Vermentino – Los Olivos District
Country | USA |
---|---|
Region | California |
Producer | Palmina |
Size | 750mL |
Style | White |
Practices | Organic |
Grapes | Vermentino |
Other Features | Vegan, Indigenous yeasts |
100% Vermentino from Sogno del Fiore and Walker Vineyard. Fermentation with native yeast, aging in stainless steel and neutral French Oak barrels for 5 months.
Vermentino is widely planted in Sardinia along with other parts of Italy, including Piemonte where it is known as Favorita. This wine is closer in style to the Sardinian Vermentinos, with pronounced minerality due to its maritime influence as well as its barrel fermentation. The variety has great body, lifted aromatics and a delicious flavor profile. It’s also very malleable as it works well in many different regions and can be made in a number of different styles – from stainless to barrel fermentation.
A subtle, cooling nose of mint and cucumber gives way to a salty sea breeze salinity and white pepper with hints of cherimoya. Alcohol 13.0%. 537 cases produced.
About the Producer
Palmina’s philosophy, passion and strongly held belief is that wine is an extension of the plate, a component of a meal and a means to bring people together. Formed by winemaker Steve Clifton (of La Voix Winery) in 1995, Palmina is named in honor of Steve’s great friend Paula. Like a grandmother to him, she taught Steve the love of cooking, wine, the Italian lifestyle, and was a spark in his life. After Paula succumbed to breast cancer, Steve found that her given name on her Italian birth certificate was Palmina, and the winery was thus fittingly named. First made in the basement of Steve's home, the wines, crafted solely from Italian varieties, are now produced in the famed Lompoc “wine ghetto”.
Steve found that the climate and soil types in Santa Barbara County are similar to those in his favorite regions of Northern Italy, namely Piemonte and Friuli. All feature cold air pushing warm air to create growing conditions that provide enough sunlight to help fully develop fruit flavors. And all three regions enjoy cool night temperatures that maintain the grape’s natural acidity levels, which allows winemakers to create “food wines” with a balance of fruit, tannin and acid. Palmina wines are Italian by inspiration with flavors rooted in Santa Barbara County.
Palmina “pure farms” its 11 acres in Santa Barbara County. Pure farming gives back more than it takes. Unwavering in its farming standards, Palmina does not utilize herbicides or pesticides. Weed-clearing is done through laborious hand-hoeing, with critical soil nutrients reintroduced by planting organic legumes and grasses between the vines. With mindful intention, organic, sustainable and biodynamic practices are utilized.
About Steve Clifton: his appreciation for Italian wines began while working in Italian restaurants. His first wine job was in the tasting room at Rancho Sisquoc where he eventually graduated to the position of Assistant Winemaker. Over the next few years he held winemaking positions at Beckmen, Brander and Domaine Santa Barbara wineries, and managed from 1995 to 1998 the retail section of The Wine Cask in downtown Santa Barbara. He met Greg Brewer in 1995 and formed a partnership that became Brewer-Clifton, a winery solely devoted to vineyard-designated Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Sta. Rita Hills appellation in western Santa Barbara County. In 2015, Steve decided to focus on Palmina and la Voix. Before wine, he had a successful career as a nightclub entrepreneur and in the music industry as a musician, singer, booking agent, and studio producer.
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