Emme Wines "Amando El Sol" Colombard 2024

Bright and crisp, with a melange of citrus fruits, green apples, and sea spray. "Amando El Sol" means "loving the sun," an ode to bright golden Colombard fruit that ripens happily in the California heat.

For the first time, "Amando El Sol" is 100% Colombard from Ricetti, instead of being a blend between Colombard and Chardonnay, as it has been in previous years. Winemaker Rosalind Reynolds says, "While I love how Colombard and Chardonnay complement one another, I felt it was time to let Colombard shine on its own."

August and September in Redwood Valley provided consistently hot days without any major heat spikes, and cold nights – perfect for evenly ripening the fruit, maintaining acidity, and developing flavor while not stressing out the vines.

The Colombard was pressed directly, settled overnight, then racked off gross lees into a stainless steel tank for primary fermentation. After primary finished, the wine was put down to a combination of stainless steel and neutral oak barrels to age for six months. The stainless steel environment creates a tight, citrusy, slightly reductive style of Cololmbard, while the neutral oak opens up warmth and more floral aromas. The two components were racked together in March to create the finished wine for bottling.

Indigenous yeast fermentation. 20ppm SO2 total. No other additions, unfined and unfiltered. 100 cases produced.

Based in Sonoma, California, Rosalind Reynolds founded Emme Wines (named after her grandmother) in 2018 after years in the industry alongside the likes of Les Capriades, Martha Stoumen, and Pax (where she is also the assistant winemaker). Rosalind focuses on "old school" California varietals, like Carignan, Colombard, Merlot and Zinfandel, as well as uncommon grapes like Abouriou, Valdiguie and Muscat Vert, all farmed organically and sustainably, and she makes wine without additives and minimal intervention.