Iruai 'Tierra Extraña' Cabernet Franc 2023 (750 ml)

100% Cabernet Franc

Applegate Valley AVA (Four Diamonds Vineyard)

13% ALC / 240 cases produced

Sourced from a single organic vineyards on the banks of the Applegate River in Southern Oregon, our 2023 Tierra Extraña Cabernet Franc was fermented 100% whole cluster - given a week of carbonic maceration, followed by a week of daily gentle foot treading to infuse the juice with the skins rather than extract the tannins. The fermentation then underwent a submerged cap extended mac-eration for an additional 75 days to enhance texture and aromatics.

Aged on the lees for nine months in a combination of nuetral oak barrels and cuve tanks. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a single dose of 25 ppm 502 one month prior to bottling for stability from 02 pressures on the bottling line.

[Sam Elliot's Voice:] "The perfect 'Summer Red Wine' is a mysterious and elusive creature. I love to start a night off with a lighter bodied / "chillable" red, but despite their maximum drinkability, I don't really consider them the perfect Summer Red Wine. The thing is, when it's Summer here in the mountains you want a red wine that you can drink with something hearty from the grill and into the night around the fire as things cool down fast. For me the perfect Summer red, from riverside to camp fire is whole cluster Cab Franc. When you're dipping into your third night cap, and looking for your jacket on a high mountain Summer's night, you'll want 'Tierra Extraña' Cab Franc in your glass. Whole Cluster fermentation and extended maceration bring a bounty of pepper and perfume, uninhibited by stewy extraction, but rather infused with juicy coastal blackberry, head shop aromatics and underpinned with a deep ethereal earthiness. Enjoy by: drinking out of an enamel camping mug and stargazing by the fire."

Tart Blackberry . Piquillo Peppers . Peppercorn Medley . Bali Shag

FOOD rib bowl summer!

Iruai Winery (“ear-oo-eye" … the artist formerly known as Methode Sauvage) was started in 2013 by Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds in Berkeley, CA as a gypsy natural wine project, before laying down roots in Michelle’s beautiful hometown of Etna, CA in the mythical Shasta-Cascade mountains of Siskiyou County in 2019.

Trading in the urban winery hustle for the vigneron life, we are exploring avant garde vineyard planting and rehabilitation techniques using the permaculture methods laid out by Masanobu Fukuoka, while formulating our own “chaos organics” method of re-enchanting the land. Truly unlike anywhere else in California, Scott Valley in Western Siskiyou County (not to be confused with Scotts Valley) feels like a cross between Switzerland and Montana, cut with a rain shadow from Mount Shasta that divides it starkly between high mountain prairie and dense alpine forests.

Finding ourselves in largely untested grape growing territory, with high elevations and a continental climate, we have turned Iruai into an exploration and celebration of esoteric varieties that flourish in the Alps of Europe. While we work to grow our Scott Valley estate vineyard projects, we purchase fruit and lease vineyards throughout the Shasta-Cascade, from the Trinity Alps of California to the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon.

We seek to make wine with a sense of place by employing no additives, and removing no character. Our goal in the vineyard is to let the vines thrive like they would in the wild, and in the cellar, to shepherd each ferment through its own natural development and evolution.

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