We caught up with founding winemaker Mike Sinor to discuss why Ancient Peaks is all in on Sauvignon Blanc—and to learn about an exciting new clone that is about to come on line:
Why is Margarita Vineyard so favorable to growing Sauvignon Blanc?
Like everything at Ancient Peaks, it comes down to our unique location. Margarita Vineyard is the southernmost vineyard in the Paso Robles region, in the Santa Margarita Ranch AVA. It’s considerably cooler here, which makes our Sauvignon Blanc that much better. Why? Because Sauvignon Blanc is all about having great acidity, and that’s exactly what the conditions here allow us to capture.
What is your vision for Ancient Peaks Sauvignon Blanc?
We want to make a great wine that represents where it comes from, and that is true to the varietal. You can draw a straight line between cooler conditions of Margarita Vineyard and the character of our Sauvignon Blanc—beautiful acidity with clean citrus flavors and notes of minerality.
How do you achieve this vision?
It starts in the vineyard. We pick some of the fruit early, some late, and some in the middle. This allows us to capture slightly different flavors and ripeness levels, which we later blend together to create a really expressive wine. We also cold ferment and age the wine in stainless steel to fully preserve the aromatics and natural acidity.
We are all in on Sauvignon Blanc. We are planting some new blocks to complement our existing Block 41. One of them is going to feature a heritage clone that we inherited from the To Kalon Vineyard in Napa Valley. This is the clone behind Robert Mondavi’s iconic “I Block” Fumé Blanc, so we are expecting great things from it. You heard it here first.
