2021 Villa Creek Cellars "Cherry House Red Wine", Paso Robles, California, USA

ABOUT THIS WINE

Cherry House Red is from the famed Villa Creek Cellars in western Paso Robles. This Rhone-style blend of Grenache, Carignan and Mourvedre is from their MAHA estate and surrounding vineyards, all farmed naturally using organic principles. The grapes were 100% destemmed and fermented with native yeast in concrete for two weeks prior to gentle pressing into neutral 500-liter puncheons for aging. 

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

One of their great pleasures at Villa Creek is preserving a moment in time in a bottle and enjoying it for years to come. Villa Creek wines capture the vintage of the best biodynamic and organically farmed vineyard sites on the west side of Paso Robles and the Central Coast of California.

Most of Villa Creek wines are dominated by Grenache and Syrah. They began working with Grenache in 2001. Grenache brings vibrance, round red fruits, and an amazingly complex mouthfeel. Syrah brings an entirely different component; dark and brooding, delicious and meaty. The west Paso Robles limestone imparts freshness and vitality to Syrah taking it to another dimension of complexity and cellar worthiness. Each vineyard’s microclimate adds its own nuances that they do their best to capture. Villa Creek red wines also include Mourvèdre, Carignan, and Petite Sirah as blending components and occasionally as special-release single varieties. They work with Roussanne and Clairette in the white wine program, both as blends and single varieties.

Villa Creek wines are made with grapes grown on the home estate, MAHA, and with grapes from vineyards that meet the growing criteria of being certified organic and/or biodynamic or practicing organic farming methods. Currently, the vineyard sources are MAHA, James Berry, and Kirk-Landry.

In order to truly capture the vintage, they let the grapes do the work as they facilitate optimal fermentation conditions. All clusters and grapes are hand-picked and double-sorted by hand on the vibrating sorting tables. About 20% of grapes are fermented on stems. The winery is a Demeter Biodynamic and CCOF organic certified facility. As biodynamic standards allow for minimal sulfur use and organic yeasts, these are used only when required, not as common practice. Their preference is always to allow the unique native yeasts the opportunity to flourish.