Floréz, Viognier "Kind of Orange" Cienega Valley, California 2023

100% Viognier

Aromatic, with notes of Peach O’s and mandarin supported by medium plus acidity and tannins.

Manual harvest. Fermented with native yeasts with 25% whole cluster. 3 weeks of maceration with skins was followed by 6 months in neutral French oak sur lie. No ameliorations, filtration or added sulfites.

Florèz Wines was started by James Jelks in 2017. James grew up in the Santa Cruz area and was schooled in winemaking at nearby UC Davis. He worked in wineries all over the world for 10 years before returning home to make wine in the Santa Cruz area. He is farming some vineyards himself, always dry-farmed, and is also sourcing some fruit from organic and sustainable vineyards. He always works with native yeasts, does not use additives except for a minimal amount of sulfur at bottling, and does not filter the wines.

This wine is a rare bird: “These vines verge on wild, and sadly there is an attrition every year. We may only have another vintage or two of this wine,” James says. “This wine somewhat invented itself."