A Ruby Dragon

The Cliff Notes: The color is beautifully translucent raspberry red. The nose is red raspberry, gooseberry and cardamom. The mouth is full of high-tone cherry-peach with blueberry somehow showing late. It’s a berry jubilee with enough acid backbone to wake you from your summer stupor and deliver you fresh to your friends for that always surprising intervention.

The Story: We made this wine, as the kids say, to be “highly crushable.” It’s not really about terroir or age-ability, it’s just delicious. It’s about huge fruit and fresh acidity. It marries the berry flavors of a fresh red with the nervy energy of a linear white and eliminates any bitterness by dialing the tannin down to near zero. Works at room temp or chilled, with tacos or pad Thai or beef bulgogi at the beach bungalow.

Fermentation: It’s clean 100% native yeast fermented Pinot noir, a portion pressed off its skins and a portion fermented on its skins. We start it in tank, go to barrel, build massive fruit esters, and finish it in the manner of a dry, aromatic, white, that’s beautifully robed in ruby.

Elevage: 100% barrel aged in older French oak barrels. Aged using lees addition and an extinct Champagne methodology to broaden and nuance the mid-palate. Racked once and filtered prior to bottling January 2026.

Vineyards: We biologically and intensively farm this single vineyard wine off of our high-elevation, certified-organic St. Dolores Estate (17 years) surrounding the winery in the Chehalem Mtns. AVA. 

— Jim Prosser
Owner/winemaker