Day 5, It’s cold out there…wishing I was catchin’ some Waves!
Las Jaras Waves Red Blend
At Las Jaras, Eric and Joel’s goal is to make delicious wine that has tons of energy and balance. The winemakers want them to be vibrant, delicate, and supple while also at the same time being food friendly and easy for anyone to enjoy. Their wines are intended to reflect the unique terroir of the vineyards using minimal intervention so you can taste their natural expression.
Flavors of black plum, but with light weight are accomplished through co-fermenting Merlot and Zinfandel by pumping Zinfandel juice into a tank of Merlot skins. They call this method “reverse saignée.” It has a lot of advantages over carbonic maceration — most notably a cleaner fermentation that results in a lighter wine that has a ton of the fruit character. The winemakers had to fine* the wine a little bit to remove a bit of persistent sticky tannin from the finish. They chose a new type of fining agent which is made from potato protein, whereas most wineries will use egg whites or gelatin to remove this type of tannin. This wine has also been filtered.
The nose on a can of Waves red wine has aromas of black plum, earth, dark cherry and violets. On the palate there’s black plum, Bing cherry and cocoa powder with only the slightest wisp of mouth-coating tannin and a long dry finish.
Enjoy frosty cold (like the weather!)
Varietal: Merlot, Zinfandel, Carignan, Chenin Blanc
*to fine wine is to a add a substance (fining agent) to the wine to remove unwanted particles and molecules