It’s finally Friday! And after the hectic week I’ve had, I’m excited to sit back and decompress with some wine. I had a special delivery and opened up a 2018 Kenwood Vineyards Six Ridges Sauvignon Blanc.

Kenwood Vineyards was established in the 1970s in the very heart of Sonoma, where together with a handful of wineries, they started winemaking in the region, long before the region’s AVAs were even created.

“Six Ridges” celebrates the character of Sonoma County’s best wine regions. These wines are named in honor of the mountain ranges that border their vineyards. The Sonoma Coast appellation embraces Sonoma’s coastline, heading north to Mendocino and south to San Pablo Bay. This region is uniformly cool from the Pacific Ocean breezes. Due to the climate, the terroir experiences a long growing season.

Courtesy Kenwood Vineyards

The 2018 vintage had a mild and dry growing season, which gave the grapes more hang time to mature. Grapes were harvested from vineyards located in the Russian River and Carneros regions. Each vineyard lot was fermented separately in stainless steel tanks to preserve the natural acidity of the grapes.

This wine was very pale yellow in color with a hint of green. The nose had a big bouquet of aromas – I smelled it coming out of the glass even before I put my nose to it – including ripe tropical fruit, guava, and passion fruit. It was tart and crisp on the palate with lots of citrus, maybe underripe pineapple, and tart passion fruit. A few sips later, I started noting some herbal qualities. A great summer sipper. You can find it for $22 online. I paired it with sweats and lots of thanks to the gods for the weekend ahead!