Tessier Winery Siletto Vineyards Mourtaou
$42.00
12 in stock
Vintage: 2022
Region: San Benito, California
Viticulture: Organic
Grape Varieties: 100% Mourtaou (Cabernet Pfeffer)
Tessier Winery Siletto Vineyards Mourtaou is a chillable red with aromas of violets, red plum, and white pepper with earthy notes. On the palate, cranberry, strawberry, and golden fig bounce off a fine pepperiness, not unlike horseradish. Kristie uses a partial whole cluster fermentation with native yeasts in a stainless steel tank. Aged for 5 months in aged French oak casks. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a very low dose of SO². Only 135 cases were made.
Song: Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix
Additional information
| NATTINESS | Natty |
|---|---|
| FRUIT | Fig, Red Cherry, Strawberry |
| BODY | Medium-bodied |
| ACIDITY | Bright (Medium-High) |
| ALCOHOL | 13-14% |
| OAK | Neutral Oak |
| TANNIN | Medium |
| SWEETNESS | Dry |
| SERVING TEMP | Cool Red and Orange (58°–62°) |
| SULFUR | Very Low Sulfur (less than 20mg/L) |
| VEGAN | Vegan |
12 in stock
Save 10% when you buy six or more bottles (mix and match)
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
About Tessier Winery Siletto Vineyards Mourtaou
Tessier Winery Siletto Vineyards Mourtaou is a chillable red with aromas of violets, red plum, and white pepper with earthy notes. On the palate, cranberry, strawberry, and golden fig bounce off a fine pepperiness, not unlike horseradish. The wine finishes with grippy tannins. Kristie uses a partial whole cluster fermentation with native yeasts in a stainless steel tank. Aged for 5 months in aged French oak casks. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a very low dose of SO². Only 135 cases were made.
There are only 12 hectares of Mourtaou planted in California and Kristie is one of only a small handful of Californian producers known to make wine from this grape, most of them located in San Benito, a wine region at the southern end of the Santa Cruz mountains.
Mourataou is an old cultivar from Bordeaux that made its way to California in the late 1800s. Here it became known as Cabernet Pfeffer, named after orchardist and winemaker William Pfeffer, who raised the variety in his vineyard. It was thought this grape was a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Trousseau, but DNA testing has proven Mourtaou has no relation to those two grapes.
About Tessier Winery
Not all winemakers are born into the business or even start when they are young. Some come to wine later in life, after they have been successful in other fields. One such winemaker is Kristie Tacey of Tessier Winery.
Kristie is a scientist turned winemaker. A former published research scientist who studied protein pathways, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from her native Michigan to pursue a career in biotechnology, which included working on the Human Genome Project. Kristie eventually came to realize that winemaking was her true calling. After working as an operations manager and assistant winemaker at several wineries in the Bay Area, Tacey started to make wines under her own label, Tessier Winery, in 2009. Eight years went by before she embraced the project full-time.
Tessier is the result of Kristie’s passion for the art and science of winemaking. She began handcrafting small lots of Pinot Noir and has added Grenache, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc, Gamay Noir, Riesling, Syrah, and Mourvedre. Kristie’s appreciation of French wines — especially those from Burgundy and the Loire and Rhone valleys — has shaped her winemaking choices.
With a background in microbiology, Kristie is fascinated by the cycle of life; each vintage of Tessier wines captures and reflects one year in the lives of the vineyards she works with. She sources high-quality fruit from a strong network of farmers in the Anderson Valley, Santa Cruz Mountains, Arroyo Seco, and El Dorado foothills. She then uses minimal-interventionist winemaking techniques to showcase the unique characteristics of the grapes and the vineyards. For Kristie, sustainability is a priority — not only with the vineyards’ farming practices but also with having long-term relationships with her growers and customers. These small-production wines, with an annual production of 1400 cases, get unparalleled attention.