While the focus of the project I’m working on for Mouth is definitely spirits, we are putting together a terrific small wine selection. And it’s been a great excuse for me to focus on American wineries that are pushing the envelope with techniques and flavors rather than playing it safe and making the kinds of wines that make me turn to the old world all too often.
Yountville Sémillon made by Dirty & Rowdy Family Winery is a perfect example. Sémillon is rarely grown in the US. And this one was fermented both on its skins for 2 weeks before splitting into a steel tank and into a mix of American and French oak casks, and without the skins in a “concrete egg”. The wines are blended just before bottling to produce a cloudy and bone-dry white wine with an earthy acidity. It’s crisp but fascinating and an amazing display of the kind of wine making going on in select pockets of California today.
