Cline Cellars
1995 Muscat Canelli
Sonoma Valley

Technical Notes
1995 Muscat Canelli
HARVEST DATE: October 16
BRIX AT HARVEST: 33.0
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 18.9g/100ml
ALCOHOL: 13.5%


VINTAGES NOTES
1995 was an exceptionally long growing season in California. A wet winter and cool summer months allowed for ample water in the famous Sonoma Valley as well as an even ripening, preserving intense varietal flavor and fine acid structure. Harvest was particularly late, and the added hang time lent our wines an incredible level of concentration especially good for late harvest dessert-style wines. For Cline Cellars, 1995 is another in a string of exceptional vintages and will be noted for wines of intense, forward fruit.
VINEYARDS
Grapes for our dessert-style Muscat Canelli come from a small vineyard located in the central Sonoma Valley, near the village of Kenwood. Benefiting from the warm Region III climate and rich soils of the valley floor, we find it easy to achieve 32 to 35 brix of sugar necessary for such a dessert wine.
FERMENTATION AND AGING
Producing a stunning dessert wine such as the 1995 Sonoma Valley Muscat Canelli is a challenge, indeed. By picking grapes at extremely high natural sugar levels, we achieve a finished wine both rich in sweetness and alcohol. Grapes are whole cluster pressed and cold-settled for 48 hours to reduce phenolics. Inoculated with cultured yeast, fermentation begins in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and then is transferred to older small French barrels, where fermentation proceeds until alcohol levels reach approximately 18%. Large amounts of natural sugar remain un-fermented, adding to the explosively fruity quality inherent in Muscat Canelli. The wine is aged for 12 months in 132 gallon French oak puncheons and then lightly filtered prior to bottling.
WINEMAKER'S COMMENTS
Sweet wines such as the 1995 Sonoma Valley Muscat Canelli are truly a great treat and should be enjoyed with respect for the labor intensive winemaking processes required to create them. This Muscat, styled after the great Muscats of Beaumes-de-Venise in France's Southern Rhone Valley, is both powerful and elegant. In its youth, the natural grapey, pear-like and tangerine aromas of Muscat Canelli are prevalent; with age this wine unfolds a broad array of spice, honey and baked apple character. I recommend serving it as a stunning aperitif-much in the way the French would serve their Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise--or with your most hedonistic desserts, especially creme brulee

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