Earlier this summer, I wrote about Westerly Wines’ 2013 Pinot Noir (which you could read about here), so I was excited to try their 2014 Côte Blonde.

One of my favorite parts about Westerly Wines was the fact that they are altruistic and give back to the community. They partner with Wine to Water, a non-profit organization that helps bring clean water to global communities. Wine to Water’s mission is to reshape the face of aid by using what wine symbolizes in an entirely new way. Each bottle sold provides clean water to someone in need for an entire year (we take that for granted). Nothing like sipping for a cause.

Courtesy Westerly Wines

This wine comes from the Santa Ynez Valley in the Santa Barbara County wine region of California. The soils are made up of a mixture of loam and clay loam with red and yellow chert and serpentine cobbles. In general, the soils are low in nutrients and thus grow smaller vines that produce high quality wine grapes.

The Côte Blonde is a blend of 93% Syrah, 6% Viognier, and 1% Roussanne. The grapes were simultaneously picked on multiple days in mid-September, both the red and white fruit were destemmed, hand-sorted, and then co-fermented together with indigenous yeasts in concrete tanks. The tanks were punched down three times a day for two weeks, and then drained and pressed to 500 liter French oak puncheons, 70% of which were new. Malolactic fermentation took place in barrel. The wine was racked to blend after eight months, and remained in barrel for a total of 18 months. Bottled unfined & unfiltered in June of 2016.

This wine is deep red in color with a hint of purple. On the nose, it was bold and full of dark fruit. It was smooth, velvety, and juicy on the palate with notes of vanilla, spice, and dark berries. After I drank it, I noticed that my research said it would “continue to develop over the next 10 years” and was sad I didn’t wait (oh well). You can find it on their website for $45. I paired it with a killer necklace 😉 Cheers to a supporting a good cause!