the Glories | no.01 through no.05
2018 the Glories no.01
55% Oregon chardonnay | 45% California roussanne
The Glories no.01 offers umami in an almost spicy, sweetly torturous form. Its weighted, gilded frame holds your attention while the feeling of crystalline salt moves through its center (think: calcium lactate crystals in a cool cave-aged, clothbound cheese.) The roussanne’s contribution from the warm 2018 vintage offers golden, honeyed aromatics and brings rich, toasted almond flavors to the ample mid-palate.
2019 the Glories no.02
69% Oregon chardonnay | 31% California roussanne
The Glories no.02 offers perfumed layers of lemon balm (Lamiaceae), chamomile, and Mullein flower. The palate is delicate: dependent on temperature and time like a timid soufflé. This off-dry iteration of the interplay between roussanne and chardonnay carries all that Spring has to offer: sweetness, new blossoms, cold rain on warm concrete.
2019 the Glories no.03
83% Oregon chardonnay | 17% California roussanne
The palate of the Glories no.03 is taut on entry, opening to an expansive exhale of fresh clear saltwater. We imagine the base of this salt born in a bed of igneous rock; formed in heat and sunlight but refined with time. The saline expression is followed by flesh and capsaicin spice, like biting into mid-summer radishes topped with best butter and flaky Maldon. The nose is wild with Eucalyptus oil and bergamot. Fresh lemongrass accompanies the salinity throughout, closing with a briny, fleshy, oceanic edge.
2020 the Glories no.04
55% Oregon chardonnay | 45% California roussanne
The Glories no.04 is everything light. Ripe white peach and juniper berries in a lightly toasted frame. The peach evolves after the first sip to an experience: sitting down with ripe persimmons for Hoshigaki preparation. The sugars dripping onto your hands while you peel the bitter skin, not daring to wash your hands lest you lose the sensation too soon. You resist eating the fruit right then and there, knowing what they will become with time if you’re patient. The same hesitation can be respectful with this wine, but you won’t want to wait. We want this wine a bit too cool on a bright, warm day. On the nose: ripe Asian pear and honeysuckle invite you in while the palate offers the succulence of cherimoya, finishing with a suggestion of flint and beeswax, as if you just lit a candle and you can still smell the match.
2020 the Glories no.05
45% Oregon chardonnay | 55% California roussanne
The Glories no.05 is roussanne’s stage; wearing its oak like a finely tailored suit, the wood fit to her honeyed frame. The aromatics begin with lime leaf on the first unstirred inhale; orange bitters and rich molasses follow. By the second sip, fennel fronds, rose and chrysanthemum evolve into sappy sweet pea flower. Absurdly aromatic, with notes of grapefruit rind, bee pollen, and lemon verbena, the palate is reminiscent of the spiciest ginger candy: herbal and experientially tactile, exiting like a drop of orange blossom honey in fresh verbena tisane.