2010 A Donkey and Goat - Carignane Alexader Valley

Donkey & Goat is a family owned and operated winery located in Berkeley California. Tracey & Jared Brandt craft their natural wines from Rhône varietals, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown in the Anderson Valley, Mendocino Ridge and El Dorado appellations. Named one of five "Winemakers to Watch for 2011" by Jon Bonée at the San Francisco Chronicle, Tracey & Jared trained in France, and their maverick winemaking has helped pave the way for the natural wine movement.

A friend offered us these 120 yr old Carignane vines in late summer and we simply could not resist.
Not having made Carignane before we were not sure what to do so we followed our general regimen
for making red wines with close monitoring. Meaning we sorted and de-stemmed into our open top wood vats. From there a light foot stomping and then nothing. We added nothing at the vat and let the wild yeast start fermentation naturally which occurred on day 4. Once going, we punched down by hand 2-3x/day until at day 15 we began to worry about the tannins being too strong so we pressed off to neutral FO barrels where fermentation continued until dryness and then through MLF. The wine was racked for the first time in July 2011 for our August bottling.

Bright red fruits led by cherry mingle with spice, floral and meaty notes. A medium body with more lush red berry, surprising minerality and a lingering finish. This wine will shine from pizza to skirt steak to a hearty stew.