Tzum Moon Hill Farm White

Vineyard: sandy loam on basalt Moon Hill, a plot in a long-term lease right next to Hiyu farm that Nate & team takes care of. Planted in 2010.

Making of: an assemblage of wines from the same plot from 2015 through 2020 vintages. The various vintages were first vinified and aged separately and represent a kaleidoscope of styles and ways of looking at the site – some with extended maceration on the skins,  some directly pressed. The wines have been assembled in the spring 2021, in a series of 500-liter puncheons to further age together, with the aim of maintaining a kind of “Solera” system for this plot in the future. Bottled by hand, unfined, unfiltered, 5ppm of SO2 at bottling.

Personality: “Some vintages were very fresh, while others showed more salty and oxidative characters. The resulting wine is very deep, shimmering pink in color, with aromas of salted melon and lavender honey. It is both focused and texturally expansive with subtle and enveloping tannins. I find it very exciting to have wine containing all the moments in time, carrying both the more nutty or deeper styles of older vintages as well as fresh aspects,” Nate says.

This is the first release of the wine. We tasted it in May 2021 and it is a beautiful and weird wine. It balances on that edge between orange wine and white wine almost perfectly. It has a salty and lightly citrus character with notes that really remind us of gummy bears.

For more information about Hiyu, click here.