Day Wines "Infinite Air Castles" 2023

A delightful Willamette Valley blend of 75% Gamay and 25% Dolcetto. Rosy floral and juicy with blueberries and boysenberry, grilled plums, cracked pepper, dark berries, obsidian minerals, petrichor and summer forest. Bright juicy acid, a plush and velvety mid palate and a long firm structure. Great with a chill as a summer red accompaniment to anything off the BBQ, and will work well with late summer and early autumn as the nights become cooler.

Like most of Day Wines output, this wine began as an idea, a daydream or an air castle. Travels in France and Italy provided much fuel for winemaker Brianne Day's daydream fires, and Gamay and Dolcetto are both varieties that have traditionally been viewed as more humble and approachable in their home regions. Brianne loves the grapes' lively and fun personalities and looks at this wine as an international party of salt-of-the-earth people.

Grapes were sorted and partially destemmed (20% whole cluster) into 1.5 ton fermentation vessels. Native fermentation kicked off after 2 days and caps were managed by pump overs and punch downs. Fermentation took 24 days, afterwards juice was moved to half neutral French oak puncheons (500 L) and half neutral French oak barrels (228 L). Wine went through full spontaneous malo, and was sulfured afterwards (44 ppm total SO2, 19 ppm free SO2). No other additions/subtractions were made. 11 month elevage, then racked to stainless and bottled.

Day Wines is a producer of minimal intervention wines located in Dundee Oregon. They source fruit from organic or biodynamic vineyards around the state, and make vineyard and vintage specific wines with minimal input. The wines are either classic interpretations of varieties or blends as seen through the lens of Oregon, or they are unique creations dreamed up in the mind of Brianne Day. They are constantly looking for high quality fruit, and seek out the unexpected.