La Montanuela, "Rocio" 2020

100% Marquette, a red hybrid, from a ½ acre plot of 12-year-old vines planted on clay, limestone, and silty loam soils in Hinesburg in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Grapes were hand-harvested and destemmed, then crushed by foot and put into the macro bin. Fermented on the skins for 18 days without temperature control and with punch downs roughly daily. Then pressed to 80-gallon flex tank and a 14-gallon glass demijohn to rest. 12.5% Alcohol, 396 bottles made.

From the winemaker Camilla Carrillo on the vintage: “2020 was a near perfect vintage. Dry growing season so disease pressure was low in comparison to 2019 which was a cold and rainy growing season. Thankfully the Hinesburg vineyard was harvested before bird pressure was high. I took over the farming of this vineyard in 2020. I did a hard prune and introduced some biodynamic teas and preparations. The health of the fruit and the vines was a complete 180 from the previous vintage. In 2019 due to disease and bird pressure and little care, the yields were less than half of what 2020 produced.”