Jupiter's Roof Beard
TASTING NOTES:
2020 Durell Vineyard - “The lower block offered minerality and focus, with nice acidity while the hill block added expressive fruit flavors and full body. The resulting wine has robust flavors, rich texture on the palate with fresh acidity on the finish.” (AbV 14.3%, pH 3.37, TA 6.0 g/L)
2020 Gap’s Crown Vineyard - “The resulting wine offers focus and tension on the palate.” (AbV 14.2%, pH 3.53, TA 5.9 g/L)
2020 Reuling Vineyard - “Yields were low in 2020, with small, loose clusters. This unique terroir transcended our hands-off winemaking approach, resulting in a rich, distinctive wine.” (AbV 14.2%, pH 3.42, TA 5.9 g/L)
2020 Sangiacomo Vineyard - “Press fractions were managed carefully and the resulting wines impressed us, offering expressive fruit aromas and refreshing acidity with layers of rich texture.” (AbV 14.1%, pH 3.56, TA 6.3 g/L)
2021 Durell Vineyard - “In 2021, the Hill block really shined and brought depth and rich layers of stone fruit to the blend. The resulting wine offers intense flavors and rich texture on the palate with fresh acidity on the finish.” (AbV 14.3%, pH 3.32, TA 6.1 g/L)
2021 Gap’s Crown Vineyard - “In 2021, the yields were the lowest we have seen at Gap’s Crown for Chardonnay. The resulting wine seems to benefit, offering intense flavors and a layer of minerality.” (AbV 14.3%, pH 3.32, TA 6.1 g/L)
2022 Gap’s Crown Vineyard - “The resulting wines have concentrated flavors with tension and length.” (AbV 14.2%, pH 3.50, TA 5.9 g/L)
2022 Reuling Vineyard - “2022 offered moderate yields in Reuling Vineyard, resulting in a wonderful balance of rich fruit flavors and distinctive savory notes that are characteristic of this unique clone.” (AbV 14.2%, pH 3.30, TA 6.1 g/L)
2022 Sonoma Coast - “All of our Chardonnay vineyards are in cooler locations and retained wonderful fresh acidity due to the early harvest timing of 2022. They were later blended to create a balanced wine with layers of texture and alluring aromatics.” (AbV 14.1%, pH 3.45, TA 6.1 g/L)
2023 Sonoma Coast - “The long, cool vintage allowed our Chardonnay blocks to ripen evenly and maintain their bright, fresh acidity at the time of harvest. They were later blended to create a balanced wine with alluring aromatics and nuanced, multi-dimensional texture.” (AbV 14.1%, pH 3.47, TA 6.4 g/L)
VARIETALS: Chardonnay
BARRELS: French oak barrels, 25% to 50% new.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Hen and chicks, as in the “hen and chick berries” the vineyard notes mention for the small clusters at Durell and Gap’s Crown. It’s also the common name of a plant I’d like to talk about instead.
Sempervivum means “always living” in Latin, and the plant earned it. It’s a rosette of fat, pointy succulent leaves that grows happily in gravel, in cracks in a wall, or on a roof with almost no soil. The mother plant (the hen) sends out little offset rosettes on runners (the chicks), which root and become hens themselves. Each rosette flowers once and dies, so the hen goes out in a blaze of glory while the chicks carry on. It’s a perpetual motion machine for people who forget to water things.
The roof part is the best part. Its other common name is houseleek, and for centuries people grew it on rooftops because they believed it protected the house from lightning and fire. Around the year 800, Charlemagne’s list of what the royal estates should grow, the Capitulare de villis, told people to keep Jovis barbam, “Jupiter’s beard,” on their houses. Jupiter, the god of thunder, got a beard. The beard was a succulent. The roof was the whole point. Whether it ever stopped a single bolt, I can’t say, but a small fat plant spent over a thousand years on guard duty against the king of the gods, and I respect the commitment.
