Making wine from grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea, the organism responsible for this wine’s complex honeyed-apricot character, is labor intensive for both the vineyard and the winemaker. The cool and mostly rain-free coastal climate at our Mer Soleil Vineyard allows for a very long growing season, and all the grapes we grow there are harvested much later than they would be in other areas.  For example, we typically pick our Mer Soleil Chardonnay well into November.  But the Viognier vines that produced this wine had to keep on working, holding off on going dormant, until we hand-harvested the grape clusters on December 13, 2001.

When botrytis showed up naturally in this vineyard block—at the north end of the appellation, closest to the ocean—we did