The Wagner family’s interest in sweet wines goes back to the mid-1970s, and we have long been fascinated with Botrytis cinerea—the organism responsible for some of the world’s most highly regarded dessert wines.  When botrytis appeared in our Mer Soleil vineyard late in the 2000 growing season, we decided to do everything we could to encourage and protect it.   

Our vineyard site in the Santa Lucia Highlands provides optimal conditions for late-season botrytis.   The northernmost vineyard in the appellation and the closest to Monterey Bay, it is blanketed by morning fogs through the summer and into the fall.  This balance is crucial in a dessert wine like this one, with a residual sugar of 17 percent at bottling.