‘Sur Lie’ is all about freshness, harboring the energy of Karridale, and texture, achieved through sur lie maturation. The Gant & Co wines are self-proclaimed to be “lovingly grown and sensitively made,” and this wine tells that story perfectly. To achieve that kind of depth and balance requires a mastery – or at least, a committed, routined practice – of brining oneself into attunement with the choreography that is winemaking: the tending to vines, the harvesting of grapes, the mood of the yeast, all in a cellar that hums with activity and birth. That is what Claudia and Matt have achieved with this wine: utter harmony.
The grapes were manually harvested from spur-pruned, leaf-plucked vines. In the cellar, the Sauvignon Blanc was pressed and sent to old French barriques to ferment right away, while the Sémillon juice was allowed skin contact for 12 hours before being pressed and sent to the barrel room. The wines stayed in their respective barriques for 9 months to mature; malolactic fermentation was permitted. The wines were racked to tank, blended, and bottled with just a light sulfur addition.