Eden Rift Valliant Griva Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2019
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
This 100% Musque clone Sauvignon Blanc bottling hails from Griva Vineyard in Monterey's Arroyo Seco appellation. With open exposure to the cold, deep waters of Monterey Bay, the property is found in an ancient, dried river channel and features meager topsoil comprised of granite cobblestone beds. Replete with acidity, the bouquet displays aromas of grapefruit, melon, lemon blossom and minerals.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Honeysuckle, aniseed and green apple. Unique nose. Medium-bodied with energetic acidity. Hints of licorice at the end. 18 months in new wood, but you don’t feel it. Fresh.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Valliant Sauvignon Blanc Griva Vineyard has an open-knit nose of dried herbs and flowers with touches of baker’s yeast and a core of green fruits. The medium-bodied palate is concentrated and textural, offering savory bass notes and herbal top notes, with juicy acidity and a long finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Griva Vineyard is a classy Sauvignon that offers bright citrus and floral notes to go with a medium-bodied, balanced, and refreshing style on the palate. It shows a touch of salty minerality on the finish and is going to shine on the dinner table over the coming couple of years.
Named one of Wine & Spirits Magazines Top 100 Wineries of 2023
In the careful hands of early pioneers when California was still under Mexico’s flag, Eden Rift is one of the oldest continually operating estates in the US and is home to some of the earliest New World Pinot Noir plantings in 1861. The property’s first vineyards were planted in 1849 by a Bordeaux wine merchant. As the estate came into new ownership, the wines produced swept national and international competitions. Since then, the estate has changed hands several times, at one point producing wines under the label Valliant, belonging to the internationally known Hiram Walker House.
Today, the current proprietor of the estate, Christian Pillsbury, lives in the Dickinson House, a residence on the property fenced in by original Zinfandel plantings from 1906. Drawn to purchase the estate because of a personal connection, Pillsbury sees himself as chaperone of a place deeply important to the lineage of California wine. Before purchasing, Christian and his team researched the property’s daily temperature rhythms, soil, wind patterns and macro and micro climates to find the winery’s main focus, which has come to be Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In addition to wine, the Eden Rift Estate also houses a granite stone mill that produces certified organic olive oil and is open to neighboring wineries for use on their own olive oil production.
With Christian’s vision in toe, he teamed up with venerable winemaker, Cory Waller. Cory is no stranger to American Pinot Noir, having studied under Napa’s Tony Soter and Oregon’s Josh Bergstrom and Jim Prosser. He was also assistant winemaker at the iconic California winery, Calera. Cory is well suited to the uber local project. Born and raised nearby, he boasts local farmers, ranchers and fishermen as some of his closest friends. His winemaking style limits intervention while focusing in the vineyard on vine stress and low yields. Since Christian’s purchase, Eden Rift has received attention from both local and National publications in its first two vintages.
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
Named after the dramatic, seasonal river of rain and snowmelt that cuts through the upper elevations of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Arroyo Seco AVA extends east from the resultant mountain gorge, and into the rural and warm Salinas Valley. During the growing season, cool and damp Pacific Ocean air penetrates the gorge and flows into the valley, creating a cool evening respite for vineyards after a hot summer day. This natural water-release has also created a subterranean aquifer, which helps set the foundation of the AVA's boundaries and supplies the vineyards with water.
Arroyo Seco was actually home to the first commercial vineyard in California, called Mission Ranch, which was owned and propogated by the Mirassou family in the 1960s.
Chardonnay is most widely grown here. But as one of Monterey’s warmer regions, Arroyo Seco enjoys the highest praise for its reds, namely Bordeaux blends.
Arroyo Seco is one of the oldest AVAs in California, its status granted in the early 1980s, and also remains one of its smallest.