2025 Muscat Canelli

In the tasting room, I often meet visitors who, after being warmly welcomed, admit with a sideways, downcast glance, “I do, but I like sweet wines.” That response always makes me a little sad. It’s unfortunate that sweet wines often carry an undeserved stigma, as though they’re somehow inferior to their dry counterparts.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth. A beautifully made sweet wine is a complex and pure expression of the vineyard—capable of aging with grace and evolving in ways that can rival the finest dry wines. Pairing a sweet wine with a creamy cheese on a warm summer afternoon can be an unforgettable epiphany of flavors. So, if you love sweet wines, embrace them! These are some of the most challenging wines we make, and we’re incredibly proud of the balance and expression they carry.

Crafted using the labor-intensive “arrested fermentation” method, we pressed the Viognier juice off the skins and allowed it to ferment slowly in tank at very cold temperatures. As fermentation neared its end, we tasted the wine daily, monitoring for the perfect balance of fruit, acid, and sweetness. Once that balance was achieved, we quickly “cold-crashed” the tank—chilling the juice to near-freezing temperatures to halt fermentation. The wine was then sterile-filtered to remove the yeast, leaving behind only the natural residual grape sugar.

Muscat Canelli is one of the oldest lineages of winegrapes dating all the way back to Roman times - we know why, the grapes are just as delicious to eat fresh as to drink in wine. This is unusual for winegrapes as most are out of balance for use as table grapes. Our previous vintages of Muscat were of the Orange Muscat variety, a hybrid of Muscat Blanc (canelli) and another obsure swiss varietal. I love the extra depth of Muscat Canelli floral notes that this wine brings.

Complex aromas of honeysuckle and citrus rind & honey on the nose, lead to a snappy, crispy wine with just the right amount of sweetness that evaporates, leaving your palate fresh and clean.

LEARN ABOUT OUR SWEET WINEMAKING