hand Harvested
BRIX AT HARVEST:            21.1
SKIN CONTACT:                 None
CHAPTALIZATION:           None
FERMENTATION:               Ambient Yeast
MATURATION VESSEL:   228L DAMY
ALCOHOL (by volume):    %
SULFUR DIOXIDE (SO₂):    ppm
ACIDITY SCALE (pH):       
TOTAL ACIDITY:                   0.0 g/L
FINING AGENT:                    Unfined (Vegan)
BOTTLE SIZE:                       750ml
CLOSURE TYPE:                  FineCorkX (99.99% TCA free)
FILTRATION:                         Unfiltered
HAND BOTTLED:                 Yes
PRODUCTION:                     47 cases
BOTTLING DATE:                September 13th, 2020
RELEASE DATE:                  February 1st, 2021

This wine was bottled in  🇺🇸 made glass, with a cork from  🇮🇹 and a label that was designed and printed in the  🇺🇸 .
Please  ♻︎ this bottle when you are finished enjoying it.